A Quick Lesson from Mr. Claude Brown

I was reading Claude Brown's semi-autobiographical Manchild in the Promised Land in bed last night when I read a short and rather important passage. It reads:

"Look, Mama, when people start ruling people and they rule 'em wrong, in a way that's harmful to them, they have to stop them. They've got to rebel; they've got to get out from under their rule. Sometimes it requires a fight, but it's always going to require a little bit of commotion, a little bit of anger, and sometimes violence.

You've got to stop them before they destroy you. That's all that's going on around here. Everybody is rebelling. You see all the young boys going around here using drugs. They're rebelling, that's all it is. They're rebelling against their parents. If they were any drugs around here when I was a little boy, I would've been using 'em too. I had to rebel. I had to get away from all that down-home nonsense you [have] been talking."

What is embodied in this short passage is the notion that any anti-racist stance cannot be a passive one. Any point of view which begins with something to the effect of 'well my [white] ancestors never held slaves..' or (more commonly here in the United Kingdom) 'I don't mean to be racist but...' -- any opinion which begins in such a way masquerades (at best) as passive anti-racism but in all honesty is just racism by another name. The need for any anti-racist opinion to be an active one is illustrated clearly by Brown.

The last sentence is important as well. In one single line Brown characterises the changing scenes in which the typical African American alpha-male appears. Whilst his parents grew up in and were more familiar with the Southern countryside, Brown and his brothers and sisters were only used to the urban sprawl of Harlem. They were the first generation to grow up in the urban ghettos of the Northern United States, and the first generation of African Americans not linked to the cotton fields and plantation life. Brown realises his mothers lack of understanding about what is happening out on the streets of Harlem is born out of her Southern attitudes and his inability to change.

One should not forget that Brown himself did not have to change because he was born in the ghetto and grew up there. What was foreign to his mother and his parents generation was second nature to him. He characterises this earlier on in the book through the linguistic differences: his parents generation spoke words that he and his brothers and sisters did not know the meaning of, and his generation had their own modern ghetto slang, culminating the use of the word 'baby'.

Unity: Together, We Are Stronger As One

A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everybody in the United States. It is approaching that time of year when tempers all across the Christian world are stretched to breaking point (and sometimes beyond) as parents search for presents for their young ones; as families uneasily come together; and as the financial cost of celebrating the birth of the Lord our saviour Jesus Christ is counted.

Within my own family, there has always been a sense that these were only minor problems. The respect and the love which we held for one another could overcome all these problems. It struck me as quite socialist that the only way we could find our way through these issues was if we all came together: the love form us all could be channeled in to everybody enjoying a pleasant Christmas.

But Christmas is cancelled this year.

Well, not quite cancelled -- just postponed until twelve months time. We are almost a month away now from December 25, and the materialism of the capitalist system is coming out in full force once more. Once more the shops are full of over-priced tack. Once more the consumers are conned by the retailers into spending money they do not have. And once more the true meaning of Christmas is submerged by a thick, black ocean of material well-being.

This year my family is unable to spend the usual unnecessary pounds on on having a materialistic Christmas. I, as a student, have an overdraft limit of £1,000 and, over a month before, I'm £980.00 O.D. with no job and thus no income (the things I do for my education!). So this year, we will not be purchasing lavish gifts for each other. We will not be splashing out on the tack.

But that's alright because we have each other. Everybody who matters to me is going to be at my house this December 25. Everybody I have the utmost respect for will be there, and those who think they now mean nothing to me are welcome to come and ask for repentance. My favourite biblical quote: If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says 'I repent', forgive him. [Luke 17:3,4] The same goes for sisters.

Yours, wherever you may be,
Daniel C. Wright