For almost a week now, a fellow Aggie and I have been in a heated, yet respectable debate over Morgan Freeman's interview on 60 Minutes. Freeman, who caught flack for his portrayal of a southern chauffeur during the 1960's in Driving Miss Daisy, won his first (long overdue) Oscar earlier this year. He captivated us in Unfogiven. In the Shawshank Redemption he was Andy Dufresne's best friend, Red, the man who used what (little) he had to get what the other prisoners wanted. Before Bill Cosby got raw on us, Morgan told us about ourselves in, Lean On Me. And he "turned us on" as a main player on the Children's Television Workshop's 1970's series, Electric Company.
In the days before it aired, 60 Minutes advertised part of the interview, emphasizing Freeman's comments on race and Black history month. The ad, loaded with Mr. Freeman saying that he thought Black history month was ridiculous and that he did not want to be called a 'Black' man, had yours truly wondering if he had lost his mind or simply sold out. In the actual interview, he also said that they only way to end racism is to simply "stop talking about it." However, what 60 Minutes did not adverstise was that during the sit-down with Mike Wallace, Morgan Freeman emphatically states that he has no love for the Mississippi state flag; Mr. Freeman believes the rebel flag embedded in it represents a time of pure racism. Guess it sells more commercials to highlight a man ripping on his own people.
Still, his comment about Black history month was insensitive and irreverent to the pioneers who fought, bled or even died for the rights granted to every American. True, Black history should be celebrated everyday of the year and not just during the shortest and the coldest month (what up with that?). But we should keep and cherish what we have while continuing the effort to get that 40 acres and a mule still owed.
Additionally, keeping quiet about prejudice does nothing, except allow James Byrd to be dragged to death. Silence, in the face of racism screams, "it's okay," as was the case of, David Cash Jr., the accomplice of sorts to the rape and murder of 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson. Cash admitted to watching, but doing nothing while his friend Jeremy Strohmeyer committed the heinous act. Cash, white, was not charged; meanwhile, the press felt it necessary to highlight the fact that Sherrice's parents, Yolanda Manuel and Leroy Iverson, were estranged and low-income.
But, maybe Morgan Freeman is on to something. Maybe it is time to move forward. His words reminded me of the lines in Outkast's controversial hit, "Rosa Parks:"
I met a gypsy and she hipped me to some life game
To stimulate then activate the left and right brain
Said baby boy you only funky as your last cut
You focus on the past your ass'll be a has what
For the most part, I agree with my friend from college: Mr. Freeman's comments were taken out of context. There are probably parts of the interview on the cutting room floor that would not make him appear to be a sell-out, oreo or traitor. Nevertheless, if we are to take his advice--stop calling each other "black," "white," "hispanic," etc., not talk about racism, Black people should, at the very least, speak loudly and carry a big phat calendar; a calendar filled with the achievements of people of color from January 1st through December 31st.
1 comment:
lady clark,
i do agree that we as humans simply need to quit talking about racism in the context that we do. it's not to say that it doesn't exist, but let's stop empowering it to control the way we think. when a black person mocks an asian store owner, do we recognize that as racism? or do we only think of racism as something that exists when we are offended or harmed?
racism only exists because we won't let it go. it's not because there are blacks and whites and arabs and asians. it's the way these blacks and whites and arabs and asians THINK that allow there to be racism.
when i was in high school, my family was in germany because of the army. there were essentially three races: germans, turks and americans.
my friends were black, white, half-black/german, lumbee indian, guamanian, rican, mexican, spanish, filipino, korean and a few other "nationalities." but our race was american over there because of the cultural differences with the germans and turks.
i returned to the united states just when rodney king got his ass whopped. all of the sudden i was black (though my mom is korean). i really had no choice. the word racism penetrated so deep into everyone's mind that they had determine where i stood and since i'm dark-skinned, i became black to my white, rican, asian and non-black friends.
it is a state of mind. those five cops were ignorant men who need help. we don't need to polarize the whole country because of five ignorant men.
think about this: i would like to see black people stand up for black people when five black men beat up one black man. that is the true disgrace of the world.
see, there are no blacks and whites and mexicans and asians and ricans and jews and islanders and europeans and arabs and persians and the other hundreds of "nationalities" of people; there are only two people out there:
1. the educated & civil and...
2. those who need us to lead and educate them about civility and acceptable social behavior by our example.
drg
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