"FROM ONE STORY TO MANY STORIES"

 “FROM ONE STORY TO MANY STORIES”

In 2009, Nigerian-born author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a TED Talk entitled “The Danger of One Story.”  I was still doing a lot of anti-racism workshops at the time, and we sometimes used her TED Talk as an entry point into the danger of one story coming to dominate all others.  Her point was that the white, Western sense of racial superiority was born of one story:  the story of the system of race, which tells all that those classified as “white” are superior to all other racial classifications, and “white” people should be in control of all things.  Her TED Talk is quite remarkable – if you are not familiar with it, check it out at https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?subtitle=en.

Today is Indigenous Peoples Day, and it comes at the end of Hispanic Heritage Month, with Native American History Month beginning soon in November.  Why all these different months?  Why recognize Hispanic Heritage, Black History (February), Women’s History Month (March), Asian American Heritage (May), along with many others?  They serve as reminders that there are many stories about the many branches of humanity – a truth that white, American culture has long sought to deny.  Today is also known as “Columbus Day,” celebrating Italian-American heritage, but also celebrating the European who “discovered” America.  It took me a long time in my journey to recognize that the lands that came to be known as “America” were already populated with many different tribes of people, clumped together as “Indians,” as “Native Americans,” as “Indigenous People” – in Canada known as “First Nations.”  So, Columbus did not discover America – rather he was the vessel for the transfer of many Europeans, who would come to the Americas.  In so doing, those of us of “white” heritage would annihilate the native peoples living here, import enslaved people from Africa to work the land, then grow immense wealth from these activities.

Growing up, I was proud of my Scotch-Irish ancestors who were the tip of the spear for the movement of white people westward across the South.  Killing or removing Cherokee people, Muscogee people, Creek people, Choctaw people, Seminole people and others – we marched relentlessly across the South to establish a “white haven.” And, yes, there is a suburb in Memphis known as “Whitehaven,” populated ironically now by mostly Black people.  As I have learned more about my heritage and my history, I am not so proud now.  Yet, that story must be told.  We “whites” must know about the Trail of Tears and the “Indian Removal Act,” not to make us feel guilty but to help us to understand our history and to understand  that there are many stories.  Many Native American peoples have struggled long and hard to recover their cultures, to celebrate themselves, and to thank their gods that they have survived.

In these days, we are invited to consider that there are many stories, and that we can all learn from one another’s stories.  The hegemony of white culture and expansionism has made this a difficult task, but we may be at the inflection point of needing to hear the power and truth of other cultures’ stories.  For many years now, I have been impressed with the Native American idea that the ancestors can be found in the living beings on the earth.  Our “white” approach has been to see beings like trees in a utilitarian way:  we see trees, and we think of the houses that can be built from them.  When Native Americans see trees, they see the locale of their ancestors.  This does not mean that we don’t cut down trees to make houses and firewood, but it does mean that we should shift from our utilitarian view of nature to a more wholistic view of us and nature.  The recent monster hurricanes remind us that the time for making this shift is over, that nature is now seeing us as we have seen nature:  something in the way, something to be torn down.  Yet, we always have an opportunity to shift our perspective from one of exploitation to one of partnership.  

Lest we think that this is only an outdated, tortuous exercise, let us recall that it is at the heart of the division in America in these days.  Donald Trump helped bring the “one story” idea back to the surface of American life, but it has long been there.  I have it in my own consciousness, breathed in through the air of white, male supremacy.  “Make America Great Again” is a call to return to the days of one story: the white, male story.  If Donald Trump wins the election, we will see a much more concerted effort to re-establish firmly the power of white patriarchy.  Yet, even if Kamala Harris wins the election, the power of “one story” will continue to resonate and have political power.  Harris represents a small but significant step to expand the American narrative from one story to many stories.  Her election would be an opportunity to begin to have a different narrative about ourselves and to begin to celebrate the multicultural nature of American history.  Many of us who are classified as “white” feel anxious and afraid, because we know that the demographics are not in our favor.  Trump has brought this brooding sense of grievance to the surface, and this election has now taken on much more importance than it might have.  So, make it your point to vote and to make sure that at least ten of your friends, neighbors and colleagues vote.  

"THE MIDDLE EAST"

 “THE MIDDLE EAST”

Today marks the first anniversary of the horrific slaughter of Israeli civilians by fighters from Hamas.  The Israeli response has been the killing of 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, and now they have added Hezbollah in Lebanon, with likely attacks on Iran to come.  It is a dangerous, dangerous time, with these events baked into hundreds of years of history.  The leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, seems intent on pursuing the violence until all the enemies are not only defeated but also destroyed.  He also faces legal difficulties of his own, and I would hate to think that he is stretching out the war to preserve his own skin legally, but there is a strong hint of that.  He seems similar to Trump on that score.

Because of the Jewish connections that my Mother and I had in my hometown, I have always leaned towards Israel in any Mid East conflicts.  But, over the last few years, Israel has gradually turned into an apartheid nation, and that has given me great pause.  Having grown up in a land where the original residents were either killed or dispossessed of their land by my ancestors, and then that same land was worked by people who were enslaved, I have trouble keeping the same level of support for Israel, which dispossessed the original Palestine peoples without compensation.  The “Palestinian problem” continues to plague the nation of Israel, and it led directly to the horrible and brutal attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7.  

     Israel became a modern  nation in 1948 in some of its original territories as a result of lobbying by Jewish leaders, but most of all because of the horrors of the Holocaust, horrors which were a culmination of centuries of mostly Christian oppression and brutal policies toward Jewish people.  The problem is that there were people already living in those lands, and for the most part they were removed.  They have become known as the Palestinians.  Since Israel took their lands 75 years ago, no adequate provision has been made for the Palestinians.  They have been squeezed into the West Bank and into Gaza, much like the Native Americans were squeezed into “reservations” in our country.  There does not seem to be a viable solution to this issue, though the “two state” solution has come back in to diplomatic and public conversations. In the meantime, Israel continues its repressive policies towards the Palestinians – Jewish settlers continue to move into Palestinian areas.  

    Even those who support the Palestinians were shocked by the brutal, terroristic nature of the attacks by Hamas on October 7.  It is hard to justify the killing of so many civilians at a music concert, and nothing justifies the killing of babies.  Yet we must also recognize the level of desperation and rage that was at the heart of those attacks.  That level does not come because the attackers are savages, as the mainstream Western media has called them.  That level is reached because of a deep and continued wounding of the human heart, a wounding so deep that it makes the attacker willing and able to do inhuman acts.

    I am not justifying the Hamas attacks, but I put their rage on the same level that Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey, and John Brown had in their attacks on the institution of slavery.   Until there is adequate compensation and justice for the Palestinians, these attacks will continue to rise.  At least two things must happen in the Middle East for any semblance of peace with justice to arise.  First, the nation of Israel must be recognized as a legitimate state – many Palestinians still see Israel as an occupying force over these 75 years.  Those who attacked Israel on October 7 did it as a liberating act against the occupying oppressor.  That can no longer be the rubric of the Middle East.

     Justice must be found and established for the Palestinian people.  I don’t know what that would look like at this point, but Israel and the West must make a strong commitment to it.  I have not seen such commitment from the leadership of Israel since Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November, 1995.  Yet, that commitment must be renewed, or the war that is now playing out in Israel and Gaza will be deepened to a level that may lead to WW III.  Both Israel and the Palestinians are now saying “Never Again,” and without a bold diplomatic solution, the future for the Middle East and for all of us looks grim.