Unbothered: The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne

I don't see many movies on the big screen.  The last grown-up film that I can remember watching in the theater was Dreamgirls when I was pregnant.  Or maybe it was The Help.  In any event, it's pretty sad; my parents have seen Straight Outta Compton and The Perfect Guy- I have not.  However, I do enjoy a good documentary and The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne is one of the best that I have seen in a long while.  You know when you watch something and it's so good that you either:

a) want to watch the entire thing again b) text all of your friends and tell them to watch it?

It's that good.

My first exposure to Doris Payne came a few years ago.  If I remember correctly, I was teaching Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man in 7th and 8th grade LE and we were discussing the trickster in the African-American literary tradition.  I came across an article about a female jewel thief in her 80's, and we ending up having a debate about whether she was a hero, a criminal, or both.  Ever since then I have been (not-so) patiently waiting for this documentary to come out.

Brer Rabbit, the original trickster

I must say that watching Doris Payne on screen in her 80's is inspiring.  The way that she artfully applies her Chanel make-up and combs her white bob into place is like an actress getting into costume.  The thought that she puts into details of her appearance (pale lavender nails and animal print flats) puts me to shame.

Say Yes to the Dress!

The Life and Crimes of Doris Payne is interesting because it is about the power and pathology of physical beauty.   The way that Payne presented herself was crucial to the success of her cons.  She was able to get rich, white people to ignore her blackness at the height of segregation because of the way that she styled and carried herself.  Her crimes (or "campaigns" as she calls them) were victories against racism as she used her looks and her intelligence to outmatch her victims.

Ironically, there is nothing remarkable about Payne's physical features.  In The Bluest Eye,  Toni Morrison refers to "the cloak of ugliness" that Pecola puts on that makes her unattractive.  Doris Payne demonstrates that there is also a "cloak of beauty".  She was attractive because she believed it to be so.  And because she believed it, so did others.

She was described as "sharply dressed" and "looking like a model" in her police reports.

Doris Payne's success as a jewel thief was due to her skills as an actress, as well as her looks. Actresses are professional liars and Payne is riveting to watch.  I wonder why the filmmakers did not make more of an effort to verify her stories about her childhood and her children.  Her mother was a Cherokee? That's what we all say.  Her son, who is clearly an addict, never asked her for any money?  Ok.  Perhaps they wanted viewers to do the work of figuring out what was true and what was not.

One of the most interesting scenes in the film was when Payne was caught lying to her probation officer about being with the filmmakers when she was not.  She first got angry and then tried to make him feel guilty for her lie.  Hmmmm.  Very familiar.  The thing that is refreshing about Payne is that she seems to know when she's lying, as evidenced by the final scene in the film.

Is Doris Payne a liar? Yes.  Is she a psychopath?  Probably.  Does she have anything to show for the 2 million dollars without of jewels she stole?  No.  But as her daughter says, she lived her life the way that she wanted to live it.  With joy and without apologies.

Watch the trailer and then see the film on Netflix. I'm about to go watch it again!

Caitlyn Jenner is No Hero

Something about Caitlyn Jenner has always rubbed me the wrong way.  I kept my opinions to myself because I did not want anyone to be able to use my thoughts to justify their own transphobia or transantagonism.  However, the media's dogged attempts to cast Caitlyn as a hero and a symbol of American progressive attitudes about gender has really gotten on my last nerve.  As I gingerly broached the subjects with friends (and one of my students) I began to realize that I was not the only one giving Caitlyn Marie Jenner the side-eye.

My misgivings about Caitlyn began when she was still Bruce, starring in a series of episodes at the end of end of Keeping Up With the Kardashians called "About Bruce."   In these shows Bruce talked about his desire to live authentically, although he was purposely vague about what that meant.   What was  more disturbing were the interviews with his children.  Although they tried to put a positive spin on the changes affecting their family, much of what they discussed seemed deeply traumatic:  Accidentally seeing one's step-father dressed as a woman and having to keep that secret for years, finding make-up and assuming that it meant that your father was having an affair, and suspecting that your father figure has swiped clothing and make-up from you are all things that would send anyone to therapy.

It is one thing to live a lie, but it is another thing entirely to force your children to, not only to live a lie as well, but to collude in spreading this lie to the world in the form of a "reality show."  When we consider the family history of the Kardashians is it any surprise that all of the Kardashian sisters (minus Kourtney) seek out relationships with black men, who are considered the paragon of masculine sexuality.  

Posted on Instagram by Khloe

When I Am Cait premiered this summer I, like most people, tuned in to see what Cait was going to look like.  How would she define her personal style?  Would she wear a wig?   Does facial feminization surgery really work?   However, watching the show I was reminded of Toni Morrison's statement in The Bluest Eye that physical beauty is "one of the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought" because it "begins with envy, thrives in insecurity, and ends in disillusion."  Caitlyn seemed to delight in the fact that she could now participate in the beauty rituals that she had jealously watched her wife and daughters engage in.  She seemed giddy that she owned the same dress as her ex-wife even suggesting they they have a "who wore it best" competition (shady).  

I want to wear this DVF dress on my birthday!

Despite all of the money she had invested in plastic surgery, clothing, hair, and make-up Jenner still seemed unsatisfied with her appearance as a woman as demonstrated by her preoccupation with a voice that she deemed as too masculine.  It reminded me of the end of The Bluest Eye when Pecola finally got her dreamt for blue eyes, but immediately became overwrought with the idea that they were not blue enough.

Everything connects back to The Bluest Eye :)

Notably, the producers of I Am Cait tried to use the show as a platform to discuss the struggles of non-celebrity members of the transgender community.  Unfortunately, Caitlyn didn't seem quite down for the cause.  In fact, she demonstrated more angst over the tone of her voice than over the rate of suicide and sex work in the transgender community.  In a support group meeting, when someone mentioned relying on state assistance to survive, Caitlyn repeated the racist/classist Republican mantra of welfare making people not want to work.   Jenner asked, "don’t, a lot of times, they can make more not working with social programs than they actually can with an entry-level job?”  He went on to say,  “you don’t want people to get totally dependent on it.  That’s when they get in trouble. ‘Why should I work? I got a few bucks, I got my room paid for.’”  Jenner seemed not to recognize that all members of the transgender community do not make a living off their participation in a show about professional pretty people, nor do they  get paid to pose on the cover of Vanity Fair in their underwear.*  

Caitlyn Jenner's lack of sensitivity was again on display when asked by Ellen Degeneres about his stance on gay marriage.  Speaking of his prior beliefs he said,  “I’m a traditionalist;  I’m older than most people in the audience. I kind of like tradition, and it’s always been a man and a woman. I’m thinking, ‘I don’t quite get it.’”  Say what??????  

Although, Jenner stated that he now accepts that everyone has the right the be happy and that gay marriage is now the "law of the land" even Ellen wasn't quite buying it.  Of course, one's gender shouldn't necessarily determine one's political beliefs, but one's membership in a persecuted minority group should at least make them more sensitive to the struggles of others.  





*“I would like to see a nice transgender person who wore jeans and a sweatshirt,” Toni Morrison on Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover

#youcantsitwithus

Looking for her book deal!

I will admit that I was entertained by Miz Rachel and her various hairdos the first few days of this story. Maybe I related to the tan skin, braids/curly weave aesthetic.  Perhaps, I even admired how, according to her parents, she used "her artistic skills to transform herself."  However, today when she stepped down from her position at the NAACP, and instead of apologizing for her dishonesty, tried to quote critical race theory it stopped being funny.  

According to Miz Rachel, "challenging the construct of race is at the core of evolving racial consciousness."  Huh? Since when is white people making money explaining black people to white people something new?  Using her logic, because blackness is a social construct I should be able to choose to be white from this day forward. But it doesn't work that way does it?   Yes, race is a construct but that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.  If Tamir Rice didn't have the power to challenge how race is defined neither should Mz. Rachel.  The fact that she thinks that she can declare that she is black because she wishes to be so is an example of the white privilege that she claims to be against. 

I wonder . .  Did Mz. Rachel decide to "challenge the construct of race" before or after suing Howard for discriminating against her because she was white? (She lost, by the way, and was ordered to pay Howard $3000.00 for wasting everyone's time).

Clearly, this woman does know when to admit that the jig is up. My prediction is that after weighing her options, Miz Rachel will do an interview in which she depicts herself as a victim of her parents, Howard University, and several abusive men. Then she will describe how she "saved" her brothers by raising at least one of them as as her son. She will talk about the ways in which she sacrificed for the black community and how betrayed she felt by some of us (of course she will give a shout out to the good Negroes who supported her). She will answer questions about how she began 'passing':  she braided her hair once because she liked the style and people began assuming that she was mixed. She liked the feeling of acceptance after the rejection she felt at Howard-so she went with it. In other words, this whole fiasco is actually our fault.  We have heard this story before.

Clearly, Mz. Rachel watched about half of Stephen Colbert's interview with Toni Morrison.  The function of the construct of race is racism, because who would some people be without it?  Why be a mediocre white woman struggling for approval when you can be Maureen Peal?

Sick of Spring Break

Ugh.  I spent the last week of Spring Break sick in bed.  Chloe scarcely recognized her poor mother picking her up from school without her face and hair done.  It was a sweatpants, Uggs, and messy (ok. ratchet) ponytail kind of week.

Anyway, I got this really sweet note from a former student that cheered me up and made me look forward to the week ahead back at school.
  
Hi Ms. Cardwell! 
I hope you're doing well. I'm back at Mount Holyoke and in one of my classes we're reading The Bluest Eye. I told my professor that I'd read it before in middle school and he actually didn't believe me at first. This isn't the first time a teacher has been surprised at the books you assigned us; in high school I had to read Invisible Man for a class and the teacher was surprised that I had read it at The Storefront. Just so you know, I'm actually really glad you made us read those books. Even though I didn't appreciate it very much at the time, it is easier reading these books the second time around because the discussions we had at The Storefront start to come back to me.

-H.

Invisible Man by Elizabeth Catlett Riverside Park @ 150th.

Happy Birthday Toni Morrison!!!!

Illustration by 6th grader Eva S.

I remember visiting my grandmother in Columbia, MD and seeing Toni Morrison on her bookshelves.  Looking back on it, Toni Morrison and Willie Marie Cardwell could have been sisters, as similar as they were in terms of looks, temperament, and wit.

However, my  first true encounter with Toni Morrison's work was in Mr. Daley's 9th grade English class at Columbia Prep. We were reading The Bluest Eye, and although I was a conscientious student, I remember not understanding or finishing the book.  Perhaps reading a book about a black father who rapes his daughter in "mixed company" made me feel uncomfortable.  Perhaps, I just didn't understand the complicated narrative structure or the figurative language.  Nevertheless, that experience turned me off from Toni Morrison for the rest of high-school.  It wasn't until college when I completed  Song of Solomon, followed by Beloved.  After that I was hooked.   

Toni Morrison's novels are like a roadmap for being a woman in the world, a kind of  literary Bible.  When friends share their problems with me Toni Morrison quotes automatically pop into my mind ("Love is never any better than the lover . . .").  I quote Sula or Tar Baby in everyday conversation like preachers quote the Scripture.  I love the exquisite attention that Morrison pays to describing the interior lives of black people.  The subject matter of some of her novels is difficult, but the language is always beautifully breathtaking, thought-provoking, and transcendent.

When I began teaching, The Bluest Eye became the centerpiece of my curriculum and a rite of passage for 8th graders at The Storefront. Students looked forward to reading the novel and completing the metaphor projects that they saw hanging in the classrooms and hallways of the school.

Sharing The Bluest Eye with my 8th graders led to some of my best experiences teaching. I treasure the memories that I have of spending two full days unpacking a single quotation:

“Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion.”

We took notes, drew charts on the board, and  shared real life experiences. I loved when students would point out something in the novel that I had not noticed: the significance of a color, a symbol that I had missed after years of reading the novel.  

Each year I taught The Bluest Eye I did so expecting to get in trouble.  I wrote a rationale and had it ready to hand to the first parent or administrator who complained or questioned what I was doing.   Year after year of teaching The Bluest Eye, a book that has been banned in many high-schools, no one ever said anything.  No parent complained, in fact, it was often the opposite.  During one parent teacher conference Michael Wilkerson's mother told me that she went to the library and took out a copy of the book because she wanted to know what her son was so exited to read and talk about.

One of my favorite moments in fourteen years of teaching is when we finished the last page of The Bluest Eye and Lahasia Brown started applauding. It was such a spontaneous, emotional moment because she wasn't someone who had ever shown a strong interest in books.  Years later, I  love that when Toni Morrison publishes a new short story in The New Yorker, I find out about it from Sonje Washington, a former student and fellow Toni Morrison fan(addict).

Toni Morrison's words have the to ability to engage traditionally strong readers, and those who perhaps will never read a full novel again.  It teaches students how to really read a book, while giving them the opportunity to think about how their beliefs about themselves impact the way that they treat others.

Unfortunately, these moments are not not measurable or considered valuable in an educational setting that is motivated by "data-driven" instruction, Danielson rubrics,  and standardized test scores (and I'm not just talking about The Storefront).  No student is going to remember the Test-Prep that I did with them, the grammar drills, or Wordly Wise tests,  but they will never forget The Bluest Eye.  

I Have a Dream: Teaching a Speech That Everyone Thinks They Know Already

I don't think that I had actually read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech until two or three years ago.  Like every other American, I had heard the speech and seen black and white images of it on television. If I were being honest, I would admit that I would cringe and tune out when the speech came on or was brought up in History classes.  I think that my reaction was based on the fact that I thought that I knew what it meant, when I really didn't.  

We all know what an eloquent and powerful speaker King was, but what we miss is what a master of metaphor he was. Furthermore, once I read the speech, I was surprised by the tone of it .  Martin Luther King wasn't begging whites for acceptance, he was demanding re-payment of a debt owed. His words are eerily relevant today.

The lesson below is one of the best that I have taught this year (if I do say so myself).  In really good lessons there is a feeling of transcendence.   I sure that it is similar to the feeling an actor has when he is on stage knowing that he or she has the audience in the palm of their hand.  It doesn't happen every day, but when it does it reminds me why I love teaching.

                 

Figurative Language and MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech." 

1. I review the definitions of metaphor and simile.

2. We discuss how and why authors use figurative language.

3. Students write and share their own metaphors and similes inspired by the photographs in the slides below.

4. Students look at examples of 8th grade metaphor projects about Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

5. I read quotes from the novel aloud and ask students to identify what is being compared in each project. (They were enthralled by the projects).  

(I made this on Haiku Deck, which is really easy to use presentation software.  Click through the slides to see what my student's saw during class.)
Figurative Language - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


6.  I explain that student's will read Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and then create a visual representation of one of the metaphors in the speech.

7. I give each student a copy of the speech and then project it on the Smartboard.  

8. As we read the speech together, I choose a particularly energetic student to underline the metaphors in the speech on The Smartboard.  Students highlight and annotate their speeches, and I draw (really basic) sketches on the white board.

9. I have the students annotate their text with notes about The March on Washington, The Emancipation Proclamation, and the Declaration of Independence.

10.  As a class, we focus on several of the metaphors in the first half of the speech.  Below are some of my favorites:  

 "The Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity."

In a sense we've come to our nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality.

After we finish the speech we will watch the video, and begin our metaphor project.  Hopefully my students will understand and appreciate why they have the day off after they finish this assignment!

President Obama's Attack on Sexism; The Safer of the Two 'Isms'

I don't watch the evening news because I am tired of seeing President Obama looking tired and defeated.  I don't read articles about him online because the comments usually reveal a shockingly high number of intensely racist sentiments.  If President Obama is on the cover of The Post or The Daily News, I avoid looking at the headline out of fear that the accompanying photograph or illustration will demean the office of The President of the United States.

The New York Post: When freedom of the press trumps good taste.

It is interesting that much of the anger at Obama comes from the liberals who supported him. President Obama's recent decision to normalize relations with Cuba reminded me of how many historic decisions he has made since taking office in 2009. For example, President Obama:

• Approved the raid that led to the capture of Osama Bin Laden
• Signed the Don't Ask Don't Tell Act of 2010
• Supported Supreme Court decision striking down The Defense of Marriage Act
• Ended the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Nominated first Latina to The Supreme Court and appointed the first black man as Attorney General

Obama Smiling Photo: collective-evolution.com

Despite all of these accomplishments, I too have been guilty of looking at President Obama with some measure of disappointment because of his dispassionate and sometimes awkward approach to dealing with the issue of race in America (remember The Beer Summit?)  In the midst of the racial tension caused by the murders of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Eric Garner, I wanted more from him. 

Perhaps I was looking for President Obama to to make a statement in support of the protestors, and to admit that in his youth he would have been one of the activists organizing the protests.  Maybe I wanted him to visit Ferguson and ask for healing from the front lines, or meet with the children of Eric Garner and promise to find a way to support their continued education.  Considering the position that New York Mayor Bill De Blasio now finds himself in with the police department, maybe it was the right political decision to remain relatively silent. 

Cops Turn Their Backs as Mayor Speaks at Funeral of Slain Cop Photo: NY Daily News

However, in the wake of these deaths, I did not want to hear our President speaking the carefully calibrated words of  a politician. I wanted to hear him speak the passionate and inspired words of a man.

It appears that when race is uncomfortable for him to speak of, Obama turns to issues of gender.  At a recent, Toys for Tots event, President Obama made a point of placing sports equipment and Legos in the bin reserved for girls.  This comes at a time when recent research suggests that toys are more gendered than they were 50 years ago.  

It's a shame that this is as triumphant as Obama has looked in years

Obama also recently held a press conference in which he only called on female reporters, in order to make a point about how it feels to be seen but not heard.*  Furthermore, he allowed himself to have his picture taken wearing a tiara with several Girl Scouts who had exhibited a flood proof bridge project at a White House Science Fair.  Clearly, these actions are sincere statements about equality from a man who adores his wife and two daughters.  But they also seem calculated (Obama has never attended the Toys for Tots events before this year). At a time when blacks and whites seem to be viewing the world through two different lenses, focusing on gender equality is a way to generate goodwill from liberals and progressives without actually alienating anyone. Moderates and conservatives have daughters too, and if they don't support gender equality they will most likely keep those opinions to themselves out of fear of looking like Neanderthals.  In the end Obama comes out looking revolutionary without actually being controversial.

I haven't decided if this is shrewd or cowardly.  Probably a little bit of both.

Photo: Washington Post

* As an aside, when I taught Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye I did a similar activity.  I told the 8th graders that I was reassigning their seats because of their behavior on the previous day.  I put all of the darker-skinned students in the front and all of the lighter-skinned students toward the back.  I conducted class as usual, but ignored the light-skinned students and heaped praise on the darker skinned students.  Usually about 20 minutes into the lesson, my students figured out what I was doing and we were able to have an interesting discussion about colorism and the main character Pecola's experiences in school.   Interestingly, my students were more offended by what they saw as my error in categorization ("Im not dark-skinned") than by the treatment they received.  I wouldn't suggest doing this without a written lesson plan and another adult in the classroom.