Weekend Onesie: Seeing Double, Full Circle

Weekend Onesie: Seeing Double, Full Circle

So, I've posted this photo before, when I did a quiz about reading, books, personal libraries and the like.

At the time, I hesitated to include it. Felt odd about posting it.

It's a striking image, for sure... but the fact that the Caucasian male is dressed and the Black male is not and there seems to be some sort of dominance implied in the way the Caucasian is sitting on top of the Black male and then... that look on the Black male's face... what is it? And the Caucasian using the Black man's ass as a book stand?

It confused me. And I wasn't completely comfortable with it... but it was a striking photo, so I shared it.

Still, it haunted me.  

Fast forward many, many weeks later and my eye - which wanders all over the internet and down so many rabbit holes that if you asked me to retrace my steps or explain how I found it, I would be at a complete loss to do so - fell upon this:

That, of course, is Tom of Finland (who else could it be?) But who knew? Well, the folks who created the photograph, of course. And they've done a marvelous job of recreating it.

So, now I feel better about sharing the photo? Right?

No. 

Not really.

As I've now articulated my apprehension regarding posting the photo and detailed what I perceive in the power dynamics as presented in the modern version... well, it doesn't quite let us off the hook does it?

I see color. 

I see race. 

And, though by no means an authority or as evolved as I'd liked to be, I am sensitive to such issues. And, trust me, I'm not congratulating myself. Not at all. To be truly evolved I wouldn't see the color of any man's skin. I wouldn't overthink it, as I fear I may have done, in this case.

So, you see, like so many things in life - behaviors, thoughts, emotions, natures - it comes full circle.

At the very top of the circle - just to the left of center - you have ignorance - the kind that judges and hates, discriminates and believes clichés about people based on the color of their skin. And then, at the top of the circle - just to the right of center - you have another kind of ignorance - the kind that doesn't define people in terms of the color of their skin because they simply no longer see people in terms of the color of their skin. 

That's full circle.

And where am I on that continuum?  

Where I should be. 

It's not time for the idealistic ignorance found at the top of the circle just to the right of center - not while we live in a world where the ignorance found at the top of the circle just to the left of center remains so prevalent. 

Paradise is not here. 

Paradise has not been found.

So we can't afford to be complacent and simply assume everyone will find their way to the blissful ignorance where race is no longer an issue. 

We must see race. 

We must talk about race. 

We must keep talking until everyone gains understanding about something we tolerate day to day in our society, particularly in the United States... 

This is genocide. 

When we impede the right of every person to vote or legislate how and when people may demonstrate? We silence voices.

When we strive to limit their educational opportunities by refusing to understand their cultural needs or fund schools?  We destroy potential.

When we force the uneducated to work jobs at poverty level wages and redistrict political boundaries in order to define where people live? We entrap souls.

 

And when we criminalize behavior in order to fill for-profit jails and police people in such a manner that pulling a gun is the go-to move or kneeling on the neck of someone over a counterfeit $20 bill is deemed, even for a moment, acceptable? We annihilate trust.

We kill communities.

This is genocide.

Something America is far too comfortable committing. Oh, it's become more sophisticated since the days of stealing land from Native Americans, but it's still the same diseased blankets.

The same poison. 

Racism.

We must see race. 

We must talk about race.

We must continue to confront. 

Ourselves. And others.

This is our shared journey and we must all do our part...

 

...no matter how small.

To take a step forward... no matter how small.

To make a change.

To change a mind.

...no matter how small.

--- --

Wishing you all great peace.

This is for Anne Marie in Philly...

...who lives in us all.

- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque

Who Knows Where The Time Goes - Nina Simone