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Many times, during my life, when I've felt like I was feeling today, I've referred to my situation as being treated like a mule. I'm expected to be permanently strong, hard working, docile, barren, ugly: only wanted when something needs doing.
Well, I'm watching "King," a movie about MLK, right now. As he was courting Coretta, he explained about his family.
His grandpa was a share cropper. As a kid, his daddy worked with mules. Dr. King Sr. went to school covered in mule hair and smelling of mules. The other kids tormented him.
But he said, "I may look like a mule. I may smell like a mule. But that don't mean I have to THINK like a mule!"
Dr. King Sr. came to Atlanta with fifteen cents in his pocket. He built a middle class dynasty within the Black Baptist church. Nobody ever called him "boy."
I'm really conflicted; that movie, and an American Masters episode about James Baldwin are on simultaneously.
James Baldwin: "I don't think I've ever been in dispair about the world; I'm enraged by it. I can't afford dispair."
"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." ~~~~~ Dom Helder Camara poverty politics homelessness justice disability accessability prejudice tolerance addiction liberation ignorance resourcefulness illiteracy education abuse struggle hate love depression celebration disease health greed generosity
Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela
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