You don't have to read into it - I'll tell you! I don't believe that a 16 year old can make a conscious decision to be with a 30 year old and the law is on my side (statutory rape). I don't believe that a woman should enter into a relationship which is, at its definitive point, abusive (pimp/prostitute). I don't believe that any slave owner had a true loving friendship for any slave. If so, they would have given him/her back the right God gave - liberty. I will not believe that any of those women, during the Jim Crow Era, were true friends to the Black women who waited on them. I never saw one of them getting hit with hoses or bit by dogs. I never saw one of them crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I really and truly never saw one of those housewives, who paid their "friends" next to nothing, watched what they cooked and ate, fired them if the husband looked crosswise at them (see Elizabeth Fox-Genovese's work), or for that matter spoke up for their children (the Black ones) in college admission letters (to name just one tiny method of redress or recompense for the endless hours of work for low pay).
You all just kill me right down to the flo. I have a colleague who was raised by a mammy. I've been mothered by three women who were Black domestics. These women went straight from in-house work to social security as these jobs paid no pension. The White women of these times took advantage of the fact that they didn't have to pay any type of taxes. Where was the cookie jar or pin money when Sally, Dicey, Mary or Susie could no longer work? Who paid the bills for the knees, hips, fingers, and backs which were used up in the houses of these "friends?"
Don't meet me on this field. You are sadly unarmed. This is a gender issue. This is an African American issue. This is an America issue. Most importantly, it is a labour and wage issue. It is NOT a religious or "friend" issue.
Your move.
La Vonda Staples
Independent Historian
--
-- On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 1:06 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com> wrote:
Other thoughts about "The Help" which I have neither read nor
seen.....
Of course, I won't pass judgement on a film that I haven't seen.
Meanwhile, the house is still divided into three camps - the Field
Negro and the House Negro and of course true Jungle......
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Malcolm+X+%3A+the+house+negro&btnG=Google+Search&oq=Malcolm+X+%3A+the+house+negro&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=1524l1524l0l2493l1l1l0l0l0l0l116l116l0.1l1l0
Ama thinking about a distraught La Vonda Staples saying that " A
servant can never be a friend" Perhaps especially a servant who has
had to put up with tha Gawdy, nanny, little Black Sambo, picaniny
image, that was once upon a time foisted on poor Negro folks,
especially down South, and still survives...
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=picaninny&btnG=Google+Search&oq=picaninny&aq=f&aqi=g4g-s2g2g-s1g1&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=2645l2645l0l5696l1l1l0l0l0l0l146l146l0.1l1l0
Also mulling over the reviewer saying ironically or sarcastically or
innocently or even good naturedly, that "Good people were never anti-
Semites; only detestable people participated in Hitler's cause.".
Well, good people are never sons of bitches, to begin with. And some
others are plain victims of bigotry and ignorance.
Perhaps I've misunderstood the full thrust or import of the latter
statement - in the same way that I jumped the gun, perhaps due to the
wine and what was actually happening in South Africa at the time
('86) so that when I heard Howard S ( who is Jewish by the way) say,
"Some South African intellectuals now believe that the ANC is actingin a counter-revolutionary manner", I heard something else, something
other than what he was really, actually saying......well he wasn't
saying that ANC had become uncle tom....
In my humble opinion, works of fiction, whether film or in the novel
form can mirror any preferred reality or fantasy whether it's Haley's
"Roots"or Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" or Alice
Walker's "The Color Purple".Nor does historical fiction have to be
held to the standard of historical reality or the given point of view
of a documentary, although fiction can mirror an authentic version of
history. As for for those who where not there and therefore do not
remember , the sad reality is as the reviewer said, "It is unfair to
the filmmakers and cast to expect a work of fiction to adhere to thestandards of authenticity we would want for a documentary." and also
that "precious few works of art tackle the Civil Rights era, and whatstems from fictive rather than nonfictive sources."
people coming of age in the 21st century learn about this era often
That being the case, the only option available to the disenchanted
social critic of works that fall short of artistic or historical
integrity would be to create other versions that challenge or present
alternate takes of their own cherished vantage/ disadvantaged points
of view. We have the social and political responsibility to tell that
story without falsifying the historical reality of what was, how it
was......that's one kind of story......although in retrospect,
nostalgia can exaggerate and say that it was either worse or not that
bad..... in the middle of the wilderness, even with Manna falling from
heaven the Children of Israel at some point were complaining to
Moses - and some of the ingrates were even longing back to the
days of slavery in Egypt:
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/9877
There's also this article that was posted by Tracy Flemming :"Racism
and Science Fiction"
by Samuel R. Delany...
99% of the historical and fictional sources ( film, novel, biography,
autobiography – and documentary) about the Second World War has not
been from sources close to Hitler – and please permit me to place
Günter Grass, Pope Benedict Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (born in the
same year as Grass ) - and Joseph Heller, in the same category of "far
from Hitler."
For some, it could be difficult to determine which is superior or
even more relevant - a complete documentary of Malcolm X or the
Spike Lee / Denzel Washington version , the first hour of which , from
my point of view , was almost a complete waste of space. Just for the
record, I too would like to direct my own Malcolm X movie and in the
same spirit do one of Melvin Van Pebbles and one starring Marcus
Mosiah Garvey, most certainly. The Great Barack Obama of the Mighty
United States of America is not yet old enough for us to do one of
him. Given all the very difficult circumstances within which he has to
manoeuvre, hopefully, during his second term he will fulfil most of
his good intentions and complete the good work that he has so
faithfully begun...
Lady La Vonda Staples who probably does not, has not had any is
suggesting to the suggestible, so " You think you can trust your
servants? ….A servant can never be your friend."... No doubt she is
one of those who is "angry that the movie is based on a novel by a
white woman, Kathryn Stockett, and they question whether she iscapable of telling that particular story."
Well, it's possible that she's looking through a glass darkly and is
not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and
that' she's only telling her particular story, just as Alice Walker is
telling another kind of story in " The Colour Purple." of which film
version one cannot say that "the audience never sees an intact black
household, and a black man's abuse of his wife is all the morescars he leaves." :
chilling because we never see him, only the pots he hurls and the
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=The+Color+Purple&btnG=Google+Search&oq=The+Color+Purple&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=771l5723l0l9567l16l16l0l4l4l0l302l1948l4.4.3.1l12l0#q=The+Color+Purple+%28+Film&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=vid&ei=jA1dTtCPIYn3sgbN5aSkDw&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=3&ved=0CA0Q_AUoAg&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=5039ddfcf331439c&biw=1280&bih=831
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=555
A servant can never be a friend?
N.B: Abraham was a friend of the Almighty!
May I never grow tired of citing this particular story " Robinson
Crusoe " written by the first novelist ever to appear in the English
Language, Mr. Daniel Defoe and these most relevant lines that were
quoted by John Maxwell Coetzee, in his Nobel Lecture:, in 2003:
" He and His Man :
"But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him,
and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to
make him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak,
and understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar there
ever was."
(Daniel Defoe, "Robinson Crusoe" )
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2003/coetzee-lecture-e.html
And here, let us take note of language as the tool of empowerment -
even subservience.....and befitting a few paragraphs of postscript to
Professor Pillay's "Thinking Africa from the Cape "
I've seen a Marxist vantage point-of-view film version of Robinson
Cruse, from Man Friday's point of view …. Robinson Crusoe – no Robin
Hood is he - as the colonial master etc. etc....
Some of the atheists and ungodly Marxist-Leninists sometimes go as
far as to say that this fictionalised Allah – Abd-allah ( slave of
Allah) , this Master- slave, Master- Servant relationship is symbolic
of really slavery , and colonialism....
Good thing about language is that it can be used to communicate - it
was used in Haiti … fact is Sister Lavonda, Caliban CAN curse:
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Caliban+can+curse&btnG=Google+Search&oq=Caliban+can+curse&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=5482l5482l0l6704l1l1l0l0l0l0l197l197l0.1l1l0
On Aug 30, 12:50 am, Lavonda Staples <lrstap...@gmail.com> wrote:
> You think you can trust your servants? Hey, Riley "B. B." King wrote,
> "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother (And Sometimes I Think She Might Be Jiving)."
>
> Since I've been grown I've heard young people, mostly women, say things such
> as, "I trust him completely. He would NEVER do that." I've heard young men
> say, "I would trust my wife with my life." Keep trust for God. Have hope
> in man. Anyone who thinks that an underpaid servant is really their friend,
> an equal, a FRIEND, is slightly insane. Friendship is based on
> accountability and two people who can be responsible for each other's
> hearts. We fail. On purpose. By ignorance. How can anyone, any White
> person say (during that time) that a Black maid was their friend when
> clearly the Black maid's heart could not be protected in the face of Jim
> Crow? Each time those maids left the home... I can go on and on and on.
>
> A servant can never be your friend. A husband that is financially beholden
> to a wife. A wife who allows herself to become a subservient in her home
> (you can always leave, hungry, nekkid, cold and tired but FREE) is not a
> friend.
>
> I supposed the woman who wrote the book would say that Jefferson and Hemings
> were friends as well. And since I put it out there, no. I don't think
> Jefferson was a rapist. I do, however, fervently believe that any White
> woman who really believed that her Black maid was her friend is delusional.
> The Black maid may HAVE been her friend. But don't friends take up each
> other's causes? I don't remember any White housewives movements to end Jim
> Crow, do you?
>
> La Vonda R. Staples
>
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 4:41 PM, Cornelius Hamelberg <
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> corneliushamelb...@gmail.com> wrote:> >http://www.google.se/search?q=Mapantsula&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=o...
> > Still room for hate? The old race and colour bogeyman still hanging
> > around? Isn't it about time to let it go?
>
> > There are some stories that are best left unread and some films best
> > left unseen.
>
> > But you should , if you haven't already done so, see this – what's now
> > become a sort of cult film...my I and my Better Half and Bibi Opot
> > finally saw it on the 10th of March this year at the Kulturhuset in
> > Stockholm:
>
> ...>
> > Here's another story: The year was 1993 and word was that Apartheid
> > was soon going to be under arrest and lots of White South Africans
> > were steadily, already relocating to Hungary, Australia, New Zeeland
> > for their own safety and in anticipation of the bloodbath that they
> > thought was inevitable, because they thought that Justice, Retaliation
> > and Revenge was definitely on its way – and had been rapidly gaining
> > momentum with the escalation of PAC violence, their motto being "One
> > settler one bullet."
>
> > So, by the time Madiba Nelson Mandela was being released from Robben
> > Island, this story was already making the rounds:
>
> > There were two servants in neighbouring households and the Missus in
> > one of the houses said to her servant, " I've heard some people say
> > that Black servants are going to kill their White masters when the
> > Revolution comes, but you will not kill me, will you?"
>
> > " Oh no Mam" replied her Black Servant, "I've made a deal with the
> > servant next door that he's going to kill you and that I'm going to
> > kill his master for him "
>
> > The moral of the tale in circulation: You can't even trust your own
> > servants
>
> > I'm sad to say that I myself and a friend were invited to a New Year's
> > Eve party on 31st December 1986 by a Swedish fashion model and her
> > Irish husband..I had just got back to Stockholm from a great time in
> > London and was in a party mood. It was only when we arrived at the
> > host's villa somewhere in the Stockholm suburbs, that I realised that
> > the rest of the guest about eight or so, were all White South
> > Africans, some of whom I had known from earlier on. To cut a long
> > story short, midnight when we were going to set off the fireworks,
> > never arrived ...the party was completely destroyed shortly before
> > then.....and everyone went home. I and my friend stayed the
> > night......
>
> > I had already downed half a bottle of wine and was still on my best
> > behaviour and had been since when I realised that it was more or less
> > a White South African Party ( the White Radicals). I had taken it
> > upon myself that what they were all going to witness was exemplary
> > behaviour, since I was going to be representing Nelson Mandela,Oliver
> > Thambo, Steve Biko, Chris Hani , Joe Slovo, the martyrs of the
> > Sharpville Massacre and all the Brethren in Soweto. It was at about
> > eleven O'clock - we were sitting round the dinner table, the round
> > table discussion was getting more and more interesting and it was at
> > that point - at around 11 O Clock when one of the guests Mr. H.S.
> > the optician made the remark that "Some South African intellectuals
> > now believe that the ANC is acting in a counter-revolutionary
> > manner" and thereupon, somehow the wine flew to my head. You'll have
> > to wait for the first edition of my memoirs to catch up with a full
> > account of what actually happened before and after the event but
> > suffice it to say that shortly after that the party was totally
> > destroyed …. and my gracious guests remained so kind, here ina
> > Sweden..... to this day I am thoroughly ashamed of my behaviour and
> > the words that flew out of my mouth that night......I can tell you
> > lots of South African stories fleshed by real characters, all kinds –
> > political activists, jazz musicians John Mbizo Dyani gave me the name
> > Themba Feza) of poets, ideologues, racists, even holy anti-apartheid
> > hooligans....here, in the UK and in Nigeria.....
>
> > On 29 Aug, 20:11, Lavonda Staples <lrstap...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > The mother of my first husband was a maid. Her oldest daughter was also
> > a
> > > maid. The woman I take care of, Miss Pam, was also a maid. All three
> > Black
> > > women were domestics in wealthy White households in St. Louis, MO. I
> > don't
> > > know why cinema makes so much of the affection mytholiogically given
> > between
> > > White children and Black domestics. None of these mythological babies
> > > attended the funeral of my ex-mother-in-law and they do not attend the
> > sick
> > > rooms of my ex-sister-in-law or Miss Pam. These three women gave their
> > love
> > > to their Black children they kindness and compassion to the White
> > children
> > > they helped to raise.
>
> > > America has its myths. There is a popular myth of Southern life as being
> > > completely populated by plantation mansions. This is a lie. There were
> > > very few slaveowners who prospered to the point of building great houses.
> > > Most of those who did had wives who brought wealth to the family (i.e.the
> > > wealth Martha Washington and Martha Whales Jefferson brought to their
> > poor
> > > husbands) and the men had occupations other than their agrarian pursuits
> > > (many, if not most were solicitors, i.e. Jospeh Davis, elder brother of
> > > Jefferson Davis). Most slaves were bought on the margin. There were
> > > several big and small cotton crashes which forced enslaved Africans back
> > on
> > > the auction block and White would-be and wannabe plantation owners back
> > on
> > > the roads, staying with family, or into a poverty of self-sufficient
> > > farming.
>
> > > I cannot comment on the movie, "The Help" because I haven't seen it. I
> > see
> > > very few movies. I don't have the money, patience, or time. I will see
> > it
> > > when I get a copy I can view at home.
>
> > > It is unfortunate that the book was created without input from the
> > > subjects. If there is such a thing as method acting then we should also
> > > honour method writing. I would have liked the author to spend some time
> > as
> > > a maid, with some maids (in a lateral position), or even using some plain
> > > old empathy for her subjects. As it stands, she has done the same thing
> > > that slave owners did and do - buy a person and turn them into a thing.
>
> > > La Vonda R. Staples
> > > Independent Historian
>
> > > On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Tracy Flemming <cafenegrit...@gmail.com
> > >wrote:
>
> > > > Author Kathryn Stockett's letter is focal point in 'The Help' suit
> > > > 3:08 PM, Aug. 23, 2011
> > > > The Associated Press
> > > > The Clarion-Ledger
>
> > > > A handwritten letter from author Kathryn Stockett has become the focal
> > > > point of a lawsuit over her bestselling novel "The Help," which has
> > > > been made into a box office hit.
>
> > > > A housekeeper who works for Stockett's brother claims her likeness was
> > > > used in the book without permission. "The Help" is based on
> > > > relationships between white families in Mississippi and the black
> > > > women who worked for them in the 1960s. The movie adaptation of "The
> > > > Help" took the No. 1 spot in theaters this past weekend with $20.5
> > > > million.
>
> > > > Hinds County, Miss., Circuit Court Judge Tomie Green dismissed Ablene
> > > > Cooper's lawsuit last week. Green said the statute of limitations
> > > > elapsed between the time that Stockett gave Cooper a copy of the book
> > > > in January 2009 and the lawsuit's filing in February of this year.
>
> > > > Cooper's lawyer, Edward Sanders, filed a motion last week to have the
> > > > lawsuit reinstated. The motion argues that the clock should not have
> > > > started ticking on the statute of limitations until Cooper read the
> > > > book in the summer of 2010. Sanders argued that Cooper didn't read it
> > > > sooner because Stockett said in the letter that, despite the
> > > > similarity in names, the character wasn't based on Cooper.
>
> > > > In a response filed with the court Monday, Stockett's lawyers said the
> > > > letter accompanied a copy of the book and Cooper waited too long to
> > > > sue under the one-year statute of limitations.
>
> > > > "The note makes clear that Ms. Stockett told Mrs. Cooper that a
> > > > character in the novel was named
>
>
> read more »
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
La Vonda R. Staples
Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Sciences
Community College of the District of Columbia
314-570-6483
"It is the duty of all who have been fortunate to receive an education to assist others in the same pursuit."
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment