During these trying times, I have decided to follow the example of Baby Suggs, a character in Toni Morrison’s Beloved who offers a brilliant response to the absurdity of racism and white supremacy. Like Baby, my plan going forward is to concentrate on whatever has been disarmed. As Baby explains to Stamp Paid, “[w]hat I have to do is get in my bed and lay down. I want to fix on something harmless in this world.” Stamp stands confused, “ain’t nothing harmless down here.” Baby disagrees, “[y]es it is. Blue. That don’t hurt nobody. Yellow neither.” Still befuddled, Stamp asks, “[y]ou getting in the bed to think about yellow?” Without hesitation Baby answers, “I like yellow.”
Like her, I like yellow; especially a nice, light, buttery shade of the color. At a time when it is seemingly harder to find racists in the United States than it is to find terrorists (as if there’s a difference), I need to nuzzle up to harmlessness so that I might recover from the madness of Hempstead, Texas and Chicago, Illinois. With Rahm Emanuel banning rapper Chief Keef from performing as a hologram in Chicago and with The State Department of Public Safety in Hempstead only beginning an “inquiry” into the legality of Trooper Brian T. Enciania’s arrest of Sandra Bland, I’m finding it harder than ever to keep my cool.
In Reverie Blog 