Politics & Society – Page 8

The 1619 Project

I have followed The 1619 Project at The New York Times Magazine from its inception last year and into this with enthusiasm, and I now realise that I have been remiss in posting on it. From time to time I have also noted the disquiet and some controversy amongst historians and others; interesting in itself, but not something I am able to offer a qualified opinion on.

The premise of the project lay in placing the birth of America as a nation not at 1776 but with the arrival of the first ship of enslaved Africans in Virginia in August, 1619, and the profound consequences in determining the course of American history and society. As Jake Silverstein, the magazine’s editor-in-chief says:

Out of slavery — and the anti-black racism it required — grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional: its economic might, its industrial power, its electoral system, its diet and popular music, the inequities of its public health and education, its astonishing penchant for violence, its income inequality, the example it sets for the world as a land of freedom and equality, its slang, its legal system and the endemic racial fears and hatreds that continue to plague it to this day. The seeds of all that were planted long before our official birth date, in 1776, when the men known as our founders formally declared independence from Britain.

The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as our nation’s birth year. Doing so requires us to place the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country.
“Why we published The 1619 Project”, Jack Silverstein, Dec. 20 2019

It seems this remains an ongoing project, and I hope so for there is a lot more to be said, already there is a bounty of interesting and “edgy” material, and in light of recent events (also, ongoing – for better or worse) this is surely a good time to think again (or still) about issues of race and racism that may not only be systemic, but are certainly so entrenched in societal and institutional structures that without being addressed at their root will forever inhibit a more equable American society.

Beyond the historical, in literary terms, and especially given my relatively recent discovery of Jesmyn Ward, I was particularly arrested by this instalment. Singing with their particular brand of poetry and prose, sixteen writers pay tribute to some of the not so well known moments of American history that have left their mark on a continent and its people. Jesmyn Ward’s short fiction remembers the enactment of the “Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves” on January 1, 1808, and how little that did to alleviate the suffering and brutality of the antebellum South. I recall reading a year or so ago that her next novel will be set in that time and place so this may be a tiny extract; certainly something she’s thinking about a lot.

An unwelcome change of topic

Like many I dare say, every morning’s turn to the news in whatever medium is pretty much like the last; so dominated has our life become by the Corona spook. How I have wished in recent times for the headlines to be replaced by something else, and in some vague hope that would mean the worst was over. And now it transpires, and I think of the old adage: don’t dare wonder when you get what you wish for!

Here, I am speaking of the despicable – and racist – treatment and death of George Floyd at the hands of (quote unquote) “law enforcement” in Minneapolis last week, and the aftermath of righteous and self-righteous outrage, tributes paid and retribution called for, violence countered with …violence. Michelle Goldberg’s column at The New York Times collates the American experiences of the last months and years to describe a nation in “free fall”, as a “tinderbox” – metaphors that seem absolutely appropriate. And if one is not troubled enough, Goldberg links to a Bellingcat report on a nefarious movement that is harnessing all the digital tools out there to agitate for …what? At the very least social disquiet, or better still it seems some sort of post-modern civil war.

Then this other bizarre event in Central Park – Cooper vs. Cooper: black man vs. white woman, birdwatcher vs. dog-walker. Christian and Amy: in common, a surname, but separated by race and an assumption of white privilege. Contrary to the Floyd incident, and to any number of other such in recent times, one could say this one ended well. One could also say, that in its very strangeness – that is, not a brutal murder – it offers a potent and succinct micro-narrative of how the power dynamic of an inherent racism operates, and the long way ahead for America still.

Having caused its damage – physically, psychologically, economically … have I forgotten something?… – a virus will retreat or even disappear, and my trust in good science and good politics is such that I expect reasonable interventions in a reasonable time to mitigate the situation. But this other stuff? In my opinion, that which is simmering in our societies, and not just in America, and not since yesterday, and often under the guise of “freedom” or “liberty”, is more toxic than any naturally evolving infection could ever be. To further the metaphor, I worry that the boiling point will creep upon us and bring the pot to overflowing. I like hot chocolate and know too well the mess a few inattentive moments may lead to.

For a virus have I zero angst, only the wish to maintain a respectful distance; for the widening gap and intractability between societal groups – a.k.a. racism, but not only – and the growing fragility of institutional structures I am not so sure.

White washing the past

In the last week or so, two disparate associations have made me consider just how much European culture (that is, the western Christian version) has invested in commanding the narrative of (their) inherent superiority, and how even today there are some who would seek to reverse or suppress an appreciation and wider representation of cultural diversity. To perpetuate their lineal myopic narrative they return now, as was so during the Enlightenment, to the Mediterranean and Aegean of the classical antiquity.

Firstly, the bizarre Presidential decree, entitled – believe it or not – “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again”, that instructs planners and architects to resist the dictates of a zeitgeist determined to be obsessed with diversity and inclusiveness (and presumably any innovative design tendencies of the 20th century), and instead adhere to a traditional architectural form, that is, one inspired by the classical lines favoured in the founding years of the new republic and perfected in the moral wastelands of the antebellum South.

The Call-Collins House, The Grove: Tallahassee, Florida

As The New York Times says in an editorial:

…The proposed executive order reflects a broader inclination in some parts of American society to substitute an imagined past for the complexities and possibilities of the present. It embodies a belief that diversity is a problem and uniformity is a virtue. It is advocating for an un-American approach to architecture.
The Editorial Board Feb. 4, 2020

Beyond the retrograde aesthetic that seems to be espoused, I can’t help but ponder that here we have another insidious attempt by the President and his cohorts to undermine a fragile social cohesion, and that along racial lines. One can well imagine how the power and grace of David Adijaye’s wonderful National Museum of African American History and Culture would send them off on a delusory tangent, whereby the Times’ architecture critic Michael Kimmelman writes this wonderful piece offering a more nuanced definition of “classical” – but then “nuance” is not a category applicable in some thought processes.

David Adijaye’s National Museum of African American History and Culture

And a second association arose out of my reflections upon visiting an exhibition in Frankfurt a few days ago. At the Liebieghaus, and entitled “Gods in Color” , displayed were an impressive range of reproductions of antique sculpture reimagined in the colorful splendour of their time.

My own photograph of the polychromy reproduction of the so-called Small Herculaneum Woman type, Delos, 2nd c. BC

I was interested in many different aspects, including the historical narrative and cultural significance of the sculptures, the techniques and materials used in their creation and the contemporary techniques used to expose the polychromy. But, prompted by learning (short video clip below) that there had been evidence enough in the 18th century of antique polychromy, contrary to the essentially monochrome narrative inherited from the Middle Ages, and, further, that the preeminent art historian of the time, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (this a Wiki link, better is this from a 2017 exhibition in Weimar, unfortunately only in German), was erroneously seen as a proponent of the marble-white theory (until 2008!), I have been thinking a lot about the enduring public perception of the “whiteness” of antiquity – be it in sculpture, attire…and buildings.

Gods In Color – Golden Edition (to August 30, 2020)

And here I return to the very Trumpian view of the architectural imperative: the State embellishing (better said, white-washing) history and defining the present in the image of this falsely received and often discredited past.

A more than liberal serving of Robinson

On February 5 and 6 2019, Marilynne Robinson delivered the Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lecture on American Civilization and Government entitled “Liberalism and American Tradition” at the New York Public Library in which she investigates the roots of liberal thought in America. Before I lose track of them, here is the library’s introduction followed by the embedded lectures.

Marilynne Robinson is one of the most celebrated American writers—she won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was awarded a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, …She recently delivered the Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lectures on American Civilization and Government lecture on American Civilization and Government titled “Liberalism and American Tradition,” which traces the origins of liberalism. The biennial lecture series is presented by the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at NYPL.
The New York Public Library

Part One: Part Two:

Remembering race and hate in 1950s America…

…& as portrayed in Robinson’s “Home”

This middle book is certainly the most political of the series; offering a socially critical view of that immediate post-war decade, as “out the ashes of…” these prosperous times are being relativized by a simmering discontent as many old norms are being questioned, and young men and women begin to come to the fore unencumbered by the prejudices of previous generations.

I am especially thinking here about Jack Boughton’s increasing despair at his father’s ambivalence to the plight of black Americans and rising tide of civil unrest, for example whilst watching the Montgomery riots on the newly bought TV:

The old man said, “I do believe it is necessary to enforce the law. The Apostle Paul says we should do everything ‘decently and in order’ You can’t have people running around the streets like that.
Home, Marilynne Robinson, Virago UK paperback ed. p. 102

And when Jack raises the matter of Emmett Till the following exchange ensues:

“[…]the Negro […] attacked the white woman?” Jack said, “He was a kid […]fourteen […]he whistled at a white woman.” His father said, “I think there must have been more to it […] There was a trial.” Jack said, “There was no trial. He was murdered. He was a child and they murdered him.”
p. 163

And I am particularly thinking about this at the moment in conjunction with this excellent feature in the New York Times, enhanced with brilliant images, reporting on the legacy of Emmett Till’s murder and the ways people choose to, or choose not to, memorialize.

…
In August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy visiting from Chicago walked in to buy candy. After being accused of whistling at the white woman behind the counter, he was later kidnapped, tortured, lynched and dumped in the Tallahatchie River.
The murder of Emmett Till is remembered as one of the most hideous hate crimes of the 20th century, a brutal episode in American history that helped kindle the civil rights movement. And the place where it all began, Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, is still standing. Barely.
Today, the store is crumbling, roofless and covered in vines. On several occasions, preservationists, politicians and business leaders — even the State of Mississippi — have tried to save its remaining four walls. But no consensus has been reached…
The New York Times February 20 2019

Literature is of course another way of memorializing, and Marilynne Robinson indeed incorporates the racial tensions and ambivalence of her youth (that so often evolved into hate) in her writing. I dare say too she would admit her anger and sadness that so much remains unresolved, and even have in a different way become exacerbated.