Mind Reflections: What Anita Hill Said at Purdue 9/25/2017

Reflections: What Anita Hill Said at Purdue
by Jolivette Anderson-Douoning

I sat with my daughter Nadja and listened to Anita Hill speak tonight at Purdue University. This is what I recall intellectually and emotionally about her comments on Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas.

Thurgood Marshall laid a foundation for working within American structures and systems toward equality. He was the first Black Supreme Court Justice and when he retired many must have hoped that another Black person would take his place. Well, a Black man did take his place but the quality and character and racial consciousness of the Black man that took Thurgood Marshall's place on the SCOTUS did NOT serve the interest of EQUALITY for Black people in the manner, method, or memory of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Marshall was a 'Race Man'. He acknowledged that Race, Racism, Racial prejudice and biases were present in society and were determining factors in the DENIAL of ACCESS to equal treatment under the law, and I dare say, in all manner of the lived experience in the United States. He worked toward what Dr. Anita Hill called the "Inclusive Community" and he believed that government had a role and responsibility to address the structures and systems that denied ACCESS TO INCLUSION.

When Clarence Thomas was tapped to take the place of Thurgood Marshall, he believed what Ronald Reagan had promoted during his time as POTUS in the 1980s. The now Justice Clarence Thomas believed that EQUALITY is about the INDIVIDUAL. He believed that Black folk should "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" ie work hard and you will rise and succeed, as if there are no barriers to you based on your Race (or gender, geography, etc.)

He believed that the Government should have no role in EQUALITY for individuals. His thinking fell in line with Ronald Reagan's announcement that he would NO LONGER FIGHT the 'War Against Poverty' that previous Presidential Administrations had fought. He then proceeded to wipe out funding for 'social programs' that affected after-school programs, child care programs, food programs, and more. These things should NOT BE THE BUSINESS OF THE GOVERNMENT (emphasis mine). Thus, 'government IS the problem, too much government, they wanted LESS GOVERNMENT in the lives of the INDIVIDUAL.

This 'less government' involvement cry is the gateway for the battle cry for privatization and segregation all rolled into one thing. Let's call it the INTERSECTION OF PRIVATIZATION AND SEGREGATION, but Dr Anita Hill said, you must know each one individually before you can understand the 'Intersectionality' of it all. (EX: I had to taste corn and lima beans separately before I knew they would taste good together in my succotash).

-- Thomas seems to have been and still is claiming that "advocacy for equality" was / is not a governmental issue.

-- Marshall seems to have been claiming that governmental systems and structures hold some people back from access to equality, equal treatment under the law, and the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

Clarence Thomas, at that time in history, was being used to prop up what the Reagan Republicans wanted to be a 'New Day on Race in America'. A day that did not hold them accountable, as White men perhaps, for what has been done to Black people since and before the beginning of this country.

The end. (for now)

Levels of Strength (for Jethro and Helen Anderson)

Levels of Strength (for Jethro and Helen Anderson)
by Jolivette Anderson

FIRST DRAFT

I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on THE FREEDOM. My mind is stayed, positioned, locked on the freedom that was created for me by mother based on how she raised me. It seems, it was her job to raise the girls as the chief executive parent while daddy focused on raising the boys, but we all were there together. Each person affecting and influencing both the girls and the boys. It seems they believed that the menfolk had a certain role in the life of the boys and the women folk had a certain role in the life of the girls neither being mutually exclusive because Daddies impact Daughters and Mamas impact Sons.

Back to strength and freedom. My mother gets a lot of credit for the way I think, the way I approach the world with a Fearlessness and Courage, being ever ready to put it all on the line for my people, Black people.

My father gets a lot of credit for the way I think about justice and the systems, the institutions structured to make justice accessible to every human being. The system had its place, it was to make right the wickedness of man against man, especially those wickednesses based on racial animist toward Black people. In short, to avoid the chaos that is always in the world, there needed to be rules to embrace the order that is always in the world with the key understanding that both chaos and order are first and foremost the internal human battle inside of every human and in my fathers view, that internal struggle was mirroring the struggle between God and Devil, good and evil. The church (Christianity) organized their lives to deal with and respond to God and Devil. The government (Democracy in America) organized their lives to deal with and respond to good and evil. One religious and spiritual. The other societal and governmental. Confirmation from BOTH were used in their personal beliefs about marriage, family, and parenting. In the Anderson home it was God and the Government that wielded out justice in different forms and together they represented the nature of God, they mirrored the male and the female aspects of God that make us human.

All of that to say this: Helen Anderson had a reputation for being crazy but strong. A woman who could demonstrate strength and compassion with the tone of her voice and her actions. She was feared by many. Her passion for doing what is right based on all the wrong she endured, the wrong she witnessed as a child growing up in rural Louisiana. The internal wrongs done by us and the external wrongs done to us left their mark on her and she tried to correct it by actively proving it wrong. She worked with children and adults but she focused on children. Things had to be done a certain way, it had to look good, it had to sound pleasant, it had to be respectful, it had to be filled with joy and passion and encouragement. We had to know that we could do things, we could be good at things, we could be successful, we could be better than our current circumstance, status, or situation and to Hell with whomever was in the way trying to block us from becoming better. They would be labeled 'the devil'.

While my words have changed, my attitude is pretty consistent with the way my parents viewed the world. The Devil is real in the workings of human beings, in our treatment of ourselves and each other, in our very inability to see ourselves and each other as humans, being.

My father and mother argued a lot about money. He liked holding on to it, she felt it should be spent on creating opportunities and joy for Black people, not just her own children, everybody's children. Much of what she did, my dad had to foot the shortfall of the finances. Our electricity, phone, gas, water.... NOTHING.... WAS EVER DISCONNECTED when my father was alive. He believed in paying his bills and paying them on time. Mama, not so much. There were always community issues, Black children and adults that needed help and Mama would help them with her monthly pay check. After Dad died, she had to learn how to live a different type of life.

All that to say this: Jethro Anderson had a reputation for being firm, loving, caring, rational, practical, steadfast, hardworking, and more but of all the words I can use to describe my father, the simplest word carries the most weight and intensity. My dad was 'responsible'.

for those that knew them, I wonder if they have ever asked themselves the question, 'If Mrs Anderson was so fierce, so strong, so courageous, so intimidating then what kind of man must my father have been to embrace all that my mother was to so many people? Or, perhaps, they were more alike than any of us realized.

My mother believed she should "obey" her husband. Deep down inside of me, I believe the same thing. It will take a special kind of person to understand what 'obey' means and still be okay with it. At my core,in all the ways I mirror my mother, I understand how deep and profound of a man my father was. He truly believed in God and the Bible as the teachings of how man and woman should behave toward each other. He believed in RULES. One should "know right from wrong and do right over wrong, no matter how difficult it may be.

To make it simple, all money ain't good money. All loving and good loving. There is some shit you just should not do, not say, not be part  or party to because of what will happen to you after you do it or what could happen to your children and your grand children if you do it. There were always consequences to every action and every opportunity.

Daddy did not spread his seed all over the planet. There were rules and consequences about this type of behavior. You lay with a woman you better be prepared to marry her if you get her pregnant because she and that child become your responsibility and they have to have your name.

Mama gave me advice on my failing marriage. She said, "you got a name and that baby got a name and that is all that matters." It took me years to figure out the culture, the codes embedded in that wisdom, and I am still searching for deeper meanings, but what I have figured out so far is that 'having a name', a mans family name meant you belonged not just to that man, you belonged to a group of people that would give you identity, purpose, and direction on your journey in life, if you choose to embrace who you are.

Cipher One: x + y^5 = self

Cipher One: x + y^5 = self
by Jolivette Anderson-Douoning

x= Jolivette Anderson-Douoning, the unknown pieces of She. y^5 = Who am I? What is my purpose? Where did I come from? When will I get to where I am going? Why do I matter?

Who am I?
I am spirit and flesh. I am a continuation and a beginning happening in each measurable moment in time and outside of time. I am energy trapped inside a vessel, moving, constantly, fighting to find the time to be still.

What is my purpose?
My purpose is to be, to embody, to exact, to exchange energy.

Where did I come from (from where did I come?)
Dark matter. The visible invisible liquid that hold the sun, moon, Earth and stars. I come from prayers prayed for better days. I am my Ancestors returned.

When will I get to where I am going?
I am already here, questioning while knowing.

Why do I matter?
I matter because dark matter made itself known to itself. As above, so below. We grow.