Happy Juneteenth! I'd heard of this holiday before, but I'd never given it much thought tbh. This year's different, for obvious reasons. Current events seem to have inspired many (and not just the usual suspects) to try to challenge themselves to learn more about these issues, to hopefully be part of the solution... which offers some hope! In that spirit I thought I'd share a few things that I've found to be interesting/challenging/thought-provoking...
- "Between the World and Me," Ta-Nehisi Coates
This book got a lot of attention when it came out a few years ago... and, yeah, it's really, really good... and highly relevant to the conversation today. Coates presents it as a letter to his teenage son. It's not that long, but there's a lot there. It's unflinching, but also poetic. It's the kind of book when you finish you pause for a moment, and then go back to the beginning and start again.
- "I Am Not Your Negro," documentary about James Baldwin
Listening to interviews with Coates I learned that Baldwin was an important inspiration for his book. ("The point of aiming for Baldwin is not to get to Baldwin. It's to stretch yourself.") That led me to this documentary, which you can watch for a dollar on YouTube. I didn't really know anything about Baldwin before tbh, but he's a fascinating character. The film's a little rough around the edges... honestly I thought it felt a little like a student film at times... but the material is so powerful that some technical imperfections hardly matter. It came out in the wake of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Charleston, Ferguson (etc., etc.), and connects those events to Baldwin's ideas.
I would recommend watching the documentary before reading Coates' book. The connection is hard to miss. Coates even uses some of Baldwin's same specific language. (The word "dreamer" will forever have a different connotation for me now). Both writers are clearly empathetic people but also cold-eyed and unsentimental in their assessments of this country. They certainly widened my own perspective.
- "8:46," Dave Chapelle stand-up
Chappelle's latest is not comedy. Like, literally, there are no jokes. It's just Dave saying what he feels. It's not exactly "fun," but definitely worthwhile.
- "Do the Right Thing," Spike Lee
Ok, I'm sure most of you have already seen this, but wow, made 31 years ago (1989!) and it couldn't be more relevant today. I remember when I first saw it (in high school) liking it but also being a little confused... It's a morality play (it's right there in the title) in which the "bad" guys seem mostly ok and the "good" guys are hardly saints. Mookie's boss Sal eventually betrays his latent racism, but he also treats Mookie like a son. (People are complicated!) Was destroying Sal's family business in response to police brutality "doing the right thing?"
I think what the movie is getting at is it's not about good guys and bad guys, and that sometimes there is no "right thing" to be done. When the larger structures of society are built in fundamentally unfair ways it creates impossible situations. It's still an important insight in 2020. The problems we're facing are so much deeper than punishing a few "bad apples."
There is of course much more to say on that topic, but I'll leave it there for now. If you haven't seen the movie, you should. It's a classic. If you have here's an interesting video analysis of the film that goes deeper into the themes I was talking about (you can start at 1:43 and not miss anything):
Here are some other YouTube videos I thought well worth watching:
More Coates:
Excerpt from a podcast conversation between Ezra Klein and Ta-Nehisi Coates from earlier this month (you can start at 1:58 and not miss anything):
PS. Obviously there has been a LOT, LOT, LOT going on lately. It honestly feels like too much to try to even sort through. Maybe at some point I'll give it a shot, we'll see. These are truly crazy times we're living in. Hope you're well.
