Being Better Ancestors

“We can’t change the past, but we can make ourselves better ancestors. 🙂” — Cliff W. Gilmore

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When people try to tell you that Aunt Jemima or “Gone With The Wind” or Confederate monuments somehow protect black people, what they mean is that it protects THEIR IMAGE of black people.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Aunt%20Jemima&tbm=isch...

Look at this.

And to interpret it, I offer the following note:

Some forty years ago, I noticed something about black images on television, film, and in media. Disproportionately, they were non-reproductively competitive. I called it the “breeder’s circle” and my observation was this: “they will be too old, too young, too gay, too fat, too asexual, or too DEAD to consider reproductive competition.”

In that sense, the “Mammy” image is precisely this. They sure as hell weren’t putting Lena Horne on those boxes, and it is no accident.

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One of the nice things about Facebook is that you can look at people’s friends lists. When I see people make comments on race contrary to my experience, I will peek and: surprise! Generally their list diversity is WAY below average. Way, way. Now experts suggest that we tend toward MORE diversity on social media than in “real life” so the implications are dire.

In other words, they have less real-world contact, by far. So they can’t be absorbing data organically.