Running Across My Mind
Hello Family,
I hope you are doing well.
I wanted to share with you some of the articles I’ve been reading, shows I’ve been watching, music I’ve been listening to lately.
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The Words
is the kind of writer and thinker that says the things that people rather not hear, that they’d rather deny, but that are ultimately undeniable and spot-on. Here, he discusses the unbearable whiteness/maleness of several things: art, media, fictional futures, imaginations, and global reality. 
Here in New York City, I have noticed that, since the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed millions upon millions of people, there has been a breakdown in the “social contract.” Manners are just gone. Politeness has gone out of style. Rudeness (or, in some circles, rudity, LOL) is the guiding principle. I’ve lost count of the number of people who, for example, cough and sneeze in public without covering their mouths or even turning their faces away from other people. On the subways and buses, people take up all the seats, refuse to give up their seats for the elderly, disabled, or pregnant. We all seem much easier to anger. We all seem more readily driven toward violence. From my perspective, so much of this has to do with the government’s response to the pandemic, which was essentially no response. Or better yet, the absolute wrong response. I remember when former President Trump suggested that people inject themselves with bleach as a possible cure for the disease. I remember that at least one person died after heeding the former president’s advice about fish-tank cleaner being a possible treatment for COVID-19. The conservative/GOP/Republican sect of the United States has no interest in the health and wellbeing of the country’s inhabitants.
I recently read an essay by
that looks at the foundational causes for these troubling American behaviors—specifically, the serious and frightening decline in how we treat one another. What Joshua uncovers isn’t at all surprising.
Speaking of COVID-19, for some ungodly reason, there’s been an attempt in media to downplay or outright cover up the devastating long-term effects of COVID.
wrote about this for Long COVID Awareness Day, which is observed on March 15.
I really enjoyed this dive into the origins of the legendary artistic era known as the Harlem Renaissance. Some of my favorite literary works of all time come from this period. From The New York Times:
On March 21, 1924, Jessie Fauset sat inside the Civic Club in downtown Manhattan, wondering how the party for her debut novel had been commandeered.
The celebration around her was originally intended to honor that book, “There Is Confusion.” But Charles S. Johnson and Alain Locke thought the dinner could serve a larger purpose. What if the two Black academic titans invited the best and brightest of the Harlem creative and political scene? What if, over a spread of fine food and drink, they brought together African American talent and white purveyors of culture? If they could marry the talent all around them with the opportunity that was so elusive, what would it mean to Black culture, both present and future?
The Sights
I am always incredibly dismayed by the hostilities that bubble up between various nationalities of the African diaspora. To me, it seems obvious that these conflicts are manufactured and instigated by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy as a divide-and-conquer strategy meant to keep us distracted and at each other’s throats so that the colonial pirates have an easier time robbing and subjugating us. My husband put me on to this video of an African-American woman expressing her frustrations at how some Nigerians judge and look down on African Americans. She makes some really great points. Whether in North, Central, or South America; the Caribbean, the African continent, or wherever, it’s really beyond time that we stop dehumanizing each other like this and start peeping game for exactly what it is.
I watched what is one of the most horrific docuseries I’ve ever seen: Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. It’s about how things in Hollywood look so glitzy and glamorous on the stage and on camera, but when you pull back the curtain, when you focus the lens, you discover that it’s all just a cover for Hell on Earth—especially for children.
There are so many absolutely terrifying moments to recall in this documentary, which is really a treatise on how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The ways in which children were intentionally and boldly sexualized on these kids shows, as a kind of coded/hidden-in-plain-sight dog-whistle for pedophiles; the ways in which parents and families were complicit; the ways in which children and families who didn’t submit to rape culture were penalized—all of it is just a huge wake-up call for why Hollywood should be kept as far away from children—and not just children—as possible. So many child stars—from Corey Feldman and Corey Haim to Britney Spears and Orlando Brown to Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, and Shavar Ross have been telling us this shit for years. But money makes our rooms soundproof.
One of the most heartbreaking moments in the doc was when child actor Drake Bell’s father Joe was, in essence, shamed out of protecting his son because the folks on the set of the kid’s show Drake and Josh kept telling him he was being homophobic by suggesting that Brian Peck, a dialogue coach for Nickelodeon and openly gay man, was being inappropriately touchy-feely with his son. Peck convinced young Drake, and Drake’s mother Robin Dodson, to fire Joe as Drake’s manager. And once that happened, all obstacles were removed and Peck was free to brutally and repeatedly rape Drake.
As a Same Gender Loving (SGL) man, I know how people believe SGL = child molester. And that shit is simply not true. But there’s something to be said here about how identity can be weaponized to silence, obscure, and camouflage, and how we really need to start taking more thoughtful and nuanced approaches to these situations instead of kneejerk conflating marginalization with innocence.
Save the children.
Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV is streaming on Max. Discretion is advised.
The Sounds
When I first saw the trailer for The American Society of Magical Negroes, I knew immediately that it was a film that I would never, in life, see. There were so many clues in the trailer itself that indicated that it would not be a critique of the trope it highlights, but would, in fact, simply reinforce it. I’ve read a dozen or more reviews of the movie and that seems to have been the general consensus, too. I wonder how the actors who appear in the film feel about it. Are they embarrassed? Ashamed? Or is it just like “Shit, no one else is hiring us and a check is a check”? It seems as though the director thinks he created something deep and groundbreaking.
Anyway, my homeboy Jordan Clark, his co-host Cameron Mason, and critic extraordinaire Aisha Harris go in on Magical Negroes during the latest episode of Jordan and Cameron’s podcast, White People Won’t Save You.
A while back, I had the pleasure of joining Jordan and Cameron to hate on (LOL!) the movie, Ghosts of Mississippi.
Have you ever heard of Durand Bernarr? My goodness. He has one of the greatest singing voices I’ve ever heard! See him going awf here on NPR Music: Tiny Desk Concert. In addition to Durand being an absolute genius at his craft, his background vocalists and band are also exceptional. Stand out tracks for me include “Sam’s Vibe,” “Mango Butter,” and “Stuck.”
And because the title of the post brought it back to me:
That’s all for now, Fam. Thank you so very much for subscribing to Witness. Be safe. Be kind. Stay well. And may your wildest dreams be made manifest.
Blessings upon blessings,
Robert