On Rumors against Black Life & History

Responsibility of Blacks in Cyberspace

An Open Letter to E. Ethelbert Miller

By Rudolph Lewis

The Great New Orleans Land Grab: The 17th Street Canal levy was breeched on purpose?

Rumors & Dogs & Govt. Responsibility -- E-Notes from Ethelbert

I've been critical the last few days about what our public intellectuals and writers are doing. Check my E-Notes. http://www.eethelbertmiller1.blogspot.com/ If I read a poem about how Katrina was started by Israel I'll lose my mind. Silly stuff- but some of us were born funny. Rumors really run around the black communities like dogs looking for fresh meat. Because of the power of the internet we need to really be careful. Katrina is another example of why Black people should pay more attention to the environment, etc. I would hope that we are a chapter beyond the storm pages in Their Eyes Were Watching God . . . but maybe we just can't move beyond it. I'm Teacake and folks can't get my medicine on time. Please don't shoot me (again).  Stay well - help others - build the Beloved Community. If things get really bad I suggest we organize "poor people" to march on DC (again) and build Resurrection City. Jesse Jackson can be mayor (again). This is what King would do - so if you hear about folks wondering - why do we go from here? - just return to the unfinished business and agenda. What NO really shows is the failure of the Civil Rights Movement to address the economical issues affecting black people.  Now we have a new diaspora and we still haven't helped Haitians. Go figure . . . there is so much to do.

Love ya.

Ethelbert
www.eethelbertmiller.com                     Read Newsweek's The Other America (9/28)

E, peace and blessings,

I have discovered as a student of literature that numerous persons can read a document and that each reader has a different interpretation on what is the truth contained therein. If your point is that there is such a thing as rumor and that rumors can be "worse than what actually happened," we sing the same tune and there is no gap in our understanding of how the world works. I suspect where we diverge is the larger interpretation of Carr's sentiments and perspective. 

From my view, our folks—black people—suffered the most from the rumors propagated by corporate media and sustained by numerous persons of their ilk. That we suffered the most by this insidious activity can be sustained by this quote from Carr's editorial:

These "citizens of New Orleans" are black folk. So our folks (all over America) are the primary victims of rumor—as looters, rapists, murderers. These "urban myths" are the stuff of 6 o'clock news and black weeklies. The criminal image is usually that of young black males. So much so that everyone now fears "black boys." And these our brothers, uncles, fathers, sons have been the victim object of "political spin," ritualistic murder, and "responsible governance." This situation has been propagated not only by corporate media, but also by persons in the highest seats of government and society.

Wasn't it our 3rd President TJ who wrote "scientifically" of our kinship to the orangutan: matter of fact, there was an entire "science" that rose in the 19th century from the best minds of America that sustained Negro inferiority in every sphere of human existence. And at this hour we still have a difficulty instituting "black history" courses in our public schools to counter the damage of these "urban myths" and "rumors."

On another point we might also agree, "accurate information [is still at a] premium." We see it in the indecisiveness and ineptness of Mayor Nagin in trying to repopulate the city. In a small matter like whether there was a fire on Dillard's campus, we are unable to sustain what is indeed the case, whether the Arts & Science building burned. A friend as close as Baton Rouge does not know the truth of the rumor. We black folks all still suffer from the lack of information and a distrust of those in high places.

And there is good cause for this lack of trust, especially after the horror of the Superdome and the Convention Center and the numerous survivor stories  that are being collected by corporate media, web sites, and blogs. All of this has been seared into our consciousness and that it will be sometime before we get over this trauma, this wakeup call.

Government failed us. The wise guys caused us great distress, insecurity, and terror.

So with this "brave new world" we face I do not see it as my primary task to dispel rumor as rumor. That is not the problem we face. From the time we left the shores of Africa to the present hour, our problem is one of power, more precisely, the lack of it. The quote from Carr's which probably caught your eye and to which you really want me to direct my attention is: "Web and talk radio fueled these rumors."

But these outlets ("web" and "talk radio") are dominated, not by us (you and me), but rather by persons from white middle-class America, that is, not from Black America. We are anthills up against great mountains of power and power that does not have our interest first and foremost.

That is, I'm not against rumor as rumor. My force will be directed against rumor that does harm to humanity, especially and particularly black humanity, which is under severe humiliating attacks. The question before us, then, is how do we counter these rumors that undermine and debilitate us and how do we counter those individuals who now sustain them, who do not have your humanistic sensibilities.

For me, those of us who have education, training, skills, and instruments of power, we must speak the truth as we know it and as forcefully as we can and consider every rumor that is a potential threat against us and that might have some truth of how we have been undermined and dispersed. If we have the power to discover the truth or falsity of such rumors, we should indeed dispel them. But if you suggest rather that we who are in cyberspace should act as censors of information, then you ask us to wage war with windmills. What good is such a romantic adventure?

Well, I suppose wearing the mask of a "non-partisan" is one way to go. But that's not for me. I have no faith in "media objectivity." For media serves power—its impetus is commercial. And he who pays the piper calls the tune.

If you wish, however, to place on the table—confer—on what is the proper role of blacks in cyberspace, I am open for that discussion. I encourage you to organize such a talk and conference or make it part of some larger conference. Academics love this sort of thing and there are probably businesses and foundations willing to finance such an academic undertaking. I have no problem with that and would probably be willing to attend it.

As ever and always, Rudy

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My hero, Rudy, rides again. Why do we expect them to do other than their interests direct them to do? Why do we ever expect them to tell the truth (and shame the Devil, as the folks used to say")?  Go see President Chavez's interview on Democracy Now and what Jesse Jackson said after that. The transcript is online.  Hugo Chavez wailed—like a brother singing the blues—he rightly condemned the rank "individualism" of U.S. society that disregards the needs of humanity. 

"We" Africans can't be human or they are inhumane in their treatment of us and those they deem to be too near like us, which has always included some of their own—from their slave born children—whom they sold to the poor whites they have hated all along before they all left Europe. Sociologically speaking rumors convey important information to those who have ears. It's up to us to hear our own ancestral voices through the noise.

I recommend that everybody read the Prologue to Armah's Two Thousand Seasons.

—Joyce

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Rudy, your letter is incisive and your points are very well taken.  I didn't read Carr's editorial, which I'll have to do, or (apparently) Ethelbert's rebuttal.  I was somewhat concerned, I think it was with respect to the allegation that the levees were sabotaged, when he responded with something like "the Black community chases rumors like a dog after fresh meat."  You have challenged his thinking with tact, kindness, and sensitivity—unlike me with the tactless big mouth (smile).  

I, too, am disgusted with Nagin, especially after I heard about the meeting in Dallas with White businessmen to the exclusion, for the most part, of representatives from the Black community.  On the other hand, you know what I'm afraid of—that we in the community will begin attacking each other and picking each other apart.  I had to catch myself when I reacted with "Yeah, that's right" when I read the article attacking Black leadership cause that's the way I felt.  Then I found out that some of the people & organizations that I was disappointed in were actually in the trenches and on the battlefield.  

I realized that we could easily be caught in a "divide and conquer" game where, once more, we are the losers.  In retrospect, I regret what I said about that noted Black woman singer, because she was there and in-spirited on behalf of the evacuees.  Sometimes we say things and criticize others without thinking just because they have a different point of view.  Like I did with a dear friend when I told him:  "It's time to stop intellectualizing and theorizing;  we have to DO something."  Well, that mind work is important too and I should have given him space to contribute his ideas to the dialogue.  I guess hindsight is better than nothing.  —Miriam

posted 20 September 2005

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The 5th Inning by E. Ethelbert Miller The 5th Inning is poet and literary activist E. Ethelbert Miller's second memoir. Coming after Fathering Words: The Making of An African American Writer (published in 2000), this book finds Miller returning to baseball, the game of his youth, in order to find the metaphor that will provide the measurement of his life. Almost 60, he ponders whether his life can now be entered into the official record books as a success or failure. The 5th Inning is one man's examination of personal relationships, depression, love and loss. This is a story of the individual alone on the pitching mound or in the batters box. It's a box score filled with remembrance. It's a combination of baseball and the blues. To see a clip of Ethelbert reading The 5th Inning click here: http://www.eethelbertmiller.com/etube

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update 2 August 2008