Black Burdens / White Saviours

As Haitian survivors continue to be pulled from the debris of a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that occurred on January 12, 2010, and as a violent aftershock of a 6.1 magnitude curiously and conveniently arrived this morning in hopes of finishing the job, major media sources flood the airwaves in a Hollywood-esque, “good-guys-wear/are-white” fashion depicting numbers of white families graciously opening their doors to black children at the expense and downplaying of black families who are responsibly doing the same.

Even more curious is the rate at which they are disseminating the Haitian children, in a fashion reminiscent of stray animals in pet shelters, with the quick and convenient classification of "orphans" ignoring the effort and concern to confirm whether or not the parents or next-of-kin are amongst the survivors.

And to further add insult to injury, President Obama has selected former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Jr. to be the two faces (pardon the pun) of the Haiti relief and rescue effort; two presidents who arguably not only created, contributed to, and exacerbated political mishandlings with Haiti that proved to be even more devastating than the earthquake itself, but who also have track records of being all but helpful in addressing atrocities that largely impacted Black people; namely, Clinton and the Rwanda genocide, and Bush and the Hurricane Katrina abandonment….for lack of a better term.

Such efforts of honor and humanness – regardless of race – are beyond admirable and would be invisible if it weren’t for a scathing and demoralizing history to warrant its suspicion and criticism; a history that has seen more of the face of displacement than it has of change.

And such a history, as it relates to Hollywood and politics, are played out on the same stage in a concerted effort to shape mass opinion and perception that alludes to a larger, more sinister, motive.

From movies about cowboys and Indians, to Tarzan, to war-related films (including the 9/11 films, Flight 93 and World Trade Center), to the more melodramatic films like Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, Gran Torino, and The Blind Side, to even the Christian religion, the Caucasian man has always cast himself as the savior - the protagonist and the hero - of a world that would otherwise crumble in the hands of its melanin-enriched, swarthy, helpless, purportedly less civilized inhabitants.

The intent – although sometimes naively unconscious - is to bastardize blackness; to portray black people as being hopeless and/or incapable of contributing anything morally or intellectually substantial as it relates to the progression or well-being of mankind. In fact, in the film World Trade Center, a supposed “true story”, two of the real-life heroes, both African American men, Jason Thomas and Bruce Reynolds, came forth to reveal the omission of their likenesses from the film, which were conveniently replaced by Caucasian actors, and conveniently dismissed by the makers as accidental oversights.

Yeah, right.

But beyond popular culture, society takes an even more direct effort of indoctrination. The American education system – for example - has gone through great lengths to teach our children that the freedom of African slaves was secured predominantly through the sympathies of white abolitionists as well as by way of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, while downplaying and minimizing the effectiveness and successes of the many slave rebellions, revolts, and uprisings conveniently and aggressively classifying them as mostly “failures”.

As a result, an inferiority complex is offered to blacks and a superiority complex is offered to whites, merely proving that mis-education is a two-way street, and media shouldn’t be interpreted any differently.

However, the reason for such a paradigm is simple: Black independence is threatening, and black heroes are prohibited unless they are only saving, representing, or liberating black people in unsubstantial proportions. Even then, particularly when the proportions of those saved exceed the limits of the Caucasian comfort-zone, the hero is labeled and depicted more or less as an antagonist or a threat (i.e. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Tousaint L'Ouveture, etc.).

Moreover, a black hero liberating a white victim is viewed as blasphemous and belittling; a subliminal self-admittance of white inferiority, incompetence, and dependency.

Therefore, black/brown people killing white people is viewed as an unforgivable aberration; a terroristic, immoral, and irreverent act; while white people killing black/brown people (i.e. cowboys and Indians, Christopher Columbus, War on Iraq, etc.) is viewed as necessary; a heroic, valiant, pioneering, and patriotic act.


“The theory of human culture and its aims has worked itself through warp and woof of our daily thought with a thoroughness that few realize. Everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honorable is “white”; everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonorable is “yellow”; a bad taste is Brown; and the devil is “black”. The changes of this theme are continually rung in picture and story, in newspaper heading and moving-picture, in sermon and school book, until, of course, the King can do no wrong, - a White Man is always right and a Black Man has no rights which a white man is bound to respect.” – W.E.B. Du Bois – “The Souls of White Folk”


But the true history of blackness reveals something different despite what has been made “official” for the history books, documentaries, and CNN specials. There is something to be said about a people who continue to exist and persist in a world that has become numb and apathetic to its demise, portrayed as black burdens and attacked continuously with silent weapons that strut with the crooked gait of Jim Crow.

Such a strength is seen in the people of Haiti; a people who unapologetically and successfully rebelled against the heels of oppression to become the first post-colonial, independent black-led nation. And it is this that they fear; a moral and determined hardiness that finds the Powers-That-Be asking themselves, “Why won’t they just die?”, and being the ignorant people that these Powers believe them to be, the most befitting answer would likely be, “Because they just don’t know how.”

So, as it was this morning, when you see a little 5-yr old black boy and girl being pulled out alive from three levels of debris and devastation 8 days after the earthquake, don’t only celebrate their survival, but celebrate their resilience, for it demarks a heart and a history that has suffered through many attempted burials and cover-ups only to resurrect and expose the lie of the White Saviors.

Peaces,


Tungz

Haiti: The New Orleans of the Western Hemisphere

As information and images of the devastation in Haiti continue to filter in, one may find it particularly difficult to separate them from another devastating event in our not-so-distance past: Hurricane Katrina.

Body-lined streets amid rubble, debris, and makeshift tents expose poor, grief-stricken brown faces – young and old - long condemned and dismissed as the world’s derelicts, refugees, looters, and insurgents, now soon to become pawns in a capitalistic and opportunistic mélange that will be conveniently packaged and sold as a compassionate humanitarian effort.

That is not to say – by any means - that the heartfelt outpouring of benevolence and support are in vain; quite the contrary. However, it does recognize and acknowledge that there are organizations – particularly those that have large access to media - that will opportunistically take advantage of such a heart-tugging moment.

It also raises the question that if an organization were really concerned and dedicated to the welfare and well-being of a people, particularly an organization that can easily obtain and/or access hundreds of millions of dollars, then why would such an organization wait until a country or a community reached utter devastation before extending such a lucrative helping hand, particularly, when the victims happen to have been amongst the poorest of the poor for many years.

Of course – and conveniently – the reason of bureaucratic red-tape will serve to be this organizations justification for remaining hands-off. But it seems that at this juncture, this red-tape has also succumbed to the throws of the devastation; or, and more likely, the red-tape merely has transformed into a red scale that has now tipped in favor of the organization, finding the organization “investing” – in the guise of contributions - millions of dollars in a community that it historically has shown little concern or regard.

So the question now becomes ‘what does this organization stand to gain now that it couldn’t have before?’ Gentrification on a larger scale is not beyond reason or reality, leaving Haiti to be the new future hotspot for Spring Breaks, weddings, and vacation getaways in posh resorts, while the natives will serve as its employees and ambient decorative reminders of what Haiti used to be.

If there is one thing – of the many – that Hurricane Katrina has taught us, it is that the powers-that-be do not care about its poor and under-privileged; particularly, its Brown poor and under-privileged.

Two poor, predominantly Black lands of French and African heritage now wracked and ravaged by presumed natural disasters, only to await the approach of the even more sinister quake of intolerance and abandonment, who, as it relates to Haiti, was the first nation who gained its independence by way of a successful slave rebellion; and who, as it relates to New Orleans, is the home of the largest slave rebellion on U.S. territory (1811 Louisiana Slave Rebellion), altogether finds very little in the way of coincidence……if such a thing exists.

However, such a history merely establishes the fact that this situation is far from hopeless, particularly when you have true humanitarians like Wyclef Jean - an American musical artist and Haitian immigrant with an extensive history of providing aid to the impoverished country even before his non-governmental organization, Yele Haiti, was established – taking the initiative and doing the groundwork of actually working and communicating directly with those most effected (http://www.yele.org/)

There are those who walk the walk, then, there are those who appoint questionable government figureheads and agencies that request cash only in lieu of bottled-water, blankets, and clothing. However, if it walks like a politician and talks like a politician, then it probably is a politician.

Therefore, in acting out of the benevolence of ones heart, it becomes even more imperative to not let it cloud the capacity of reason of ones mind. Maya Angelou said it best: “If someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Therefore, if you see an organization that has a history of exploiting people for profit; that fails to live up to the ideals that it boasts in its mantras and anthems; that can’t address the issues within its own borders much less the issues in others; you can surmise within reason that it’s agencies don’t fall far from the tree.

Remember Katrina. Bless Haiti.


Tungz