This 1969 photo of African American models from a Black fashion agency in the sixties and seventies has been making the rounds on social media. I'm posting it here, because I want to praise and promote their beauty and solidarity at a time when it seems the primary political motivation for a large swath of voters is subjugation and vilification of "the other"—people of color, immigrants and the undocumented, gay, trans and queer people, the disabled, non-Christians. Isn't it ironic and telling that most of these hard core Agent Orange supporters self-identify as evangelicals, even as they spew their hatred? Seems their true religion is xenophobia and the supremacy of whiteness. They surely have no use for the Christ concept of loving their neighbor as themselves. My friend Scott would say it is incumbent on me to love them, regardless.
You know, I find I can't bear to type the Russian-bought president's name, hence my resorting to such inane descriptors as Agent Orange. You know who I mean.
It seemed for awhile, that African Americans would finally have the place in our society that had been denied them for so long. "Black is Beautiful!" we all said and it was true. And is true. And always has been true. But that is hardly the message we seem to hear today, is it? I feel so downhearted about this issue as our country seems to grow ever more intolerant of anyone but the very white, the very cis-gendered.
ReplyDeleteWTF, people? In diversity there is beauty, strength, and purpose for all.
I think that DT merely did what he did so that his base can believe that he has done what he promised. To a degree. How can he still be in office?
Mary, my husband, a biologist, likes to point out that in terms of scientific species classifications, race is the most insignificant of markers, yet for humans, it seems to define, well, everything. That is until we get to know each other under the skin. Race disappears in the face of the kind of familiarity that can blossom into true affection and love. Sadly, in a swamp of hate, this cannot happen. Just as love generates love, hate generate more of its own poison. My sentence about Scott in this post is really a reminder not to fall into that vat of poison by reflexively despising those who hate us. One has to be so very broken to hate like that. Still, one has to be aware.
DeleteI can type his name, but I can't listen to him - I truly feel nauseated listening to or watching him onscreen. So I hear you.
ReplyDeleteMy heart sank when I read the latest from the Chicago PD as well. I find it hard to believe that Mr. Smollett would have endured a beating just to make a point.
About the religious haters, I can't even articulate my very uncharitable thoughts about them. I know that's not very nice of me, but damn, they are hypocrites.
jenny-o, it nauseates me too, to watch or listen to him. He is such a vile and murky soul. I try to tell myself sometimes that in a way, he is helping us to wake up and combat the evil in our midst. Other times, I just can't believe what we're witnessing is really happening. If it were fiction, no one would buy it.
DeleteI refer to him as the man of the orange hair. As for the rest? Hypocrites, to put it politely.
ReplyDeletee, he gives the color orange a bad name, doesn't he? And his minions, too. Hope you're feeling better.
DeleteLove trumps hate, right? I hope and pray.
ReplyDeletelily, i hope and pray along with you!
Deleteit's heartbreaking what is happening here. I'm about as white as it gets and I don't understand white supremacy. there is nothing glorious about white skin. it doesn't make me a better or smarter person. all the hate in this country bubbling to the surface out of fear of 'the other' when the other is just really us. we all want to love and be loved, we all want the best for our children, we all want to live our lives with purpose and dignity. as for that con man fraud sitting in the Oval Office trampling the Constitution every day and the Republicans who enable him they are all traitors as they sit back and let him destroy this country. I could say way more but I'll leave it at that.
ReplyDeleteellen, i am so struck by your observation that "the other is just really us." exactly! i resist the notion that we are all one, because i resist the idea of being one with the likes of the current occupant of the oval, but, to coin a metaphor, if we are all cups of water bobbing in a cosmic sea, and his cup is sullied and swampy, if we dump it out into the larger sea, we can dilute and wash his evil away. i dont even know if that makes sense, but thank you for the deeply humane thought.
DeleteI read this morning that a editor of a newspaper in Alabama called for a return of lynching. Seriously. This is what Agent Orange has unleashed upon our country. It's not like it wasn't always simmering a bit, but now the pot is boiling over, and it is an outrageous nightmare. The sad truth about stereotyping is that it never happens to white folks... ever.
ReplyDeleterobin, what a distressing moment in our history this is. how will we get past it? the courts have been packed by this administration and we will now have to live with the fallout of that possibly for the rest of my life, though not of my children's. And yet I am not without hope, because our world is also home to people like you.
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