Benjamin Banneker and Us, Rachel Jamison Webster, author
I expected this book to be a biography about a great family that has contributed to America and made history over 11 generations. I was very much looking forward to seeing Black and White relationships discussed in a peaceful and loving way. I had hoped to read a book that would bring people together, a book about unity, not division. Instead, it feels more like a treatise on white supremacy, racism and sometimes even race-baiting, as it points fingers at the political party the author objects to and engages in the dividing and conquering tactics that she accuses others of using. I feel as if the author wishes to indoctrinate me about my shortcomings regarding race. Therefore, though I have tried for weeks to enjoy the book, each time I pick it up, I find I am disappointed. I am unable to finish the book because I fear the author will not help me to see our commonalities, but will further separate us as people, in terms of color, religion and beliefs.
As a young teen, Martin Luthor King’s murder shook me up. I became interested in helping all those who were disadvantaged. As a twenty-year-old teacher, much to my family’s chagrin, I requested a position in the school in which I had student taught, a special service school with mostly disadvantaged students of diversity. I wanted to change the world, to improve it. In the process, I was assaulted. My car was vandalized. My wallet was stolen. Still, I did not use a broad brush to paint all disadvantaged people as vandals. I still believed I could help. I am not ashamed of anything I have done. I have no guilt for ancestors that kept slaves. My ancestors were slaves. All I want is to see people live in peace together, and I fear this book will not help me do that. I apologize, in advance, to anyone that may be offended by my comments.
The author is a poet, thus the narrative in the book moves from lyrical to melodramatic at time, is well-written, and indeed would be an easy and enjoyable read if the content were not offensive to me. I feel as if an undeserved target is being put on my back with every sentence. Although the author assumes guilt for crimes, that she has had no part in, and assigns it to others equally as innocent, I do not. As a Jew, I have witnessed my family’s difficulties because our heritage demanded extraordinary behavior. We had to be better, work harder, achieve more, be the first, etc. I blame no one else for my Jewish heritage and the lack of opportunity it afforded me, or others, in my family. I worked harder, and knew all I had was my good name which was obviously of a Jewish background, so my religion was no secret. I never wanted to keep it a secret, but others I know, changed their names to “pass” and belong in our society, as many in the author's family did regarding race. One group does not own the charge of abuse. When I spoke, my accent was definitely of Jewish origin, like Barbra Streisand’s. I was marked then, and I am marked now, as antisemitism is rampant and largely ignored, even today. If I did not erase my Jewish inflection from the speech pedagogy required for my teacher’s license, I would have failed and not gotten a license. Today, times have changed for Jews and for people of color. I am grateful, not bitter.
So being assigned guilt and expected to feel shame, by this and other authors, for our country's history, simply does not wash with me. I love my country. I love my flag. I love my religion, regardless of the hardships I have had to endure and others of my faith have had to endure because of it. The Holocaust did not scar me forever. It taught me about evil and hate, and the possibility of man’s inhumanity to man. Millions, not hundreds of thousands, of my faith were tortured and murdered. It taught me not to be that way, and not to be resentful, but to appreciate what I have received and not to look at others with envy. It taught me to be kinder to others and to recognize none of us are perfect, but we should certainly always strive to be and to do better.
For me, the author seems too progressive or ultra-liberal. To believe that the riots following the beating of Rodney King were justified because of our past sins implies that Jews can riot too, because America certainly has not been that kind to them from the get-go. Rioting and destroying the property of others or of harming others, is never justified for any group of people. Perhaps, it is the belief that it is sometimes justified, that has brought us to the point we are at today. We have rising rampant crime and increasing amounts of unjustified behavior by those who feel they are entitled to rebel, both black and white, and any other type of person that feels injustice has harmed them. We appear to even be resegregating because of the actions of some.
What I am finding most uncomfortable about the book is the way the white author is trying to justify her history, as if she is guilty because her ancestors were black and slaves. As she takes her family on a tour of where her black and white ancestors lived, as she learns more and more, instead of educating me with interesting facts, my overriding impression is that she is shaming me as she paints all of America with too broad a brush as White supremacists, as she paints all as misogynists who want to harm women. Both blacks and whites, coupled with Indigenous Peoples and all others of various backgrounds, view the world through their own color/religious/political lens, and it is hard to reach a compromise when so biased an approach is considered righteous. As the author imagines the life of her ancestor Molly, she becomes larger than life, since no one really knows what her life was like. There are a great many virtuous assumptions made that I find extreme, as well. I wish the author luck with the book, but I am uncomfortable with its treatment of the subject and of her treatment of America's history. Although I learned some new facts, they seemed tainted with bias and personal opinion. I wanted the book to leave me with a positive image of people, and, for me, it failed to do that consistently.