The Obligation of Light
I
have written about many African Americans’ attempts to separate
themselves from their history so as not to feel the pains of it or to
excuse themselves from an obligation to it. This idea, however, is not
solely found in Africans who are in America. It is also found in Europeans
who are in America. This is seen in the current mantra of a number of
Whites who say that “Blacks should leave this thing of discrimination
and racism alone. I haven’t done anything, and I am not responsible
for what my forefathers did.”
That
type of disclaimer of responsibility can travel so far, then there is no
more road on which to travel. Of course, for all, fame has many parents,
but infamy is an orphan. I am saddened when young or old naďve Blacks try
to disassociate themselves from their history here in America and the
obligation that history places on them. Yes, our history runs deeper and
wider than America, but there are 400 years here that cannot be ignored.
And during that time, there was infamy and there was fame that we must
embrace.
At
the Day of Action in Berkeley, I stood, watched, and heard a young
Black female in UC Berkeley talk about what it took to get her there—her
hard work, she said. She
saw no connection between being there and any civil rights marches, sit-ins,
dog bites, church bombings, and deaths; I watched a few Chinese also,
arguing what it took to get into Berkeley and how hard it is—their hard
work; they too saw no connection between the privileges they now enjoy
and the Civil Rights Movement; and probably none had any knowledge of
the Los Angeles massacre of Chinese of 1918, or the current precarious
position of Asians, should a cold or hot war break out with China.
As
I looked and listened to them, I recognized a certain blindness to life’s
reality that darkened their minds. And I also recognized, again, that
too often we in the universities and colleges do not awaken the vast majority
of students, but, instead, we often continue to instill in them the blindness
of thought that is peculiar to America. And those students project and
continue that American narrowness of thought to their children and protégés.
This perpetuation of a certain type of American blindness is prevalent
among those who are asleep. They do not know, even after receiving degrees
from UC Berkeley and elsewhere, that they are asleep and haven’t got a
clue to what is really happening.
One
of my students, a disabled man, talked to me about the problems the
rolling blackouts can cause on the Disabled community. I had given little
attention to the dire straits they would be placed in. And as I listened
to him, my eyes were opened to another way of viewing the world, a more
inclusive way. I said that I had never thought of the things he had said,
and he said to me: “I know; you think like an able-bodied person.” He,
of course, was correct. It is through that prism I view the world, but
there is another world that has a legitimate claim to life and can
articulate that claim quite reasonably.
Americans,
in large part, look at the world through a prism of thought that is narrow,
self-centered, white (and this white has nothing to do with a European
symbolism that has been fashioned to mean pure) and dogmatic. We
insist on being right, because we are not secure enough in ourselves to
be wrong or incorrect. We refuse even to attempt to look at another way
of viewing the world, an inclusive way. Instead, we see each other by
race, gender, social class, privileged or underprivileged.
So
the young Black girl, the young Asian boy, and the old White male all
at UC Berkeley's Day of Rage argued the same paradigm—that things
are OK the way they are; I am not responsible for the behaviors of my
parents nor the injustices that I perpetuate unwittingly; nor am I obligated
to my parents for their unselfish love to and for me—and please, Frank
and others, don’t tell me about them.
But,
sometimes, I wish my eyes had not been opened.
Because, I know that when one sees, there is an obligation to assist
those who do not see—it is the obligation of light. Yet, for many,
they not only wish, but they have determined to keep their eyes closed,
while some are unaware that they are blind; still others are willingly
ignorant because their ignorance is to their profit. And there are those
who are too lazy to find the truth because they have vested interests
in a paradigm of blindness—relatives, friends, acceptance into certain
cliques, etc.—and they enjoy the situation as it is.
But
for the honest and true intellectuals, and those of moral stoutness and
fair-mindedness, there is no price that will allow them to linger in an
ignorance that is adverse and harsh to others. To those, they are compelled
to write, speak, act out, or do something to say, “No. Right is right
and wrong is wrong, and I stand on the side of right, and defend those
incapable of defending themselves. ”
Of
course, this moral high road is often too high for the masses; the individual
is always more moral than the masses. The masses find strength in their
numbers, while the individual finds strength in his/her moral position,
knowing that although the visible number is small, he/she aligns himself
with a larger body and a greater number. For that lonely individual, he/she
must endure the labeling and lack of mass support that comes with one
who takes a moral or ethical stand against the established norm.
Such
an individual looks at the present popular realities and determines to
see the truth, regardless of how adverse that truth is to his/her position,
while the masses move swiftly along in communion to a herd’s beat, never
knowing that their views are twisted, short-sighted, and wrong. But the
true intellectual or moral person knows that somehow, we are our brother’s
keeper because we are connected with each other, regardless of the partitions
we place between ourselves. And since we are keepers, we are somehow obligated
for the deeds of our brothers, especially if we can make this world better
for each other.
Just
as I am saddened by Blacks who do not feel an obligation based on their
history, I am equally saddened by Whites who think that a mere refusal
to accept the blame for their fore-parents can excuse them from positive
actions to undo the mistakes and abuses of the past. The words of Baldwin
should ring in everyone’s ear: when one dehumanizes another, he dehumanizes
himself, whether he knows it or not. And any failure to undo the deeds
of a wicked past is the failure to undo a wicked present.
Martin
Luther King, Jr., and John Donne were correct, all of us are engaged and
connected with
humankind, whether we like it or not, because no man or woman is an
island, apart from the main. What diminishes one of us diminishes all of
us…so we all should be careful for each other because we do not know for
whom the bell tolls this time. []
Frank A. Jones
republished 6.20.05
