Marian's Blog

Hesse's "The European": France, Europe and Populations who do not know "their place"

In the midst of France's continuing social upheavals even Sweden's press is sitting up and taking notice, bringing some stark truths to the conscious level. Part of the problem is we don't know how long Europeans will let themselves publicly examine those truths. Victor Simpson's Associated Press article from Rome says political leaders and others in Europe are wringing their hands over the riots and fires in France. Yet Simpson also quotes an editorial translated from the Swedish newspaper Expressen. The last part of the quote is as clear as the first part is ambiguous. "We have difficulties accepting that people come to us from far away" [my emphasis added] ... "It is like the humble staff at a luxury hotel would suddenly take up quarters with their richest habitues. They should know their places, a dark undercurrent in the collective European consciousness says." Only major social unrest and, sadly, at least one death have now brought international attention to the permanently marginalised and invisible condition of many people of colour and immigrants in France. At the same time, this problem and this attitude in "the collective European consciousness" is not just in France and not only in Europe. Were he alive today what would German pacifist and author Hermann Hesse think of all this? His early 20th century essay, "The European", seems a logical and likely place to start. Hesse's essay is online here. [I've substituted my own link for the other that changed. - 24 may 2006]

Einstein's Black Friends: "Einstein on Race and Racism" by Fred Jerome & Rodger Taylor

Einstein on Race and Racism is written by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor. This is their Preface to the book. "More than one hundred biographies and monographs of Einstein have been published, yet not one of them mentions the name Paul Robeson, let alone Einstein’s friendship with him, or the name W. E. B. Du Bois, let alone Einstein’s support for him. Nor does one find in any of these works any reference to the Civil Rights Congress whose campaigns Einstein actively supported. Finally, nowhere in all the ocean of published Einsteinia – anthologies, bibliographies, biographies, summaries, articles, videotapes, calendars, posters and postcards – will one find even an islet of information about Einstein’s visits and ties to the people in Princeton’s African American community around the street called Witherspoon. [emphasis added.]

"One explanation for this historical amnesia is that Einstein’s biographers and others who shape our official memories, felt that some of his “controversial” friends, such as Robeson, and activities, such as co-chairing the antilynching campaign, might somehow tarnish Einstein as an American icon. That icon, sanctified by Time magazine when it dubbed Einstein the “Person of the Century,” is a myth, albeit a marvelous myth. In fact, as myths go, Einstein’s is hard to beat. The world’s most brilliant scientist is also a kindly, lovably bumbling, grandfather figure: Professor Genius combined with Dr. Feelgood! Opinion-molders, looking down from their ivory towers, may have concluded that such an appealing icon will help the great unwashed public feel good about science, about history, about America. Why spoil such a beautiful image with stories about racism, or for that matter with any of Einstein’s political activism? Politics, they argue, is ugly, making teeth grind and fists clench, so why splash politics over Einstein’s icon? Why drag a somber rain-cloud across a bright blue sky? Einstein might reply, with a wink, that without rain-clouds life would be very, very short. Or he might simply say that a bright blue sky is a fairy tale in today’s war-weary world.

"Yet, despite Einstein’s clear intention to make his politics public – especially his anti-lynching and other antiracist activities – the history-molders have seemed embarrassed to do so. Or nervous. “I had to think about my Board,” a museum curator (who doesn’t want his name used even today) said, explaining why he had omitted some of the scientist’s political statements from the major exhibition celebrating Einstein’s one hundredth birthday in 1979.

George Bush in Jackson Square: "Opportunity" or Opportunist?

George (Bush) is now on his what, uh... 53rd(?) trip down to New Orleans & other parts of the stricken Gulf Coast. Of course George carries with him a few more crumbs to spread (kind of like something else), even as he and his posse pass an Estate Tax repeal to relieve the suffering of the Super-Rich (Bush's base) while screwing the rest of us (including Katrina and Ophelia victims) with a new bankruptcy law. In Jackson Square "George the un-frugal Conservative" proposes big spending to rebuild New Orleans & the Gulf. It was Republicans who used to call this "throwing money at" a problem. News commentators note Bush never mentions 'sacrifice', nor how we are going to repay Chinese or other international lenders - to whom we are in major hock already. Bush thinks he also wants to re-define 'credibility'. Good luck, George. Meanwhile Louisville Courier Post political cartoonist Nick Anderson skewers The Bushter with his "HURRICANE LATRINA" cartoon. I'm loving it. Oh, and by the way... more than a few people consider New Orleans' Jackson Square "unlucky" if not downright evil. It's named in honor of the same Andrew Jackson who inaugurated the US federal Indian Removal policy and infamous Trail of Tears. As with the siege of Iraq, Katrina is well on the way to becoming yet another Bush "adventure" not turning out quite as George would like.

Superstorm catches Bush the bookless jock "by surprise" - Millions Now Pay Price

Americans have been lied to so much in the last six years. We are told George Bush can't be bothered - day after day after day- to speak with the mother of a dead 24 year old, even as "mainstream" US media tout the occasional scenes of Bush riding bicycles, grinning, swaggering, and chopping wood. The nation's attention is diverted by a much-hyped space flight - yet none in the mainstream media has the guts to ask - let alone utter - how many people lost their lives in Iraq this week, or how many more billions have just been spent on "Iraqi freedom" - even though supposedly the war ended over two years ago. Bush does not allow thoughts of either an impending hurricane season or something called global warming to ruin his day. And he doesn't read books anyway. Was Hurricane Katrina intensified by global warming?? And please - spare us the self-serving photo-ops of George Bush off the ranch - the so-called "Western White House" - just long enough to go stand among the ruins. The ruins in Mississippi will be perfect for this. You do realise Bush's pal, former Republican chair Haley Barbour "just happens" to be governor of Mississippi. My mouth just about dropped open when I saw his face yesterday on TV. Millions in Mississippi and Louisiana have been abandoned to fend for themselves, faced with illness, birth, death, thirst, flood, hunger, frightened animals including venomous snakes, darkness, insecurity and crime. And long-term homelessness. The list goes on. A doctor at LSU in Baton Rouge says as people cling to their roofs for dear life they are exposed to the Gulf air thick with mosquitoes, and West Nile fever outbreaks probably will come next. I am ashamed. The American people and the world are watching as the US federal government again abandons its responsibilities, both to its citizens and to humanity. And hurricane season is not over.

The Constant Gardener: Kenya, Africa, Ourselves

This week I will see the new film version of The Constant Gardener. I'm fascinated by both the film's website and its soundtrack. "Big pharmaceuticals ... are right up there with the arms dealers," a voice declares on the website. "FMF" (who is not English, British, Kenyan or American) loaned me her copy of John Le Carre's The Constant Gardener (TCG) about three years ago when C and I were still living in Nairobi. Back then the book was banned in Kenya. I'm still not sure it's been officially unbanned. I read it in Kenya just before Daniel arap Moi completed his twenty four (24) year run as Kenya's president. He's mentioned several times in Constant Gardener and one can say it's not as a hero. The book was a fascinating read; I couldn't put it down, which I can't say for quite a bit of fiction. I hear they shot on location in Nairobi, including Kibera - Africa's largest slum[, and elsewhere in Kenya - including Lake Turkana?]. I keep thinking that whenever I recommend this book and film to others I must suggest they do 3 things: 1. Read Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost;(subtitle, "A story of greed, terror and heroism in colonial Africa") 2. Read Edward Hooper's online letter about his suspicions on the origins of HIV and AIDS, and take a look at his entire website investigating the origins of AIDS; and 3. See the related, Emmy-nominated documentary film, The Origins of AIDS, which the Sundance Channel aired in the USA in February 2005. Truth really is stranger than fiction, and in this case a book and film of fiction help lead us to examine certain truths. Despite faults of yet another heavily eurocentric plot set in Africa, in some other ways The Constant Gardener is on the right track. God bless Africa.

X-Raying Robert McNamara's public Conscience - Coming clean in your 80s

My late maternal Grandfather loved to recite the poem Invictus to us, his grandkids. He was Detective Sergeant Reuben R. Nichols, Sr. He became a Black American pioneer in the Metropolitan police department (Homicide Division) of Washington, DC. Born in Leavenworth (Kansas USA) in March 1904, both he and my then-future Grandmother - Maude Gudger (married Nichols) - managed to graduate from 8th grade at Leavenworth's Black school. My Grandfather was very proud of having been class valedictorian, and decades later we were his audience as he recited William Earnest Henley's poem. Invictus. That's right. *(Do not believe every negative thing some others may tell you about Americans. Especially about Black Americans - or things you THINK you know after watching idiotic music videos (many of which I banned from my home years ago. I suggest you do the same for the worst ones.) More than a few Americans should take the same advice. One of my grandfather's favourite pieces of advice was, "To thine own self be true" (Shakespeare, Hamlet). I suppose Robert McNamara finally reached a similar decision. I recall seeing him some years back, in Washington, during the preparatory conference for the world microcredit summit. The summit was in February 1997, so the meeting where I met McNamara must've been November 1996. Even today I feel uncomfortable when I remember and write about that encounter. In recent years I've felt a bit sorry for Mr McNamara. To be literally despised by so many people. And - perhaps - forgiven by some. But in the years since that meeting and since the end of the US assault on Viet Nam, Mr McNamara seems to have been searching his soul. Rather publicly. Of course that doesn't bring back one dead child or adult among any of the most affected populations - starting with Vietnamese civilians, as well as young, mostly male, Americans whose lives were ahead of them. Then today on the US television channel called "C-SPAN 3", I happened to see McNamara on a March 3rd, 2004 panel at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. The panel was "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara." Apparently it's also the title of a documentary film by a fellow called Errol Morris. McNamara said several crucial things at Harvard. He also mentioned under his breath that he'd broken a rule in offering some personal opinions on the current US government's actions in Iraq. But perhaps the most telling thing he said was that Americans (in general) do not engage in enough discussion or debate about things we should be aware of and about which we should be discussing, debating and asking pointed questions. I forget McNamara's exact phrase, but this is what he said. There's another part I'll quote later.

The G8, BBC, and "Scotland's Black History"- Ask BBC for CD and Transcripts

Wow; it's been a busy week up North in Scotland. First G8 protesters all over Princess Street in Edinburgh, then the motley group of European, African and Asian MEN in their meetings over at Gleneagles golfing club. It was so apparent women's presence "was not required." The absence of women was a wasted opportunity, particularly when considering who is going to get the real work done. Matter of fact, I never even saw a Black woman's face at the G8 until the end when 2 journalists were allowed to ask questions at the closing news conference. And - of course - no Diaspora Blacks from, say, Pakistan or Mexico, Haiti or Brazil, or the USA -- or even right there in Edinburgh or LONDON(!). Meanwhile this week BBC Radio Scotland has been re-airing Billy Kay's fine radio documentary, Scotland's Black History (SBH). One thought just will not go away: One of Africa's biggest problems is Europe's own history. Most of the same G8 leaders - and the powerful in their societies - continue doing everything to evade and avoid a full telling and accounting of the very same history. I wonder. Tony Blair is a Scot (though it seems to me you wouldn't know it). Was his own family involved with Africa - were his ancestors? Odds are they were because the (globalised) economy that Britain [plus at least four (4) other western European countries] built from capturing, imprisoning, selling and buying African people was huge. Were Tony's ancestors involved in trading African people for cash profit? Or maybe some of them were Scottish abolitionists. We don't even know, do we? It's only fair. These and other answers would clear up a lot of mealy mouthed vagueness. So help us let BBC know that we would like to get copies of SBH. Drop an email - or a kind note to BBC SCOTLAND, THANK THEM for this programme and ask them to make available to the public the audio CD and transcript of "Scotland's Black History." Thanks to readers and again to SBH producer Billy Kay and RADIO SCOTLAND BBC. Send letters/notes to:

SCOTLAND'S BLACK HISTORY

BBC Radio Scotland

Queen Margaret Drive
Glasgow G12 8DG SCOTLAND UK

For Claudia - Mexico, Memin, Blond eyes, blue Hair and Hermann Hesse, Part 2

A thank you to reader Claudia who wrote to offer an honest insight into part of what Mexican culture is like. In response to a fellow Mexican who can't seriously be described as 'eloquent', she wrote, "As if calling americans stupid engages you in any intelligent dialogue." And that's exactly what we'd like to shoot for in this blog: intelligent dialogue. As Claudia also noted, I did not and would not ever say that "all" Mexicans are racist or anti-Black and/or against Indian (native) people. The fact about we people of the Americas -- meaning those of us whose primary ancestry is some combination of African and/or indigenous Native Indian and/or European intertwined over the past 200-500 years - is the vast majority of us (who are not newcomers), regardless of region or country, are of mixed-race heritage. I won't go into all of mine again right here. And DNA tests are now easily available for all of us to take. But I do remember a Mexican American friend of mine, originally from Texas. She was 'typically' 'mestiza'-looking (indigena+ (Southern, dark) European), but she told me that her brother - also Mexican American, with the same parents - clearly looks more Black (African). As Claudia writes: "... do you not remember the saying in mexico when you marry a white mexican or a white US American or when your kid comes out "guerito" [meaning 'light' in skin colour] - "estas mejorando la raza" - "YOU ARE IMPROVING THE RACE." How totally idiotic... These days this phrase may be heard less often, but the thinking still is just about the same. 

Mexico, Memin, Blond eyes and blue Hair and Hermann Hesse, Part 1

I'm thinking of Mexico, our beloved neighbour, and her seemingly endless capacity to debase herself in matters of race - and almost solely toward her Black and Indian citizens. Now the issue is Mexico's Memin Pinguin postage stamps and how a previously obscure piece of Mexican cultural history looks amazingly like a 'cry for [collective mental] help', while requiring a kind of Afrocentric human rights critique with which Mexico truly is unfamiliar. According to LA Times' article yesterday, "five new stamps show a cartoon figure named Memin Pinguin, a picaresque urban child who gets by on wits and moxie..." Though Memin has been a real money-maker in the Mexican comic book world - which we're supposed to take as some kind of compliment - yet I can pretty well guarantee not a peso of those profits ever went into providing hospitals, schools and homes to Afro Mexican communities. Memin was created in 1947 by one Yolanda Vargas Dulche; its "popularity peaked in the 1950s and 1960s." An Afro-Mexican singer named Johnny Laboriel (whom I'd never heard of before) declares, "The idea to put out this postage stamp is the biggest stupidity." The head of Mexico's postal service claims nostalgic "value" and has no plans to recall them. I have to contrast depictions of the black caricature 'Memin' - the product of one woman's imagination or of her demons - with the no class, over-exposed Paris hiltonian influence largely attributable to the apparent enthralling impact of blond eyes + blue hair. Oops, make that blue eyes, blond hair. My mind turns to a quintessential blond. Ok, maybe it's a stereotype though there's little stereotypical about the German blond called Hermann Hesse. Hesse's name is ever-present on this blog. I spent several minutes discussing Hesse's meaning in my plenary presentation last October at the 2004 European Social Forum. For the past 30 years I keep coming back to my deepening intellectual awareness that a pacifist German novelist is a cultural hero of mine. And why? Because at an early and tumultuous point in 20th century consciousness - anti-war, anti-racism, anti-homophobia, etc. - singlehandedly, in the fell swoop of a short and unusual essay, Hermann Hesse contributed to de-constructing the global economy of European-ness/whiteness. I wonder if Hesse scholars out there know if Hesse realised what he did when he created The European. Long past his death Hesse is helping to dismantle the strange, negative habit called white "supremacy." It is a habit, just like drugs, food, smoking, or the viral transmission of AIDS and of memes. While staring white supremacy dead in the face, and sooner rather than later, eventually someone will debunk the racist distortion deceptively known as Memin Pinguin - and for that I will say 'vielen danke' to Hermann Hesse.

Remembering Two Black Men Arrested and Freed in Aruba

We haven't heard any new information from Aruba today. There's a lot of solidarity with Natalee Holloway's mother, father and other family for any news, whenever it comes. One of my family emailed to ask what I think of what's going on there. I said I hope those two Black bodyguards sue, and get Aruba or Curacao. Maybe each of them should get an island. This is no joke. Three weeks ago, in just a matter of hours, Aruba's white elite showed us and the world every racial stereotype that exists in the just-us system. "Just us Black people," that is. It was no coincidence that those men, who were Black, were put on prominent public display and in handcuffs of course. I will never forget the mother of one - an old woman, flailing her arms, professing her son's innocence before God. And the face of the quiet little 10 year old boy with big eyes who is related to one of those brothas. He saw Aruba police break into his home and take his relative away. What kind of crap is that. How did white-dominated societies - even in the Caribbean - decide such spiritual violence by authorities must be a 'rite of passage' for so many Black children? Who's held responsible? If anyone tells you the Dutch, as Europeans, aren't racist, they lie.