The Black Friend

 The Black Friend is supposed to be teaching white people not to be racist. Good luck with that. 

"..every interaction is som weya is influenced by race." I used to tell bus drivers, "thank you for coming to work today." That brief interaction was not based on anything other than the person was driving the bus that got me where I wanted to go.

"Green bean casserole is a form of white oppression."  I do not get that. Did he mean white people force blacks to eat green bean casserole? I was not much aware green bean casseroles existed until lately. I have a vague recollection of someone making it once. 

Sunday dinner at a white friends house was also the first time he tasted "devil's vomit." (also called date loaf) I did not want to get up and find what type of drug that is. Oh, after many paragraphs, he explains it was desert, that looked like a banana loaf or carrot cake. I never heard of date loaf (made with dates.) Yet he seems to think date loaf is a typical white family desert. 

In one of his shaded gray inserts he says "If you are white and you are reading this, do not read that word." WTF If you do not want white people to read a word, leave it out of the book. Better yet, stop using it; stop saying it in movies, and repeating it over and over in hard core rap music. Yeah, it is authentic when in movies about, um, "the boyz in the hood?" 

A Richard Wright, James Baldwin, or Walter Mosley he is not. Um, I can not recall if Mosley's characters use the word. That is not the only 'thou shalt not," in The Black Friend.

White Race

 Frederick Joseph asserts in his book, The Black Friend, that white is a race, so he does not capitalize it. White is no more a race than Black is a race. As far as I know, there is one race, the human race. We do not say "Russian race," or "Swedish race," or "Australian race," and not everyone from those countries has white skin. 

Nationality or ethnicity is my preferred word. 

If you saw my neighbor Andrea, you would likely label her Black. If you saw her next door neighbor,Angie, you would likely label her White. You might identify Maria, around the corner, down the hall, as Hispanic if she talks; black by site alone. Andrea was born in Dominican Republic. Angie is also Dominican but she did not say she was born in that country.

Maria, may be Puerto Rican. She babbles away to me in Spanish, when all I can say is "hola, Maria," other standard greetings and "poquito." Andrea's bilingual friend may also be Puerto Rican. She appears to be like the other Puerto Ricans I know, first generation Americans. I do not know her well enough to question her heritage. Nice, friendly lady.

Joseph may liken Black people to descendants of slaves. But not all shades of brown peeps are. I know Jamaican, Puerto Rican citizens who actually may have been descendants of slave in their countries. I know a black Indonesian woman. She may have shared the same experiences that black skinned peeps in the U.S. of A. faced. She did not think her husband's family would accept her because she is black, she told me. 

The other not born in the U.S. of A. or first generation blacks, likely deal with the same discrinations as those descended from slaves. But they do not consider themselves black. Maybe Mr. Joseph meant there is not one white culture; but there is also no one Black culture. Go back to my first post on this book ~ blanket indictments never work. A lot, many, some works better in most cases. 

The Black Friend ~ errors

 Author Frederick Joseph made a few mistakes in The Black Friend.

He stated that Trayvon Martin was killed by the police. No, Martin was murdered by George Zimmerman, who was found not guilty due to Florida's Stand Your Ground (or it is my) laws. Sad Martin did not live to say he was standing his ground when Zimmerman attacked him, simply for wearing a hoodie in the rain. 

He said "America was founded on multiculturalism." He explained it as the "melting pot." Well, no. When forefathers declared all men were created equal, that did not include multi-cultures. The country was 100 years new when the Statue of Liberty was erected, and the poem "give us your tired, your hungry, your poor," became the mantra. Natives of the land were not allowed to occupy land they used to ~ moved to Reservations. There culture not accepted. 

The author should know that. He complains that white people do not know "we" stole the land from Indians. In 2023 I would guess everyone over 18 must know about what colonists did unto the many tribes living here. He might also realize, that Spain, and France helped populate the North Americas. "We" fought a war with Mexico to take some disputed territory. Chinese were brought to the U.S. of A. to help build railroads. Do not know it their culture was part of U.S. of A. culture.

Japanese Americans were put in detention camps, many losing their homes and livelihoods. Many years after the U.S. of A. became a nation it became the "melting pot." Women were finally created equal as were former slaves. Or almost equal. Intermarriage changed the complexion of U.S. citizens. My father predicted that one day we would all be the same. His marriage was called a "mixed marriage" back then; Italian/German. He was born in Italy, she, in the U.S. of A. Yet both families opposed to marrying outside their nationalities and faiths. 

Just yesterday, I read an article that a Charter School insisted that a 6-year-old cut off his long braids.The boy was embracing his Native heritage, ie: culture. If  "we" were founded on multiculturalism, his hairstyle would be be accepted. I would say "we" were founded on anti-culturism. Assimilate or be ostracized, kicked out of school, or ridiculed in Congress. 

I say "we" that way as I was born in the U.S. of A. long after the nation was founded. Maybe saying "they" is more appropriate for long dead founders of the country, and presidents that followed. Today's Congress in no way reflects the diversity of its citizens. There are, however, many members who melted from various nationalities. 

The Black Friend ~ music

 More on music from the book: The Black Friend:

Author was surprised his white friends did not know John Coltrane. I heard of him; I may have listened to some of his songs on You Tube. (Author mentions: "yes I am that old", before YouTube was invented.) 

He is aghast that they do not know "Before I Let You Go," by Frankie Beverly and Maze. Early 2000s, a man said "yeah you know Maze," because I liked the song "Joy and Pain," Um, wrong artist, I was thinking, Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock. Fast forward a few years, I was at a MLK Jr Day celebration. Do not remember if it was the group Maze. I was amazed, however, when Frankie Beverly sang "A Change Is Gonna Come." 

One of the best renditions I have ever heard. I have been unable to find a video on YouTube of Beverly doing that tune. Musical stereotypes is not the only stereotype the author pushes about white people. One Goodread's one star review said the same thing. That person mentioned him using the name Chad due to not knowing a guy's name, but he looked like a Chad. Or she looked like an Ashley. Chad would not be the first white guy's name that comes easily to mind. Nor Ashley.

Robert, Richard, Joseph, George, James, Matthew, Michael ~ but, I guess the author does not associate those names as white peeps names, due to many blacks/browns with the same names? Ashley? How about Heather for his age group? Mary, Brenda, Rose, Susan, Elizabeth, Hazel, might be more white-sounding, but that is stereotyping also. How about Frederick? Or Fred? One of his teachers did not believe he was Frederick, not Jamal. 

Frederick sounds more English, although he was named after Frederick Douglass. It seems the name  Frederick was given him by his slave owners. Seems the author should resent the name. 

I know whites who only listen to C & W music, but they know other pop hits. Hard rock, disco, R & B, soft rock, metal, classical, opera ~ all kinds of music genres. My building is hosting two classical musicians; I checked them out to see if I want to attend. The viola player is an elderly black man. Wonder if he knows tunes by Maze, N.W.A. 98 Degrees? 

Has Joseph never heard or or seen "We Are The World" U.S.A. for Africa? Talk about diverse people in the music industry! 

The Black Friend

 Reading: The Black Friend: On Being A Better White Person by Frederick Joseph. Soon after I checked it out of library via Kindle, I went to Goodreads to check reviews. I did not realize the book was for Young Adult or Teen Readers. In the preface Mr. Joseph spoke to his younger brother. He said bro would likely be 12 when he read the book, as it was not yet published. 

Do not like the book, thus far, because I do not like when authors tell you what they are going to be telling you. An author's writing advice was something like: just tell the damn story, and get on with it. Maybe Joseph could not find enough to say to fill up 250 pages? Or is that a standard size for a teen book? He includes an encyclopedia at the end. Do not know if that is included in the page count. Will update that info in a future post.

"... a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.” ~ Malcolm X

Was unable to find the author's age. Must be quite young. He has an experiment. He invites a diverse group of friends all of whom work in the musician industry. He starts playing songs. As expected all the white people in the group knew songs by Ariana Grande, Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, and Maroon 5, but did not know Ms. Jackson by Outkast, or 98 Degrees.

Maroon who? I have heard of the other 3 white musicians, but none of their songs. Hey, Ya, by Outkast is a fav song of mine. If someone played Ms. Jackson, I might not be able to name the group, although I know the song. I do not know 98 Degrees. He went on a rant about the whites not knowing rap artists tunes. "And they are all in the music industry!" Oh my.

I wonder what would have happened if he played tunes by O'Jays, Usher, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, The Sugar Hill Gang, Antoine "Fats" Domino, Little Richard, Prince, Bob Marley, Ray Charles, Whitney Houston, to name a few well-known artists, how many of those whites would know the song? 

And if he had played songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, Doris Day, Barbara Streisand, Cher, Bob Seger, Christopher Cross, Leo Sayers, Enya, Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, and others ~ how many blacks/browns/Asians would know those songs?

The author claims to have diverse musical tastes, which is why I assume he is quite a young man, due to the music he choose to play for his guests. Based on his experiment he negatively critiques whites for not being aware of some of his fav black artists. 

I have known white peeps who did not know Al Green or Otis Redding. I think everyone of my generation, and their now adult children, are quite familiar with Motown/Tamla/Soul/Gordy music. Most can sing along to Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Rick James, to name a few. No matter what skin color or ethnicity. 

I was at a festival when the female artist did a Motown melody ~ the "kids" were all singing along. By kids, I mean teenagers. Myself and another lady my ageish got up and danced. Just another reason I am not liking this book. 

Quotes about writing

 Quotes to inspire writing the next great American novel. 

"The first page of War & Peace was once blank." Robert F. Mager 

"First you get it down, then you get it right." ~ unknown

"Look, what I want to tell you is this.." ~ unknown

What if? Then What? So what? ~ unknown

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Maybe, someday, I will come across the sources of those quotes. I think I read a book about learning to write author advice. Today just sharing quotes I like from notecards.

This Year You Write Your Novel

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/219462.This_Year_You_Write_Your_Novel

I read This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley, a long time ago. He said if you write a page a day, in a year you would have 365 pages; a novel. Ooh, I can do that! He suggested having a strict routine. His was writing first thing in the morning. Hey, me too! Soon after I woke up in the morning, I headed to Blogger to write. 

At one time I had 6 or more blogs going at one time. And 4 websites. Later I wrote articles for now defunct Associated Content. Writing everyday was not an issue for me; brevity is not my writing strong point. 

My other issue is writing things people will read. Forget a novel; all my attempts were short lived. 

“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it,” Toni Morrison

I dream big; surely people would want to read my adventures in homelessness.  It seems even my own family were not interested in what it was like living on the streets for a year. One friend was basically my only reader. I did a lot of Technorati advertising and commenting on other peeps blogs. Nada. 

So, no I did not write my novel that year, despite writing everyday for hours on end. C'est la vie!