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Wisdom, empathy and eloquence versus Hypocrisy,
cruelty and a "different emotional range."
By mickielynn on 2019-08-09 07:45:09
This has been quite a week of losses for all of us in the United States. I was trying to decide whether to write about the
death of Toni Morrison; amazing writer, teacher, editor, mentor and deep explorer of Black lives within our racist society,
from slavery to the present time. Or to instead write about the way that the occupant of our White House responded to the
tragic mass shootings in El Paso Texas on Saturday, August 34 and Dayton Ohio on Sunday, August 4'h. Then I read Toni
Morrison’s acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature, written in 1993, and I found the connection to write about
both. [caption id="attachment_12884" align="alignnone" width="404"]
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a ~ Toni Morrison poses with a copy of her book, "Beloved" in
Ad
New York in 1987, photo by David Bookstaver/ AP[/caption] Let’s start with the positive remembrance of Toni Morrison
1931 to 2019, who died of complications of pneumonia on Monday August sth at the age of 88. She won the Pulitzer Prize
in 1988 for her novel about slavery (from the point of view of an enslaved mother), Beloved. Toni Morrison also had a
strong connection to U Albany where she served as the Albert Schweitzer Chair in the Humanities and became a vital part of
the NY Writers Institute, after serving as their second speaker in the mid-1980s. [caption id="attachment_ 12888"
align="alignright" width="600"]
——
@ Writers Institute founder
William Kennedy and Toni Morrison at the University at Albany in 1984. (Albany Times Union file photo)[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_ 12885" align="alignnone" width="600"]
In this Dec. 10, 1993 file
photo, writer Toni Morrison receives the Nobel Prize in literature from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, right, in the
Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden. Morrison, a pioneer and reigning giant of modern literature whose imaginative power
in "Beloved," "Song of Solomon" and other works transformed American letters by dramatizing the pursuit of freedom
within the boundaries of race, has died at age 88. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday, Aug. 5,
2019 at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. (AP Photo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_ 12886" align="alignright"
width="600"] Toni Morrison
author, Nobel laureate, African-American feminist, Nobel-prize in literature Pulitzer-prize. winner. And so much more.
[/caption] If you want to learn more about this amazing woman who lives on in her literary works and in the work and hearts
of those whom she taught, edited, mentored and befriended here are two excellent remembrances. The first is from the NY
State Writers Institute and has facts, stories, photos and lots of affectionate memories. The second is a series of personal
stories from three African-American writers of note with whom she spent a lot of time and nurtured them as poets and
political writers. Toni Morrison really comes alive in the voices of Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez and Nikki Giovanni. So
here's where the connection comes in. This is from the 1993 text of Toni Morrison's Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of
knowledge; it limits knowledge. Whether it is obscuring state language or the faux-language of mindless media;
whether it is the proud but calcified language of the academy or the commodity-driven language of science;
whether it is the malign language of law-without-ethics, or language designed for the estrangement of
minorities, hiding its racist plunder in its literary cheek — it must be rejected, altered and exposed. It is the
language that drinks blood, laps vulnerabilities, tucks its fascist boots under crinolines of respectability and
patriotism as it moves relentlessly toward the bottom line and the bottomed-out mind. Sexist language, racist
language, theistic language — all are typical of the policing languages of mastery, and cannot, do not permit
new knowledge or encourage the mutual exchange of ideas.
[caption id="attachment_ 12889" align="alignnone" width="600"]
Photo by Jabin Botsford for
the Washington Post[/caption] So now to my personal response to Donald Trump's speech, given on Monday, August 5th
from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. First of all, this was not a heartfelt speech spoken with genuine
emotion. It was a teleprompter speech written by someone else. Delivered without actual feelings of empathy. Lacking
passion or urgency for doing something to change the availability of weapons of mass killing, or the climate of hate that
many feel echoed the numerous speeches by President Trump (since at least 2015) dehumanizing refugees and asylum
seekers and claiming that they are invading our country. If you would like to read his 10 minute speech, to determine your
own reactions, here's the link. One of my strongest reactions was to the number of times that President Trump used the word
‘monster" to describe the shooters in El Paso and Dayton and in earlier shootings. It's funny because when he issues his
cruel and crueler policies towards families, poor people, Muslims, people of color, immigrants and asylum seekers; or his
sanctions that punish innocent people in his quest for regime change, the words that I always think of to describe him are
"cruel monster." And I was talking back to him throughout the entire speech. Here's one passage from which I took the
word hypocrisy to describe his, or whoever's, words:
The shooter in El Paso posted a manifesto online consumed by racist hate. In one voice, our nation must
condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Hate has no place
in America. Hatred warps the mind, ravages the heart, and devours the soul.[...]
When I hear or read those words I can only think of Mr. Trump himself whose hatred warps his mind, ravages his heart and
devours his soul. On one of the early commentaries about that speech one of the reporters said something to the effect that
the President has a different range of emotions than former Presidents who acted to console people in times of great disaster
and loss. I won't go further to share my impression of Donald Trump's 1 S range of emotions. [caption id="attachment_ 12891"
$150. NYGalyRews.com Toeuctay, August 6, 201
DAILY:N EWS
HEW YORK'S HOMETOWN Serares
) Prez talks of ‘love,
reson but has no fix “7
© Blames vid games,
‘culture’ but not guns
© Hits racism, bigotry &
parrots NRA as toll rises,
EMPTY
WORDS
headlines the day after the President's August 5th speech[/caption] Now that several days have passed and he has visited the
two communities [even though many leaders, and community members asked him not to], we can see the use of selective
photo ops, limitation of the presence of media people and continued lack of sensitivity or empathy as a continuing theme.
[caption id="attachment_ 12887" align="alignnone" width="600"]
align="alignnone" width="498"] Daily News
Dems and grieving
communities voice resistance to Trump visits to El Paso and Dayton[/caption]
