One Drop

This February I was teaching my 6^th graders about African-American artist Romare Bearden.  After projecting his image onto the Smartboard I turned around and confronted fifteen very confused faces. "He's white, Ms. Cardwell, why are we learning about him during Black History Month?" they asked. Despite, seeing the black subjects in his work, I had a hard time convincing them that Bearden was, in fact, black.  I started explaining the One Drop Rule and one of the boys looked at me and said, in all seriousness, “yeah, but Ms. Cardwell, where’s his drop?”

Romare Bearden

This week those of us with Facebook pages and Twitter accounts discovered that, despite her cornrows and tanned skin, the chair of the Spokane, Washington chapter of the NAACP had no drops.  If there is one thing that the controversy surrounding  Rachel Dolezal has reminded me, is that blackness is a social construction based on the One Drop Rule.  Part of what makes Rachel Dolezal white and Angela Davis black is that drop.

Rachel Dolezal and Angela Davis

Despite the fact that the One Drop Rule originated in slavery, black people cling to it as a means of  defining and unifying our community.  Ironically, the only way that Rachel Dolezal was able to get away with claiming blackness as long as she did was because of the One Drop Rule. 

But why do we care?  Being inundated with images of black people being treated worse than animals has a negative psychic impact on all of us, whether we are aware of it or not. In a year that we have had to endure images of black men being choked on city sidewalks and black girls tackled on the grass at pool parties- Rachel Dolezal is a flattering and curious distraction.  If Rachel Dolezal and her frizzy perm (weave?) can remind us that our culture is enviable - so be it.  It's been a long year; we are entitled to a little comic relief.

If you are as fascinated as I am with Rachel Dolezal and the idea of racial passing, check out these books.

1. Passing, by Nella Larsen

2. Caucasia by Danzy Senna

3.  Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyeyemi

4.  The Sweeter the Juice: A Memoir in Black and White, by Shirley Taylor Haizlip

5. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man, by Henry Louis Gates

5. Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin

6. Passing Strange: A Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line, by Martha A. Sandweiss

When Winter Break Seems a Lifetime Away

Teachers (and students) know that the week before Winter Break is the longest week known to man.   You're certain that you should be teaching, but when you ask your students to take out their grammar books they look at you like you're crazy and keep sucking on the candy canes that their other teacher gave them.

As a compromise you teach them about Direct Objects and then promise to show a documentary after their test.  You then spend the rest of the week watching The Queen of Versailles, smiling inwardly as they shake their flaxen heads at the ways of rich folk.  (This scenerio is entirely hypothetical, of course).

Thank goodness for documentaries.  Here is a list of other things that that are giving me life until this Friday:

1.  Chris Ofili: Night and Day 
Everything I know about art I learned from my parents or Tumblr.  I discovered Chris Ofili on the latter, and was pleased to learn that a retrospective of his work is currently on view at The New Museum.   After unsuccessfully begging Chloe to go with me, I gave up and decided to go on my own after work.  Ofili's painting are bold, funny, and thought provoking.  His work is full of contradiction: glitter and elephant dung share space on the canvas.

In one darkened room hand several canvases that look as if they have been painted black.  It is only after your eyes adjust and you look at the work from various angles that different images appear, and it feels like magic.  The photographs below don't do Ofili's work justice; go see Night and Day in person before the exhibit closes at the end of January.  Be sure to visit the fourth floor and be prepared to have your breath taken away.

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2. Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Photo: theroot.com

As soon as I finished this book, I had a desire to turn back to the first page and start reading it all over again.  Boy, Snow, Bird is about Boy Novak, a woman who moves away from her abusive father and re-creates her life in a small New England town. The novel examines issues such as race, beauty, and vanity through the lens of fairy tales.  I will have to read Boy, Snow, Bird a few more times before I fully understand it, but how can you not fall in love with language like this: 

"I was new to champagne, but as soon as I tasted it, spark after golden spark, I thought, well, there's magic in this water."

Photo: Marc Burckhardt/nyt.com

3. D'Angelo's Black Messiah: The last time that D'Angelo had an album out I was a recent college graduate.  I stopped waiting for new material from him amid news stories about prostitution charges, drug arrests, and rehab visits.  It seemed as if he and Lauryn Hill had cracked under the pressure of their own genius.  But then Black Messiah came out of nowhere at precisely the right time. Apparently, D'Angelo moved up the release date for the album in response to the uprising following the deaths of Mike Brown and Eric Garner.  Black Messiah is Protest Music. Rebel Music.

Although, I don't think that Black Messiah is quite as inspired as Voodoo, it feels good to hear music that doesn't have all of the flaws and emotion mechanized out of it.  My favorite songs are Betray My Heart and Sugah Daddy.

Available on iTunes

4. Henri Bendel:  Last year at this time I was being disrespected by a 14 year old girl who received no consequence (because we needed to 'understand her culture').  She then gave herself a shout-out during closing meeting for having a 'good day,' and finished off by doing a little dance and repeating the words "you mad" while administrators looked on sheepishly.  This year, I received my first gift from Henri Bendel.  Very simply, it is nice to be appreciated.

Because I'm worth it!