When
I first read Richard Patterson’s opinion piece in the Memphis Flyer, it
appeared he was writing about nostalgia for “the good ol days.” He prefaced his
description of his early life by saying , “These present gifts are readily subsumed in a
vision of the antebellum time, and one cannot help but mourn the passing of the
society and culture that created them for us.” He proceeded
to poetically describe his childhood and the way he remembered it. As I read
it, I was silently judging him and could only wonder what his point was. However, he concludes it by admitting
his ignorance of what African Americans were going through at the same time. It
turns out his piece is an apology letter to his black peers.
The
responses on the piece were varied. While some people accepted his apology, others
did not. One person wrote, “Too late, too many bit the apple and enjoyed the
nourishment and the taste.” Another person wrote that the apology “seems pretty
worthless” unless it was coming from someone wealthy enough or proactive enough
to change the current conditions of black Memphians who continue to “suffer
from extreme disparities of wealth and opportunity.” Another person wrote that writing
this piece “may help Mr. Patterson sleep better at night in his home in Hilton Head
or Charleston, but I’m not sure that it does much good for us current Memphians
600 or 700 miles away.”
After reading the article and the comments, I realized something. The way he described his childhood is how my grandparents (and sometimes my parents) describe theirs. They talk about a time with fewer problems and happier endings. The historian in me knows that, in reality, life was much different. However, part of me is still a grandchild who is listening to her grandparents’ stories. Despite my judgment of Patterson's personal reflection, I realized I also fall under that spell of nostalgia and privilege. This piece made me realize that while I can be educated and passionate about revealing the truth about the past and educating others, personally I still have a long way to go.
After reading the article and the comments, I realized something. The way he described his childhood is how my grandparents (and sometimes my parents) describe theirs. They talk about a time with fewer problems and happier endings. The historian in me knows that, in reality, life was much different. However, part of me is still a grandchild who is listening to her grandparents’ stories. Despite my judgment of Patterson's personal reflection, I realized I also fall under that spell of nostalgia and privilege. This piece made me realize that while I can be educated and passionate about revealing the truth about the past and educating others, personally I still have a long way to go.
Have any of
you ever had a personal revelation like that? What do you think of Patterson’s
letter? The comments? Is his apology worthless if he is not engaging with the
community to help black Memphians who continue to experience problems because of white privilege?
I constantly find myself struggling with a similar reflection problem. I constantly distance myself from Southern History and Southern politics because I am from the North. Unfortunately, that is not how the real world works. When studying the South I feel I can be critical of the blatant past - and sometimes present - discrimination and profiling because I am from the North. In reality, as Professor McKinney said in class, the North can be just as bad or worse than the South in those respects. One thing that truly surprised me when I came to the South was how open people were when talking about race. In Minnesota, that is generally one of those topics that do not come up in conversation - even with close friends or relatives. As Professor McKinney said the whole country has a long way to go, but the South is making great strides in that they are openly discussing the race factor.
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