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Photo by Gail Harvey, no reproduction without permission
February and Beyond There are many articles on the web debating whether or not Black History Month is racist or still relevant, and as I contemplated whether or not to embark on a day-by-day personal research project about African American and Canadian history, the question of “why exactly?” did arise in me. But for me, self-education is an ongoing mission, and with a movie like The Help being lauded in 2012, I decided that the concept of Black History month, and the ongoing study it can inspire, is obviously still essential.
One of the reasons a movie like The Help is successful in the mainstream is because it offers white audiences a History-Lite dose of self-consolation—“Thank god it’s not like that anymore/was never like that here” that can be administered in the theatre and the realities soon forgotten. The same argument is of course leveled at Black History month: congratulate yourself for knowing who Harriet Tubman was, shake your head at a bullet-point list of achievements and atrocities, and move on into the other eleven months of the year without another thought to the topic. But it doesn’t have to be quite like that. Study can be a constant act of mindfulness. And if The Help inspires people to venture deeper into the story, that’s great. But will they? Will white Canadians who see the film turn to our own historical record and ask what really went on here, beyond the self-congratulating façade?
The Help is a movie and therefore, is fixed between its opening credits and the final frame. It is not elastic and thus is easy to point at and critique in its fixed state. It’s why we love to discuss movies in detail, and why The Help does not hold up too well during cross-examination. It’s of course wonderful to behold the performances of so many black actresses all in one film. My issue with the film was not that they were playing maids, because black women were maids and nannies in North America in the time period shown in the film, and the truth of their hardships does need to be known. (The film touches down on truth, here and there.) Actor Viola Davis has apparently had to defend her decision to be in the movie more than once, with African Americans at the forefront of the criticism of the choice of a role she so deeply inhabits. But tossing a few clips in about Medgar Evers does not equal depth in a story told with such haste that in the end, it really is just the story of a young white woman trying to land a publishing job in New York so she can escape the South and more important, the pressure from her mother to marry. As a light story about female bullying in both black and white worlds, it’s interesting. Mean Girls of the South, all grown up. But the only historical soul the film truly possesses in terms of touching on the raw wound of what happened day in and out comes from the seasoned roster of actors. It isn’t in the writing or the overall production: most of the work happens in the eyes. I suspect that more people strolled out of the cinema feeling pleased that “those days are over” than anything. And yes, if even one person googled Medgar Evers after the movie, that is a kind of small success.
But all the more reason to have Black History Month and a grade school and high history curriculum in both the United States and Canada that reflects what really happened (and happens) for black people in both countries. On your own steam, no matter your race, technology makes this a simple yet dynamic undertaking, enabling exploration of scientists, doctors, artists, musicians, painters, chefs, poets, novelists, engineers, entrepreneurs and inventors, abolitionists, politicians, muckrakers and beyond who triumphed over racism of various forms, sly and overt. The internet enables understanding of timelines and the intersections of events with innovations, cultural clashes and collaborations. Available for free exploration: images and footage; audio recordings of music and interviews, speeches. Start with Google, YouTube and poets.org from the American Academy of Poets. Another important website is blackhistorycanada.ca
Although I have already written about The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson on this blog before, it is an excellent time to mention it again, as a starting point of study that does not require you to sit in front of computer screen. It comes in book form: you can hold it in your hands and carry it to a cafe. It is about the Great Migration from the American South to the Northern United States and reading it will unleash a thousand questions. About music, politics, food, work, and whether or not slavery truly ended with a piece of paper.
The poet I am exploring on this first day of my research project is Gwendolyn Brooks, born in 1917. She lived and wrote till the year 2000. These lines from her poem An Aspect of Love, Alive in the Ice and Fire are fitting indeed: “Because the world is at the window/we cannot wonder very long”
Time to quit wondering and keep learning. Deeper into your own record collection, deeper in your cookbooks, medical texts, poetry anthologies; deeper into Hollywood messaging over time, deeper into the current political scene in the US. Deeper for the sake of going deeper. This February and beyond.
Listening to: Africville Suite, Joe Sealy
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