Politics
As November 16 approaches, I am contemplating whether or not to continue this blog after my release. From what I hear on NPR, plus my own pre-incarceration Internet experience, it seems blogs are primarily mouthpieces for the propagation of political sentiments. Well, I got plenty of political sentiments. Being in prison is in many ways a political condition, one’s daily activities having all sorts of political ramifications or certainly implications.
This morning, Sharif and I were discussing an up and coming black actor – I can’t even remember who--and Sharif said: “That guy is my sister’s brother.” I pretty much immediately surmised this meant his half sister’s half brother, but I think I can be forgiven for responding wryly by pointing out that his sister’s brother would be himself.. I pre-empted his explanation by supplying my educated guess, and while Sharif confirmed it, he also added somewhat remonstratively “we don’t do that.” Although I knew what he meant by “we,” I still asked, as we were at the edge of too treacherous a territory to be presumptuous. “Black people don’t do that.” Sharif elaborated. “We don’t differentiate between full brothers and half-brothers, full sisters and half-sisters and what not.”
This reminded me of people who, when asked about their ethnic background, reply defensively: "I’m American.” As a writer, of course I am fascinated by off-beat stories of unplanned parentage and unconventional couplings. I know from experience that there’s probably a good story behind one’s Czech grandmother meeting one’s Nicaraguan grandfather, and I don’t give a rat’s ass, moralistically speaking, if your mother had 4 children by 4 separate men, as did Sharif’s. But damn if those consummations don’t make for a much more interesting novel than most traditional family histories. (Even though a skelton or two might fall out of the closet in the telling.)
But my exchange with Sharif was inherently political, for it abutted an American reality that black families are as likely to be extended as they are to be nuclear, and illegitimacy and single motherhood remain higher among African-Americans, who are, after all, but a few generations removed from a legacy of families treated as separable, sellable commodities. As far as I'm concerned it's a miracle there is as much cohesiveness as their is in African-American families given such a history. But the entire topic remains extraordinarily sensitive, particularly here.
Once out of prison, I will have to search out the political; here, it finds me.
MCO 2004
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