As promised, Lissie and I are celebrating Black History Month by reading library books about black history. Take a gander at our take-home list:
Harriet Tubman and the Freedom Train, Sharon Gayle and Felicia Marshall
Martin Luther King Jr., Peter and Connie Roop
Minty: A Story of Young Harriet Tubman, Alan Schroeder and Jerry Pinkney
George Washington Carver, Tonya Bolden
A Lesson for Martin Luther King Jr, Denise Lewis Patrick and Rodney S. Pate
Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride, Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney *
Rosa's Bus: The Ride to Civil Rights, Jo S. Kittinger and Steven Walker
Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King Jr., Jean Marzollo and J. Brian Pinkney
*This is my absolute favorite. The writing is lyrical and wonderful, the pictures are delightful. Check it out.
It's not the simplest task to find age appropriate books correlating with Black History month, especially in my white suburb neighborhood library. Some of the books I've listed are definitely above Lissie's age level, so I have to summarize a lot of the text and focus her attention on the pictures. But especially because I currently live in a white suburb, it's important that she hear these stories, even summarized, and see these pictures because the general white American populace is woefully ignorant of black history, and I'm determined that Lissie will not be.
A recent, abhorrent video featuring students at my school has suggested that Mormons are ambivalent about black history. As a generality, I think this is true of white Mormons. But I also think this is an American, not just Mormon problem.
Having said that, I have heard informal statements made by white Mormons (although hereby shortened to just "Mormons" for the purpose of this post, be aware that Mormons are represented by a wide range of races and ethnicities) that indicated that blacks should "get over" ugly, tragic things in their history; that this is something Mormons have done (i.e. religious persecution, extermination orders, houses burned down, property stolen, women raped, people murdered directly by mobs and indirectly by the effects of the Western trek, extreme poverty, etc.) and so it's possible for Blacks too if they'd only resolve to do it.
I want to address this misconception by pointing out several things: Mormons are not, in fact, "over" their painful history and it is very much present in Mormon memory despite the lapse of generations; and there are (need I say it?) very real, significant differences between Black American and Mormon experiences with persecution; by telling people to "get over" their history, we are suggesting, first of all, what seems to me a human impossibility and secondly, we are dismissing something that makes up someone else's, and our own, story and identity. Black history is my history too because historically and currently, black and white history is tied up together, whether we acknowledge it or not.
Let me quantify what I say about Mormons not being over tragedies in their history. I have listed some of the elements that made up a large portion of the persecution mounted against Mormons, which began even before Mormonism was officially founded in 1830. Pioneer Day, held in Utah and some surrounding states on July 24th, marks the day that Mormons entered the Salt Lake Valley and essentially escaped the persecution of the mobs (although that persecution would be perpetuated by the U.S. government in various ways). This is mostly a triumphant holiday, but pioneer stories circulate among families and over Mormon pulpits about the sacrifice of pioneer ancestors who faced massive amounts of persecution and suffering because of their religion. Some ancestors came out of it alive. Others did not. I have stories like this in my own family history, and believe me, Mormons have not forgotten why this suffering took place.
Memories of this persecution have worked their way into the outlooks and identity of Mormons like me, who live after the fact by almost 200 years. These memories have worked their way into our theological outlook. Both the Bible and Book of Mormon are replete with metaphors of "Zion" and "Babylon", and many Mormons, particularly because of the persecution they faced historically, identify as "Zion"; "Babylon" consitutes outsiders, or people Mormons assume to be antagonistic towards them. If you sit in any Mormon meeting, references to "the world", containing threatening or dangerous allusions, are made consistently. Apparently Mormons still view "the world" to be a threatening place. And according to the recent Pew report, 68% of Mormons believe they are not seen as part of mainstream American culture (1), suggesting that Mormons see themselves as religious pariah.
Persecution has also worked its way into Mormon folklore. Mormons are all aware of stories in which other Mormons (that they may or may not personally know) have faced some sort of ignorance or discrimination; in some cases, even job discrimination (2-this is a personal account of such discrimination and a wonderful talk given by a man I admire).
Also according to the recent Pew report, "Nearly half of Mormons (46%) say there is a lot of discrimination against Mormons in the United States today." I don't have statistics to back this up, but my guess is this rate has dropped sharply in the past few years. However, only 31% of Mormons believe that blacks face discrimination. So then, the majority of Mormons feel they as a group face greater discrimination than black people (compare 46% to 31%, you get it) (3). In the words of Joanna Brooks, "Brothers and sisters: get a grip."
This gap is indicative of general ignorance about the kinds of discrimination blacks currently or historically have faced. American blacks and other members of the African diaspora have discrimination built into their memory banks just as Mormons do. Except those memories include pain that current Mormons can only have nightmares about. There are too many differences to list between the pain documented in black history and that documented in Mormon history.
Examples of pain and memory not documented in Mormon history include, but are not limited to, enslavement, torture, systematic disruption of family life, systematic rape, lynching, forced abandonment of religion and culture and the forced adoption of new religious norms, miscegenation laws, Jim Crow, and ongoing economic/policy discrimination. The list goes on and on.
It is hypocritical for Mormons to suggest that blacks "get over" their history when in fact we have not gotten over our own. Nor should we. Certainly there are some toxic elements of remembering tragedies. But there are benefits too. It is my personal belief that Pioneer Day shoud be a U.S. holiday, not just a day celebrated by Mormons; why not impress upon national memory a day that commemorates the threat of extermination and persecution of religious citizens-turned refugees? Isn't there an important lesson in there for everyone?
In a way very few Americans understand, Mormon history is their own. Just as few Mormons understand that Black history belongs to them too.
Works Cited:
1) Acceptance of Mormonism: http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Mormon/mormons-in-america-mormon-moment.aspx#acceptance
2) http://www.lds.org/liahona/2002/03/the-currant-bush?lang=eng&query=currant+bush
3) Anti-mormon Discrimination: http://www.pewforum.org/Christian/Mormon/mormons-in-america-mormon-moment.aspx#acceptance
10 comments:
Excellent Jen! I must say that I am very pleased that, "The Help" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin" were not a part of your reading in order to better understand black history. :)
I do believe that ignorance among Mormons on the issues you have brought up are less once you get out Utah
So beautifully articulated, Jen. I wish we went to church together. I think I would love making comments with you in Relief Society and Sunday School (while wearing pants, of course).
Thank you, Jen! This highlights some really important points that really should be recognized.
I think Utah must be a strange place, and I have absolutely no desire to ever live there. Honestly the things you say you hear at church are pretty out there sometimes. I'm glad there are people like you to help bring clarity of thought to such ignorant presumptions.
I totally agree with your premise here. The fact that 69% of 1000 Mormons would say that blacks don't face discriminating is nothing short of mind-blowing to me! I also agree that "getting over" history is neither possible nor desirable, in the same way that I believe the idea of being "colorblind" about people race is not the right approach. We should celebrate all these parts of us and everyone else, and how they make us who we are.
Having said that, I think these Pew Forum stats are being a bit misinterpreted in many of the articles I have read. What they say is actually that about 54%, or the majority, of Mormons don't believe they are discriminated against. And 69% don't believe blacks are (obviously, I think those 69% don't know much about our criminal justice system). Although we don't know if the same people believe that neither Mormons or blacks face discrimination, unless I'm reading these stats wrong, it is very possible that the breakdown could look something like this: 54% think neither group faces much discrimination; 15% think Mormons face more discrimination than blacks, and 31% think both Mormons and blacks face a lot of discrimination. Though I still think your overall points stand, I think a possible breakdown like the one above is hardly as dire in terms of Mormons being completely out-of-touch with society. Correct me if you think I am reading the stats you've looked at wrong.
Neal thinks that my comment was not clear! Oh well, perhaps I can't explain what I mean without drawing pie charts and infographics as I just did for him ;) But I guess I would just add what I tried to explain to him as a methodological weakness of the study for examining the comparative degrees of discrimination Mormons feel they and blacks experience: the questions were not comparative. They were not asked to rank the discrimination. They answered Y/N to "Mormons face a lot of discrimination" and Y/N to whether blacks face a lot. We simply don't know how many people answered Y-Mormons face a lot and N-blacks do not face a lot, and it is possible the percentage is as small as 15%, which is far from the majority. Am I making sense now? Probably not...
Great job, Jen! I do personally like "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but all of these look like good picks. It does sadden me though that most book about Black History or great AFrican-American historical figures are about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am not saying that he is a bad guy or anything like that, he defiantly was a light to the world of true courage. I just wish that we had more records and stories about more blacks and their contributions to our country. Like all of the great inventions that came up with that we take for granted everyday.
I do think that there are a lot of ignorant people in Utah about these issues, but unfortunately I think it is a nation wide thing. After watching that BYU video about BYU students not knowing anything about Black History Month made me realize that it is not just Utah. Yes, BYU is located in Utah, but most of their students do not come from Utah. So, I think as a nation we have really missed the mark. Anyways, I am excited to hear more about these great books. Also, great job in addressing these issues.
Sorry, I felt my comment was really dissing on Utah people, but I am ignorant of issues out there as well. I do think it is important that we always seek the truth of matters and try to understand them the best that we can so that ignorance does not become the thing that destroys us.
Thanks, everyone for you feedback here. And Lindsay, I do understand what you're saying, and your analysis is completely possible.
I may have inadvertently phrased things in a way that exaggerated the finding. I still think that in terms of comparison, the results are interesting, even if the details are admittedly a bit clouded.
And for the record, I am not at all convinced that this is a geographic thing. I think we can let ourselves and our wards off way too easy with this explanation.
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