James Baldwin and Raoul Peck: 'I Am Not Your Negro' (2016)

James Baldwin's words, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, directed by Raoul Peck and intermixed with intense archival footage, underscore the importance and relevance of I Am Not Your Negro (2016) in the 21st century. 

Very little has been resolved since Baldwin (1924-1987) drafted Remember This House (just published in 2017) in the decade prior to his death. 

Through consideration of the outstanding lives and violent deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., Baldwin expounds upon race and identity in the United States to great effect.

A couple of snippets, as narrated by Jackson:  "In the years in Paris, I had never been homesick for anything American. Neither . . . hot dogs, baseball, majorettes, [Hollywood] movies, nor the Empire State Building, nor Coney Island, nor the Statue of Liberty, nor the daily news, nor Times Square. All of these things had passed out of me. They might never have existed, and it made absolutely no difference to me if I never saw them again. But I missed my brothers and sisters, and my mother. They made a difference. I wanted to be able to see them, and to see their children."

"To look around the United States today is enough to make prophets and angels weep. This is not the land of the free. It is only very unwillingly and sporadically the home of the brave."

The cadences of Baldwin's sentences stick with me. He is still right: the USA will not be anywhere near true to its ideals until a critical and diverse mass of its people can be honest about race and history. 

It's easy to see in other countries -- such as when the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge -- and outright assaults -- anyone who even suggests that previous Turkish governments directed genocide against Turkey's Armenians (1914-1923); while any neutral observer would also see that frank acknowledgement is a surer way forward toward conciliation than denial. Yet as long as a significant subset of white America refuses to accept a fuller history of the United States, screeching the same kind of belligerent denials as come from the Turkish government; and, perhaps, also out of an ugly stubbornness; so long as this contra attitude persists, we shall remain stuck in limbo.   

Today's Rune: Protection. 

Ground Zero Nevermore Six, 1913-2013

"We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world."

"The second is freedom of every person to worship God [or gods or no God] in his [or her] own way — everywhere in the world."

"The third is freedom from want — which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world."

"The fourth is freedom from fear — which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world."

"Basic things . . . must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world. The inner and abiding strength of our economic and political systems is dependent upon the degree to which they fulfill these expectations.

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples: We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance."

"We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care."

"We should plan a better system by which persons deserving or needing gainful employment may obtain it."

From: U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to the U.S. Congress, January 6, 1941. 

How's the U.S., and the world, holding up to this vision, delineated 72 years ago? 

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.  

Diaspora

The Greek-derived word concept of "diaspora" was widely applied to Jewish historical patterns first, and then adopted by other cultural groups, nations and archetypes. There is a scattering and a far-flung replanting. There is a real or perceived Motherland, Fatherland, Homeland, Lost Land, Eden or Shangri-La. 

The concept can be helpful or banal or mystifying. Depends on your point of view, I suppose, and sense of scale. 

We could speak of a Cuban diaspora, for instance. Or an Armenian or Irish one. Or we could go continental and speak, write, think or conceive of an African diaspora. If Earth had to be abandoned and earthlings forced somewhere out into the rest of the universe, one could identify with an earthling diaspora.

Can we speak of a school diaspora? Maybe in a low-key kind of way. All our college or high school or grade school friends and peers were together a while, and then dispersed into the world. In which case, the Lost Land might be one of those institutions. Then there's the veteran diaspora. And so on. 

Out there in the wider world, do you feel "the mystic chords of memory" hearkening back to some Lost World?  That is, do you feel or have you ever felt diasporic?   

Today's Rune: Movement.  

The Ottoman Empire and the Great War of 1914-1918

In developing a mock online class on The Great War and the 1920s for training purposes, it's been interesting to connect the dots between the end of the Ottoman Empire -- and the intention of the Allied Powers to divvy up its territories -- to today's political and cultural developments throughout these same areas. Notice that Syria is smack-dab in the middle of this map of the Middle East.

For starters, all one need do is look at these maps to see the jigsaw puzzling impact of the Great War of 1914-1918 and its aftermath in the region, and on the world.

Here are some of my notes for such a class so far:

Unit 1, Lesson 2. The Ottoman Empire in Context.

Objectives:

To understand what was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914.

To understand why the Ottomans allied themselves to the Central Powers.

To analyze why the Allied Powers sought access to Ottoman territories.

To analyze the strategic importance of geography and natural resources to all players.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  74-79.

What was at stake for the Ottoman Empire in 1914?

Why did the Ottomans ally themselves with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires?

Why did the British, French and Russian Empires want access to territories under the control of the Ottoman Empire?

Consider resources and geography. Petroleum and waterways.

Unit 1, Lesson 3. Gallipoli.

Objectives:

To understand the Allied campaign to capture Constantinople/Istanbul.

To analyze how the Ottoman Turks contained the Allied attack at Gallipoli.

To understand the political and cultural impact of the Gallipoli Campaign.

Gallipoli Disaster. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  265-272.

What was the Allied plan to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war?

How did the Ottoman Turks contain the Allied attack at Gallipoli?

Additional reading (primary sources): James Hannah, ed., The Great War Reader (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2000), pages 151-164.

Unit 1, Lesson 4. Armenian Genocide.

Objectives:

To understand why the Ottoman leadership conceived of its Armenian population as enemies.

To analyze the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculation.

To understand the essential details of the Armenian Genocide.

To understand the aspirations of the Armenian and Kurdish peoples.

To analyze the longterm political and cultural impact of the Armenian Genocide.

Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  289-291.

Why did the leadership of the Ottoman Empire scapegoat the Armenian population?

What was the role of the Russian Empire in Ottoman calculations?

Unit 1, Lesson 5. Palestine Front. Read G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914-1918 (Delacorte Press, 2006), pages  538-541.

Unit 1, Lesson  6. Mesopotamia Campaign, 1915-1918.

Lieutenant General Frederick S. Maude after Allied capture of Baghdad in 1917: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators."

Critical thinking. What were the main objectives of the Allied forces in Mesopotamia?

What was the role of disease and the medical corps in the Mesopotamia Campaign?

Unit 1, Lesson 7. Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Sèvres,  Mandate System. Emergence of Modern Turkey (Greek War, Smyrna). Syria and Lebanon, Palestine, etc. 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune. Maps: UK National Archives.   

Blood and Oil: The Middle East in World War I

Blood and Oil: The Middle East in World War I: A Film by Marty Callaghan (The Minutes of History Series, 2006) gives a rare and helpful overview of the catastrophic human disaster called variously the Great War, the First World War and World War I -- from the perspective of the "Middle East" and "Near East." With so much ground to cover, it focuses on the Turkish Ottoman Empire and its regrouping as modern Turkey; the British Empire; the Russian Empire; the Arab revolt; the geo-strategic fight over resources (Suez Canal, Dardanelles, Persian Gulf, fresh water sources, petroleum); and to a lesser extent, the French Empire, the German Empire, Persia-Iran, the Kurds, Greeks, Italians, Armenians, Jews and Indian troops.

Even a cursory watch will help viewers trace the connection of 1914-1918 and continued warring into the 1920s as set-up for today's turmoil in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Israel, Gaza, Libya, Egypt and so on, including Kurdish guerilla activity. Blood and Oil does a fine job showing why Turkey remains an important regional power, though it never directly deals with the Armenian Genocide, and it might have been expanded to include North African fighting in places like Libya. 

Today's Rune: Possessions.  

Sing the Blues on Every Decoration Day

Many layers of meaning attach themselves to Memorial Day and its worldwide equivalents. Soldiers, military veterans, wars -- of course. Mortality and contemplation. The meaning of life and the worth of a life. Loss. Remembrance.

In the past century, the technology of war has become increasingly sophisticated, greatly expanding in possibility through air power, advanced communications, high exposive armaments, submarines, tanks, laser-guided munitions, remotely piloted attack drones, poison gas, atomic weapons, mass electronic propaganda and mediated filtering. And, when nations coalesce together to fight "Total War" or "assymetrical war," everything is brought to bear against perceived enemies, including children, animals, woman and men together, not to mention their combined social spaces. 

Given mass killing realities like the 9/11/2001 attacks, the Holocaust, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Nanking, the Armenian Genocide, indiscriminate firebombings of great cities, the Great War, and the U.S.-Vietnam War -- just to recall a handful of grisly atrocities perpetrated by human societies or tribes or groups in the past century -- it may be wise to expand the official scope and acknowldgement of Decoration Day, of Memorial Day, to include all societies touched by war and massacre, to think beyond the uniformed.

But hell, what do I know?  In the spirit of John Lee Hooker, "I sing the blues every Decoration Day." 

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.   

Aleksandr Askoldov: Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar: Take One

In making Комиссар / Komissar / Commissar / The Commissar (1967/1988), Aleksandr Askoldov was so audacious he was banned by Soviet authorities from ever making another film. This highly memorable 1967 production was finally reconstructed and released just before the breakup of the Soviet Union, in 1988.

Why the official dissapproval? It's not specifically anti-Soviet. But: set during the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) immediately after the Great War of 1914-1918, it shows the human costs of these convulsions, ones that are not always heroic nor black and white (though he film is shot in black and white). Weaving surrealism through a realistic narrative, the film follows pregnant Red cavalry Commissar Klavdia Vavilova into the mostly Jewish city of Berdichev in the Ukraine, where she is left by a fellow officer to be cared for by a reluctant Jewish family.  Later, the Reds must retreat, leaving the city to the mercy of the Whites, who have already perpetrated many anti-Jewish pogroms during the Civil War. Yefim Mahazannik, member of the family that takes the Commissar in, wonders at one point why world reaction to the Boer War and the Armenian Genocide had been so vociferous in recent years, but so little had yet been said in response to the proto-Holocaust pogroms in Ukraine.

Much more to be discussed, hopefully sooner rather than later. Based on "In the Town of Berdichev," a short story by Vasily Grossman.      

Armenian Remembrance

Yesterday was Armenian Remembrance Day. The Ottoman Turks (and post-Ottomans) attempted to wipe out their large Armenian population before during and after the First World War. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished. Today, Armenians thrive in the United States, France, Armenia and elsewhere. If a person's family name ends in -ian, -jan or -yan, there's a good chance he or she is of Armenian descent. Jack Kevorkian, for instance; and Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian). The writer William Saroyan. Let's not forget Mannix (Chuck Connors, real name Krekor Ohanian -- now 84, by the way). And so on.

A couple of good books on the Armenian Genocide: G.S. Graber's Caravans to Oblivion: The Armenian Genocide, 1915 (1996) and Peter Balakian's The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response (2003).

Today's Rune: Strength.

Factotums and Odd Jobs

I've worked a lot of odd jobs over the years, usually in between or in addition to the "regular" ones. Worked at a Burger King, for instance; one of the assistant managers there was a doctoral student in Zoology at Duke. I briefly dated the primary manager's daughter -- she worked there, too. It was a circus.

Worked for a week at a carnival. A Gypsy-eyed woman (she was not a Gypsy, but she could have played one in a movie, with her piercing eyes, glittery spangles and long black hair) grabbed me and convinced me to give it a shot. This job was also a circus, figuratively, collecting dollar bills for bottle tosses and stuffed animal contests.

Worked for Manpower doing various temp jobs, putting up giant tents for a British-American festival, and for an Eno River festival; driving small trucks between dealers; moving filing cabinets; moving people's stuff into U-Haul trucks. Mostly grunt work.

Worked for Kelly Services. Supervisors would send our time sheets directly from North Carolina or Pennsylvania to 999 West Big Beaver Road, Troy, Michigan 48084 on Wednesdays or Thursdays and we'd be paid on Fridays. I was always amazed how fast they processed paychecks. Between Kelly and Bettinger, I worked as an office assistant at Family Health International in the Research Triangle for several months, and for the National Park Service in Old Town Philadelphia; for ELF/ATOCHEM; for Pennsylvania Blue Shield; for Wheels, Inc.; for Lippincott (now Lippincott Williams & Wilkins); and for the Curtis Publishing Company.


I've also done very brief gigs like watching a game store that was normally run by Mely Hodges in Durham, North Carolina (above are her detailed instructions -- obviously she was worried I'd bungle it. Ha! And that was before we went on a comical date . . .). Incidentally, Betty Hodges, Mely's mother, was the literary/book editor for The Durham Morning Herald over a period of several decades.

There was temporary coverage for Nga Mai's Café Diva in Center City, Philadelphia (I lived in a small apartment across the street, 12th & Spruce Street, to be exact). The hardest thing was to serve homeless people, balancing compassion with wit.

Of all temp jobs, my favorite was interviewing an Armenian couple and transcribing the resultant tape for one of their sons and the rest of their family. It was through them that I learned a ton about the Armenian Genocide and all sorts of other things, too.

In any case, in today's economy, odd jobs are becoming much more the norm, no question. It's factotum time, maybe from here on out. No worries -- I'm ready for just about anything. How about you?

Finally, how could I forget working for Bob Sheldon at Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill, or delivering pizzas for Pizza Transit Authority?

Today's Rune: Growth.

The Cruelest Month

And so we come upon those dreadful anniversaries of April, the tragedies of Waco (1993) and Oklahoma City (1995), Hitler's birthday, Columbine, the Armenian Genocide, Chernobyl, and so on (including Fort Sumter).

I remember Chernobyl, Waco and Oklahoma City all very well. I was married on the very day of the first one (1986) and was living in Philadelphia while in graduate school during both Waco (1993) and Oklahoma City (1995). I have Armenian friends, have seen the Dachau Concentration Camp and Berlin and the still-ruined parts of Dresden, and was teaching the day of Columbine (it was a Tuesday). I've since visited the scene of the Branch Davidian disaster.

April is the cruelest month, but only one of twelve. And we pretty much get a taste of all these things all too often. After reading -- and living through -- enough, very little surprises me. Really, mostly good things still surprise, like the Obama presidency, which is a wonder to behold so far. And April includes Earth Day, too, yes?

Earlier post: http://eriklerouge.blogspot.com/2007/04/how-millennium-comes-violently.html

Today's Rune: Initiation.

We Do Recall the Armenian Genocide!

As the 600-year Ottoman Empire groaned toward final collapse, its leadership lashed out against groups like the Armenians. Pogroms in the mid-1890s were followed by a more organized genocidal program starting in 1915 -- during the First World War. Massacres and mass deportations of Armenians continued until 1923.

The post-Ottoman Turkish government has always denied the gravity and scale of what happened to the Armenian population. Writers inside Turkey who bring it up are often persecuted or murdered by xenophobic nationalists (Hrant Dink, for instance, was assassinated earlier this year).

A committee in the U.S. Congress just passed a resolution agreeing to call what happened "The Armenian Genocide." The Turkish government is so miffed that it's recalled its Ambassador to the U.S.A. "These things happen during wartime" is more or less the Turkish version of "the Armenian problem."

Meanwhile, Kurdish guerrillas are trying to provoke a Turkish incursion into Iraq under the labored logic that wider fighting will help Kurds create an independent country (like modern day Armenia, outside of Turkey's borders). The Turkish generals (with a lot of nationalistic backing) are pushing hard to cross into Iraq.

What next? And why this timing on the Armenian resolution?

I'd have a lot more respect for the U.S. Congress if they also acknowledged American atrocities at the same time -- including ones being committed today. More Americans need to get real about their history.

As for the Turks, they need to get real about their own history, too.

And the Kurds are hardly innocent bystanders. Kurds participated in the Armenian deportations and benefited (short term) by their displacement and replacement. Today, Kurdish guerrillas would have Turks and Kurds massacred rather than settle for what they have -- a semi-autonomous Kurdish region within the borders of Iraq under the semi-protection of the U.S. military.

Ah, what a beautiful world it is. . . . .

She'll Be Waiting In Istanbul

How many bloggers have we lost in the past year? I haven't given up on Ashley and her Deviant Anamoly blog and have kept her link, though we haven't heard from her in months. She was last heard recovering from a vicious assault by a hooligan in Australia.

The latest loss is more of a mystery, and I fear the worst. Istanbulwitchy was a strong-minded woman who always wrote what she felt was the truth, regardless of consequences. Her English language blog harshly criticized Islamic ways, heterosexual men, and anything else she considered distasteful. I didn't agree with her all of the time, but I loved reading what she had to say and always found her interesting. I removed her link because her site had been hacked in such a way that 1) her blog is no longer accessible and 2) instead of reaching her blog, my own computer was assaulted, automatically bringing up my anti-virus defense software. Instead of Istanbulwitchy, one is attacked by "Oriental Green Grocer" or something like that. Istanbulwitchy had defined herself as a lesbian feminist and she openly disagreed with Islamic customs. She posted her writing from Istanbul, Turkey. I hope she is safe and alive and free.

Meanwhile, on January 19, 2006 (today), Hrant Dink, a 53-year old editor who had written about the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire that occurred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was shot four times in the head as he walked out of his newspaper office in Istanbul. He was apparently murdered for having "insulted Turkishness" in his writings. Horrible. What next?

Fellow bloggers, let's fight tooth and claw to maintain freedom of expression, free flow of ideas, and remembrance of the past -- and let's continue to seek truth and compassion in the present.

If anyone knows if Istanbulwitchy is all right (also if anyone knows the title of her published book and art criticism), please let us know.

Birthdays today include Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and Janis Joplin (1943-1970).

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Adieu.