J at Silver Rights scribes on a bit about author Thulani Davis who recalls her grandparents and their lives as slaves in Virginia. She finds it curious that blacks and whites have vastly different memories of that peculiar time.
Southern history is still too often viewed through a lens of white privilege. I do not know when Thulani Davis' book will be completed. But, in the interim, I encourage anyone interested in the complex reality of real Southern families to read the articles she is currently publishing based on research into her families -- both black and white.
I immediately thought of talent shows and image awards and 'American Idol' and 'The Apprentice' in this very context. While surely African Americans' great triumph has been to cull beauty and strength from the devastations of oppression, that very beauty and strength can be used to paint a rosy picture which is not wholly true. In reviewing black reticence to 'air dirty laundry', perhaps it should not be so taboo.
Nothing is going to reveal the nature of black culture like a clash between its elements. When jazz purists go after hiphop, when Baptist diss Methodists, when Brooklyn meets Decatur the results are often very illuminating, not only for the parties involved, but neutral observers. Of course this kind of conflict flies in the face of unity and is often suppressed out of fear of 'divide and conquer' strategies of the Man. But reality shows that racism doesn't hurt all blackfolks equally, nor is it our biggest problem.
We're all better off when we openly discuss our triumphs and failures. Each one teach one is not all stories about princesses and castles, but stories about dragons and dungeons as well. Suppressing the foul stories gives license to the rose colored stories. So watch out for that. Your success is going to be used against you.