May 21, 2008

Carving Black Defiance in Stone

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


How ironic that just as the Jeremiah Wright flap is dying down, we find yet another instance of America insisting that its black folk be happy. Or, failing that, demonized and rejected.

The long awaited, hotly fought for Mall memorial to Dr. King has encountered a hitch: the Chinese sculptor commissioned for the project (and didn’t that piss Negroes off!) has submitted plans for a statue which is “too confrontational” and makes King look more like “the head of a socialist state than a civil rights leader”. King’s not smiling (weird, since that’s how we all remember him.) so King is Stalin. Please.

You see, folks, as planned, King looks like a judge, intense and determined, when he ‘should’ be looking all delighted, like most of those who were assassinated for being a harsh critic of a country which abused him and his people. That’s why all our renderings of Washington and Jefferson show them playing hopscotch and break dancing to harpsichord music, right?

It’s not like they were up to anything serious. The Root has the lowdown.

Though few will pick up on this tidbit, it goes a long way in showing, post-Wright, what America demands of its minorities—forget the past, shut up about the present, or find your patriotism in question. Sorry, but we reject that playing “don’t worry, be happy” in our minds all day is the price of mainstream inclusion. What’s going on here isn’t even Psychology 101: the statue reflects “a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries.”? Saddam Hussein, Lenin and King?! White folks, please.

I’m tempted to just snicker and enjoy your discomfort at finding your wonderful selves, however implicitly, criticized but given what the white reaction to Wright has revealed, I think blacks find themselves reminded anew how tenuous our rights are to too many. Check out The New Republic’s deconstruction of the racist anti-Obama email chains sullying the internet as well as the racism all too evident in West Virginia.

We remain determined to speak and petition for redress of our grievances but I have to say—y’all are scaring us right now. Which we know is exactly the point.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate