Campfire Approach to Racism
The "hand-in-hand" politics of the Civil Rights Movement were effective because it was inconceivable that Black and White citizens could touch each other in love publicly. It completely escapes our minds that oppressive powers governed the relationship between Black and White people to such an extent that a Black person could not pass a White person even in his own car. The Black driver would have to drive slowly behind the White driver and hope the White driver did not make sudden stops. A closed society governed the relationship between Black and White people to such an extent that a Black person could not walk on the same sidewalk or swim in the same swimming pool as a White person. Dorothy Dandrige put her toe in a White swimming pool, and the entire pool had to be drained and disinfected for health reasons. A closed society governed the relationship between Black and White people to such an extent that some Black people went missing and died during the long Civil Rights Movement and have NEVER been found. A closed society governed the relationship between Black and White people to such an extent that a Black maid's children were de-valued and came secondary to the needs of the White children and household for which she cared. Therefore, the idea of walking hand in hand as a goal was revolutionary in 1960s America. REVOLUTIONARY! I just do not think you get how strictly the rules of segregation governed the lives of Americans.
Those types of methods are not going to work for a generation that sees relationships between Black and White people flourish and exist outside of the bounds set fifty years. Segregation has evolved and so should our methods to combat oppressive systems. Walking hand in hand in love is pleasant but not revolutionary. It is 'iconic looking' but nostalgic of a past time. We have to do real work, real reading, create real and factual depictions of history and analyze true and real depictions of present African-American community. We must work to move to the next step through meaningful, respectful dialogue to fighting for the justice of those who fatally fall victim to an oppressive system. We have to realize that a system set in place far before we could imagine cannot be deconstructed with hand holding. There is not a restart button.
We have to call for true justice. We have to call out all forms of racism. We have to bring awareness to macro and micro-aggressions that slowly and painfully destroy communities who never had power to contribute to or benefit from systems of oppression. We have to recognize that our need to categorize African-American communities and experiences as violent and unstable is a genealogy of performance that used scientific research to prove that Black people were barbaric and not really human. We need to be aware that justifying the deaths of Black women and men stems from a genealogy of performance that Black lives are not valuable unless used for production, as labor and as capital. It is vital that we understand that shaming a Black woman for mothering children outside of the structure of a "nuclear family" is birthed from a genealogy of performance that pits Black women against Black men when a nuclear family structure has rarely been modeled by past Black civilizations and past communities.
We have to recognize that commentating Confederate and traditional Southern heritages comes from a genealogy of performance that longed for an old South with happy, docile, respectful, and enslaved Black people.
You can keep it really cute with the campfire fix to racism and other forms of oppression but we have to call for real work and teaching. We have to fight back with revolutionary demands and tactics. You can get in the ring with me, but be self-aware and fight with me not against.