Thoughts of Family in a Storm

In the wake of  Hurricane Harvey, it is hard to watch the scenes in Texas as many are struggling to find higher ground  and to protect their property. Most are just trying to stay alive amidst  the ongoing rain and flooding.

I was most moved on Sunday by CNN’s coverage of a woman and her mom suffering from Alzheimer’s. My family and I just buried two dear aunts in Jamaica who suffered for many years but were kept comfortable by their loved ones for as long.  In life as in death, they lived lives worthy of remembering.

Jasmine Archibald,  my mother’s older sister, was a woman dedicated to rural Jamaica. You could take her to New York City or any other glamorous place, and my Aunt Jass just wanted to return home to the little town of Siloah in the parish of St. Elizabeth, the bread basket of Jamaica and the birthplace of the my family, the Ramsay family. She was not a woman of pretenses for she knew who she was and was proud of it and proud of her children in Jamaica and in the Diaspora.   She loved music and at an early age, was sent away to music school by her father, D.C.B. Ramsay, a fact that she never failed to share with anyone who would listen all her life.  Her father sent her to music school and for that reason she felt destined to play the organ in church every Sunday and that she did.  In fact, as her health dwindled, she still played occasionally, her caregivers would say.  In the fog of forgotten memories, she still remembered the notes.

At Rosa left her native Iceland to marry my mother’s brother, Ian Ramsay.  Her full name was Rosa Eiriksdottir Ramsay (As is the custom in Iceland, her middle name indicated that she was the daughter or Eirik.)  At the funeral, their daughter, Hon.Margaret Ramsay Hale, reminded us that Aunt Rosa was never so proud as when she became a Jamaican citizen in 1963, and as such, kept her original citizenship papers in a special place. She was just as much a titan as her very acclaimed lawyer husband, and ran his office like a tight ship.  Yes, she suffered from Alzheimer’s at the end but most of us still remember her as the one who knew all the details of the family history. She loved her new family as her own in Iceland and we loved her and learned a thing of two from her as she did from us.  When my son was two years old and was struggling to say the word “grandma” to my mother, she said, let him say “Ama” – which is grandma in Icelandic, and that he did with ease.  To this day, he still occasionally calls on his Ama.

It was so important for both aunts to be in places that were familiar to them.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like if either of them had had to live through a hurricane like Harvey and see their already fragile lives turned upside down.

Thankfully, they did not have to go through that. And thankfully, the woman in the news and her daughter were fine—rescued by brave volunteers and the CNN crew and taken to safe and higher ground.  Traumatized but fine.

All this had me thinking of the last few weeks and what really matters. 

Family matters.

A little universal thing called family.

Thoughts and prayers with the families of Texas.

Anne C. Bailey

New book: The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History

Picture image: Courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net

Looking for ways to help:  American Red Cross and Samaritan's Purse

Heather Heyer and the Power of One Voice.

For the last few months since I have been blogging every week, most of you know that I have often used this space to express my gratitude.  I have often used this space to say thank you to people like Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, William Wilberforce to name a few.  Most are fallen heroes –fallen in the line of fire; fallen in the fight for equal rights and justice and spreading God’s indiscriminate love for all.

Today is no different. Today I am thankful for Heather Heyer.  When Heather decided to go out that Saturday to protest the arrival of the KKK members and Neo Nazis to the city of Charlottesville, she did not know she would lose her life. But we now know that she had long been a champion of justice for all, and as such, she would not have been surprised to have met opposition in front of those Confederate statues. She would have known that there was at least a possibility that she could get hurt.  She would have known that she might have been the object of verbal insults or worse.   Like the interracial groups of Freedom Ridersof 1961 and the participants of the sit in movement of the 50’s and 60’s, she would have known that anything was possible.  

But she went out anyway. She chose to unequivocally condemn hate with no buts.  She could have stayed in the safety of her home and watched the scene on television or on the internet.  She could have made plans with a friend to have coffee or gone to a movie, but she went out to protest this march and she lost her life.  As many have said far more eloquently than I, she lost her life fighting for justice.   

But for me, it is more personal than that.  She lost her life fighting for people like me—an immigrant and a person of color.  She lost her life so that folks like me, in fact all of us, can continue to live, work and worship in a diverse environment. For this, she joins a long line of sung and unsung heroes.

Yes, in my view she is no different from those I have written about at length. From a contemporary perspective, she might even be more relatable because her example shows how much each individual matters. It shows the power of one voice even in the wilderness.

I have been teaching for over 25 years and my students thankfully hail from every conceivable background.    Whenever anyone is absent, at the next class, I always first ask if all is well, but secondly, I tell them that I missed them; that I missed their voice. 

 I want them to now that their voice can change and enhance the conversation, and that all voices are needed at the table.

Heather Heyer, a 32 year old woman, if we listen to her equally stalwart mother, seemed to have understood this early. Her voice mattered and she would not be silent in the face of injustice.

Heather Heyer, RIP and thank you.

 

 Anne C. Bailey

New book:  The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History

Is there anything to laugh about this week?

Well, I can think of one thing.  In one week, Kimye, that is Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, have been displaced by….historians!

Historians of every stripe and good ones too have been called into action by CNN, MSNBC and the like to talk about the Confederacy, the  Founding Fathers and the Civil war.  And as for presidential historians, they have been drafted into overtime duty!
 

Usain Bolt and Freedom at its best

Last week I wrote about Usain Bolt who inspires us with his grace even in defeat.   As life would have it, his last solo race took place on the eve of the culmination of Emancipation and Independence celebrations in Jamaica.    I can’t help but think that his character, not just his athletic skills, are the best representation of Jamaican freedom. This is what freedom looks like—the unfettered opportunity to run your race and to run it well.

This is freedom at its best.

But there is another side of freedom or lack thereof that the following story beckons us to see.

I am in Kingston, Jamaica this week and I am getting some credit for my phone at a Digicel phone store in the  midtown shopping plaza. I notice a young man with patchy skin outside the store calling out to me. He has things to sell like a lot of people here—a little of this and a little of that. He happens to have air fresheners.  He motions me to come to him and  I do…drawn more to his face than to his wares.

He is wearing blue shorts and a white oversized tee shirt. His eyes are sad, almost droopy and he does not smile.  He looks into my eyes quite intently almost as if he has a question to ask but he dares not ask.  He doesn’t actually say anything to me – he just points to the air fresheners in various colors and kinds.  

I notice that he has the long and lanky legs of a gangly fifteen year old, but it is the patches on his face that tell me a story.

He is bleaching.

He does not say but I know from the marks on his face that he is bleaching his skin.

It is a tale being told all over the country.  In little but tallawah Jamaica that has produced international heroes like Nanny, Marcus Garvey, Miss Louise Bennett, Bob Marley and Usain Bolt, some people are bleaching their skin.   Bleaching to “bring up the color.” Bleaching to imitate black celebrities. Bleaching to rise up in life. Bleaching to attract the opposite sex. Bleaching to…

In the end, I say nothing to this young man about the air fresheners which I do not intend to buy but instead find myself saying:

“Your skin is beautiful the way it is.”

He just looks at me ever more intently as I speak.

“You don’t need to change your skin color.   You know, Marcus Garvey. Black is beautiful..”

At the mention of Garvey, I sense that I have made the only real connection beyond the air fresheners in this entire encounter.   There is a knowing nod, but he quickly reverts to that blank stare.

“I am going to give you some support, “  I say, taking out a few notes out of my purse, “because I want you to remember what I have said.  You are beautiful just the way you are.”

He nods in thanks but still does not speak.

Yes, slavery is over, but in Jamaica beyond the beach, some of us are still not free.  Some of us are not “full free.” There has been a long history of resistance to physical slavery, now the fight is on against mental slavery.

May the inspiration of Bolt give us hope.

Here is a man comfortable in his own skin who rose to the top of his game, not just the game of athletics, but the game of life.

Anne C. Bailey
New Book: The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History.

In Memoriam  Heather D. Heyer, Charlottesville victim

 Someone got killed on Saturday standing up for what she believed in: equality and justice for all. That someone was Heather D. Heyer, paralegal from Charlottesville, Virginia.

According to The New York Times,“Friends described her as a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised who was often moved to tears by the world’s injustices. That sense of conviction led her to join demonstrators protesting a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.

“We were just marching around, spreading love — and then the accident happened,” a friend, Marissa Blair, said. “In a split second you see a car, and you see bodies flying.”

My condolences go out to her family for this incalculable loss.  It may not be much comfort now but please know that Heather  is a hero.  She will remembered as such by all those who also treasure equality and justice.

Usain Bolt's Finest Moment

I have been saying for years that the most remarkable thing about this remarkable young man is his character. Now lest anyone point out his faults, let’s all agree that he is human and as the Bible says, “There is none good but God."  But it is said that we know the measure of a man or a woman in their lowest hour and on their darkest day. If that is so, we now can say we know Usain Bolt.

Saturday, August 5 was slated to be the day of his last solo race in a career that has spanned more than 15 years of competitive racing.  Much has been written about his storied World Championships, world records and Olympic titles.  The world is still talking about his gold medals from the 2016 Olympics in Brazil and so much was expected for his last and final race—the World Championships in London. Millions of fans were ready and so was Bolt.  In an interview in The Jamaican Observer before the race, he said: “It’s a championship, it is a final.  So it’s all about who can keep their nerves and who is ready to be challenged. I have been here many times and I am the one ready. So it’s go time, so I am good.”

Well, he was ready to win but he did not win, not this time. He did not win the 100 meter World Championships race but I contend that he did not have a finer moment than what he did AFTER he lost.  American sprinter Justin Gatlin took first place and Christian Coleman took second. Bolt found himself in third place with a bronze medal. To think, he finishes third in his last solo race ever!  In the last competitive race of his life when he is slated to go out in style; when there are celebratory parties awaiting his win; when there are  likely sponsors creating new products to mark his singular achievement; when there are over 60,000 fans in a London stadium to see history in the making…

And then he loses!  He loses. There must be a mistake, we were all thinking. Surely this was just a heat, not the final race. This is not how it was supposed to end, but it did.  And what did Bolt do?  In his most difficult professional hour, he walked over to the winner, Justin Gatlin, who by now was being booed all across the stadium, and embraced him.  He whispered in his ear: “Congratulations, you worked hard for this, and you don’t deserve all these boos.”

It was a beautiful moment from a man who is the picture of grace and humanity.

Gatlin, to his credit,  bowed in a ceremonial manner in tribute to the Jamaican sprint king. A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to have a lengthy conversation with Bolt and I can still remember his words: “ I live to inspire.” 

That is what makes this man- a competitive athlete committed to God, family and the Jamaican countryside – that is what makes him tick.

And so here he was again, inspiring a generation in loss as much as he has inspired in victory.

Thank you Usain Bolt. Thank you. It’s been a good run.

We are looking forward to the other chapters of your life.

Sources:

http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/06/justin-gatlin-reveals-the-classy-words-usain-bolt-had-for-him-after-the-100m-final-at-the-world-athletics-championships-6832364/#ixzz4p0SxbMUE

Anne C. Bailey

New book:  The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History ( forthcoming October 2017, Cambridge University Press)