who are braver than I could ever be.
That’s a line from the Roches, the New York City vocal trio which, since the early 1980s, has been a constant source of inspiration to me—as musician, as woman with a mission and a vision, as flawed human being and champion of random acts of kindness.
OK, so I’m distorting the context here. The song was written as a tribute to the citizens of New York City, victims and survivors alike, who experienced the tragedy of 911 live in situ.
And my reason for doing so is based on my response to the Michael Vick diary that appeared on today’s rec list. I wrote (but did not post):
There are several problems here:
One. The fact that—incredible as it may seem—there is still a huge sector of “liberal, progressive” America that does not understand (or chooses to deny) the dynamics of institutionalized racism and how this very real dynamic enters into the sensationalistic demonization of African Americans—especially “successful” ones, esp when “success” is defined in terms of economics or white power structures. The ludicrosy of comparisons between Barack Obama and other “fallen” Black men of success (Woods) even by folks like Rich and Dowd in the NYT is just one example—a comparison between Bernie Sanders and Bernie Maddoff would be more coherent, just by virtue of the fact that these two “successful” men who happen to be white also share the same name, and thus already have more in common than Tiger Woods and Barack Obama.
In the public eye and the media it is clear that all white men are not implicated every time a white male commits a heinous crime or moral misstep. When a Timothy McVeigh or Ted Kaczynsky comes along, their moral degeneracy is seen as the “exception to the rule.” Charlie Sheen and Kiefer Sutherland’s rap sheets can stretch three times around the block and they’ll never get the same celebrity bad boy treatment in the public and the press. No one will question their status as “white role models.” But every moral misstep on the part of one lightning rod figure who is black (whether it be Tiger Woods, OJ Simpson, Michael Vick, R. Kelley, Chris Brown, or WHOEVER) is cast as an index for the potential “evil” lurking in all Black men. What kind of role model are you? (Were Maddoff/McVeigh/Kaczynsky ever asked that question?)
This is the kind of sensationalistic demonization I see people of color responding to on this thread, and in fact, in every single discussion of race-related issues on this blog. Over years. As long as the dynamics of institutionalized racism are not addressed and uniformly accepted as unfortunate facts of life in these dis-united states, the more frustrated these Kossacks (and other like-minded individuals) are going to get when stuff like this makes it to the (top?) of the rec list.
The refusal on the part of some to recognize institutionalized racism as a factor in these cases too often results in the conflation of two separate but related issues: 1) the demonization of African American males as a function of institutional racism and 2) the exculpation/redemption of an individual who has committed acts that would likely be deemed morally unacceptable by most of us, no matter who committed them. As if suffering oppression were somehow a guarantor of moral superiority.
(As others have pointed out—there are many white males in this country and in the world who have committed horrendous crimes that make Michael Vick look like a petty thief in a candy store--first and foremost amongst them Dick Cheney and George Bush. Similarly, there are many individuals in this country—of all colors—whose history of adversity has had the effect of inspiring them to great lengths to do good), many of whom have done good without ever having committed a crime or any major moral infringement: our current President being one shining example.)
All too often, what happens is that people attempting to direct attention to the FORMER issue (i.e., demonization of Black men as a function of institutional racism) start to sound like--or are being interpreted as--attempting to mitigate, minimize or even defend the “morality” of acts most of us would consider reprehensible—running the gamut from the vicious murder of Nicole Simpson, to the animal cruelty of Michael Vick to the marital infidelity of Tiger Woods.
The latter issue—whether Vick, or Brown, or Simpson, or Woods—“deserves” any sort of award, or any sort of special consideration for his behavior—belongs, imo, in the who gives a shit category of public debate. Wow. People do bad shit. Wow. Celebrities and multi-millionaires do bad shit, and a lot of them don’t even get pinned for it. I do not give a shit, one way or the other, about Michael Vick, Chris Brown, OJ Simpson, or Tiger Woods. Let God sort it out, seriously.
BUT, the fact that crimes and bad behaviors of Black people tend to get more media hype, and are somehow seen as representative of some uniquely “Black” penchant for evil should NOT belong in the who gives a shit category of public debate, and the fact that it so often lands there (here on Dkos, and in society at large) is part of what contributes to the utter fruitlessness of most of these debates. All too often, this whole entrenched dynamic also results in a shadow being cast over the real, everyday heroes and “role models” in Black communities who could just as easily be propped up by the media an the public as exemplars of Black moral superiority, but instead are simply ignored.
IMO, Michael Vick’s behavior is indefensible.
Do I give a damn whether he gets some obscure Courage award from his team mates? No.
Tiger Woods’ indiscretions are reprehensible. Is it any of my fucking business? No.
OJ Simpson got off on a murder rap, and a lot of people rejoiced in that. Do I agree? No, but I can certainly understand where the jubilation came from.
Do I wish we could separate a discussion of the moral issues involved here and the underlying, and in my view, more salient issue of institutional racism and how it channels the collective vision of the United States to focus on despicable behaviors of Black males as exemplars of some fictionalized and sensationalized innate evil in all Black males, all the while glossing over the aberrant and abhorrent behaviors of white men—everyone from Cheney, to McVeigh, to Kaszinsky and other less-luminous creeps--and, more importantly, failing to give props to unsung “heroes” in African American communities whose actions and behaviors could—theoretically—just as easily be cast into the limelight as exemplary profiles in courage? Yes.
Well, if wishes were horses....
this is a song for the heroes. Heroes in my community and beyond who are doing extraordinary things for their communities, and for the world. Heroes who are not millionaires, and whose lives and actions thus seem of little import to an American public that apparently has only one index for measuring “success”: how much money you manage to generate with whatever you do and/or how much national media circus your particular circumstance is able to attract—whether your life revolves around kicking the shit out of a bunch of men on a football field, or swatting a little white ball around a carefully manicured green on a multi-million dollar salary, or bringing high-quality programming to urban youth in economically disadvantaged communities for one percent of that or less, or addressing the housing concerns of those kids’ parents, their grandparents, their aunts and uncles on a modest, just below middle class salary: matters not, main thing: how much money are you worth? Do your efforts translate into cash? Can they be commodified? No? Well, sorry, mofo, you ain’t worth shit. :(
Let’s start with Geoffrey Canada, a man who’s been an inspiration to me for many years, ever since he first appeared on my radar in the mid-90s. The founder of Harlem Children’s Zone
, Mr. Canada has gotten quite a bit of media attention, most recently on CBS’s 60 Minutes. Especially with this kind of media coverage, you gotta wonder why the Google isn’t churning out news alerts about this guy. Mr. Canada is one of those “in-betweens”: not quite “celebrity” caliber, but—by any reasonable measure of evaluation—an undeniable success. Why isn’t he in the headlines? Why isn’t he on the rec list?
Or how about the guy in Chicago, Homer Bryant, who founded the Chicago Multicultural Dance School, and was recently featured in a local WTTW broadcast titled, appropriately, “Raising the Barre”.
Courage? You want to talk about courage? How about we talk about Mattie Butler, founder of WECAN, a community organization dedicated to housing issues in her community. I know Mattie, and believe me, she is truly a profile in courage.
So I dunno. I’d rather forget about the Michael Vicks of the world. People fuck up. Some more than others, and some with more devastating consequences than others. Am I supposed to follow the media’s lead and work myself into a rabid froth over this? How many white dog traders are out there committing the same crimes without generating a media circus (or getting on the rec list at DKos)? Only my hairdresser knows!
The world is full of bad actors of every stripe, of every color and every coleur—some of their circumstances have contributed to their demise, just as much as some of their circumstances have been largely responsible for every bit of their success (how do you spell B. U. S. H.).
Where are the good actors, the heroes, the people who DESERVE to be on the rec list and in the limelight, cast as exemplars of what good can come, even from bad situations.
I’m going to STFU now. I invite others to post their own songs for the/ir heroes.