3-11 “Legacy”
Black Lives Matter.
If that phrase makes you salty, leave my blog and don’t come back.
The thing is, the ones who leave because they’ve decided that I’m one of them Libs that they don’t like are the easy ones. The tough ones are the ones who say, “Oh, we totally support the black community, and what happened to George Floyd (and Brionna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and Sean Reed and Tony McDade and Tamir Rice and Sandra Bland and Eric Garner and Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin and and and) is inexcusable, but y’know, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about things [and we in all our white wisdom know what the right way is]!” This is not a new concept. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. covered it pretty completely in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail 57 goddamn years ago. Read it. Read the whole goddamn thing.
As it happens, there’s a Facts episode about this. I’ve written before about how Facts‘s treatment of race is a mixed bag. Having just reviewed this episode, I’m overall pleased with it. Blair gives us some great examples of typical mistakes of well-meaning white people, which is a conversation that still happens on the daily. I had several of them this past weekend before I decided that back-and-forths on social media might not be the best use of my time. I have this blog. I care about this blog. And maybe some of the things that I say in this blog will be useful in the long-term.
The episode opens with gross Roy the delivery boy grossly hitting on Jo and refusing to take no for an answer. Roy is the poster child for our shameful pre-#metoo attitudes, to which I was not immune. Roy goes too far, and Mrs. G Mama Bears. Good for you, Mrs. G.
With Roy having slimed out of the cafeteria, we get today’s backstory introduced. Eastland is building a library with a half-million dollar donation from Blair’s grandfather’s estate. Blair has been crowing for weeks about the nobility and generosity of the late Judge Carlton Blair.
Speak of the devil (pretty much literally, but we don’t know that yet), Blair enters with Mr. Parker, talking about how pleased her grandfather will be with the progress of the “Blair Library.”
She goes on Blairing, expressing her extreme dismay at the color of the carpet the school board had picked out before she intervened, and blithering about her grandfather’s dedication to education and truth. She eagerly volunteers to take on the job of polling the faculty and students to see what sorts of books they want in the library, promptly losing her enthusiasm when she realizes how much work it’s going to be. She thinks she’s super clever when she ropes Tootie into taking on the job instead. This will be important later.
Natalie, unsurprisingly, has taken on the role of writing the big ol’ school newspaper article about the donor. When she enters the dining room, she does not look thrilled.
Natalie tries to flee, but Blair promptly corners her. When Blair wants to know if Natalie has finished the article, Natalie deflects. Blair tells her to hurry up, and then steers Tootie, whom she calls her “little worker bee,” off to do her polling work.
Natalie, now alone in the dining room with Mrs. G, expresses her distress. Her research has turned up some things that Blair doesn’t know about, and when Blair finds out the truth, she’s going to “hang herself from the family tree.”
Zoinks, given what the news is, that metaphor, though colorful, is cringe. But we don’t get to find out what it is yet.
Upstairs, Blair flips through old photos of her with her grandfather while Jo messes around with a ball and glove. Jo invites Tootie to throw around with her. We’ve never seen her invite any of the girls to athlete with her and we never do again, but it’s important here so that Tootie can say that she doesn’t have time to play; she’s too busy with the polling. Jo offers to help and Tootie declines, saying that Blair is helping her.
Jo: “How?”
Blair: “I’m overseeing supervising!”
Enter Natalie, who tells Blair that she needs to talk privately to her about her grandfather. Blair insists that she wants everyone to hear everything, and she only gets more excited when Natalie says she found things out that Blair might not know. Natalie stalls, saying that Carlton Blair was a hardworking judge who didn’t miss a day on the bench in 33 years. As Blair glows, Natalie continues to hedge, saying that in the ’60s he was involved in civil rights. When Blair crows about how her grandfather just keeps getting better and better, Natalie has no choice but to out with it.
Natalie: “Actually, he was more involved in denying civil rights. He closed down the schools in his county to keep them from being integrated.”
Blair strikes back, insisting that she won’t let Natalie speak ill of her grandfather. She grabs the newspaper clipping that Natalie is holding out of her hand (I’m shocked the library let her take the original clipping rather than copying it or, more likely, printing from microfiche), she begins to read aloud and notes that it’s her grandfather’s obituary. Natalie clarifies that it’s not the one most newspapers carried. Blair gives the girls a smug look as she reads “Judge Blair was a staunch supporter of states’ rights,” which shows that she has no idea what that means. The clarification is quick.
Blair drops the newspaper clipping and runs out of the room, so Jo picks it up to fill us in.
“…and an opponent of desegregation. It was discovered after his death that Judge Blair was a long-time financial supporter and member of the Ku Klux Klan.”
Kim Fields is so good. The stills don’t do her justice; the emotions that her face carries in this scene are epic. And in fact, it occurs to me, there’s every possibility that those emotions are completely authentic.
It shouldn’t impress me that the show takes for granted that the Klan is a bad thing, but it’s 2020 and there’s an unrepentant racist occupying the White House, so, sadly, it does.
Our fade to some time in the future finds Mrs. G and Jo preparing for the car wash the girls are spearheading to raise money for new books for the library. Jo comments that they might need more sponges for Blair; she has insisted upon scrubbing the tire rims. Natalie notes that Blair also insisted on cleaning all the ashtrays (heh – remember when cars had ashtrays and cigarette lighters? What a trip) and the grills. Mrs. G explains that finding out about her grandfather was a big shock to her.
I am moved by Blair’s behavior here. White people spend so much time talking about how racism isn’t their fault; they weren’t the ones doing the lynching or the stomping or the overt hate, so why should they feel any responsibility? While many – maybe most – white people’s connection to overt racism isn’t so direct as Blair’s is here, all white people have benefited from white supremacy, and all white people have a duty not only to not be racist, but to be anti-racist. Is scrubbing the tires and the grills going to fix things? Of course not, but Blair is just a little high school girl here and she feels moved to act. That’s a hell of a lot more than a lot of white people do.
If you are a white person, and you’re interested in helping, here are 75 things white people can do for racial justice.
Not on that list is giving your only black friend an ill-fitting sweater.
Blair has given Tootie five sweaters and a wool skirt, and she keeps leaving credit cards under Tootie’s pillow. It’s a mess, but it’s an attempt at reparations, anyway.
Blair shyly sticks her head through the kitchen door and asks if she can come into the cafeteria. She approaches Tootie, who is kind and graceful. Blair makes her next announcement. The library will be The Carlton Blair Library of Black Studies.
Natalie: “Your grandfather would get a real kick out of that one.”
Tootie reins Blair in and tells her that a section on black studies is a good idea, but she wants to finish the poll before Blair makes any major decisions. Blair berates herself for asking Tootie to do the work.
Tootie: “But it’s fun! Remember me? Your little worker bee?”
So, here’s the thing. Blair absolutely should be critiquing herself. Dumping the work on the black girl could be a microaggression. I don’t love that this is being played like Blair is a big goof going overboard. She’s not making the best moves, but she at least understands that she should be making moves. Going overboard is better than what the people I argued with for the last week before I quit Facebook have been doing, which is saying that they should never be critiqued because they’re the good guys. Never mind that a parade of people of color are expending a vast amount of emotional labor to explain when they mess up; their intentions are good, and therefore they should be immune from any type of critique. For the record, impact is more important than intent, and if any of this sounds familiar to you, the book White Fragility needs to get on your reading list, stat.
Now, all of that said, the other important thing for white allies to do is to listen to their friends of color, so when Tootie calls Blair off, Blair should be listening. Indeed, the fact that Blair circled Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on Tootie’s calendar and she’s been waking Tootie up every morning by singing “We Shall Overcome” is definitely white savior territory.
The other damaging thing Blair is doing here is tokenizing Tootie, that is, using Tootie as a stand-in for all of black America. This happens all the time. The classic example is a class discussion in which teachers and students will turn to the sole black student in the class for “the black perspective.” While it’s true that centuries of white supremacy and institutionalized racism absolutely affects all people of color, it is also true that people of color are not a monolith. Once again, the best advice I can offer is listen instead of speaking.
Blair: “I’m just trying to be nice.”
Tootie: “Just be my friend.”
Blair: “OK. You’ll need a scarf for that sweater.”
A frustrated Tootie takes Natalie into the kitchen to start dinner, leaving Blair alone with Jo. Blair is frustrated that Jo hasn’t been meaner to her since the truth came out, and she theorizes that it must be because she’s “beneath contempt.”
Oof. This is a really bad thing that a lot of white people do, specifically, centering themselves. This self-centering can go a couple of ways. Most often, I see it when a person of color points out to a well-meaning white person that they have committed a microaggression, and the well-meaning white person immediately begins to launch into the list of all the wonderful things they’ve done as part of the solution (this is also a characteristic of white fragility, referenced above).
The other thing that white people do to center themselves, and what Blair does here, is to wallow in self-hatred either for themselves as individuals or for all of white America. It’s true that white America deserves a shitload of critique, but when the focus is “I am/we are bad and deserve constant punishment” instead of “people of color have suffered and I/we need to work to make it better,” it doesn’t help. A mantra that all white people should internalize when addressing issues of race is: IT’S NOT ABOUT ME.
Jo tells Blair that she is indeed a jerk, but only because she’s acting as though she alone carries the burden of white supremacy. She was decent before all this, Jo says, and that doesn’t have to change. Blair insists on continuing to be an utter disaster.
Jo: “Blair, you’re not prejudiced. You’re just a snob.”
Blair: “That’s right. I’m a snob. I’ve lost touch with the little people. I’m caviar and cashmere. Teach me about pretzels and polyester! Teach me to be common, Jo! Bring me down to your level!”
Jo, appropriately disgusted, turns on her heel to head out, but her day doesn’t get any better as gross Roy arrives and announces that he’s gotten them two tickets to the Bowlarama that night. While Jo silently expresses her distress, Blair decides that bowling with Roy is exactly what she needs.
Blair: “Roy, take me bowling.”
Jo: “Blair, what are you doing?”
Blair: “Penance!”
Jo: “You haven’t sinned that much! Nobody has!”
Blair insists, and after gross Roy makes a gross exit, Jo exasperates that she hopes Blair’s date with him makes her feel better. Blair insists that it’s still not enough. Neither is cancelling her subscription to Vogue or to the Fur of the Month Club.
Jo: “Well what do you want to do, cancel the library?”
Fade to the library construction site, where Mr. Parker and Mrs. Garrett are checking on the progress. Why the school dietitian is part of the progress team along with the headmaster is not explained.
Enter Blair. When Mr. Parker asks her for her thoughts on where to put her grandfather’s portrait, she announces that she doesn’t want anything of her grandfather’s at Eastland, including his money.
Mr. Parker asks why, and after vaguing for a moment, Blair outs with the fact that her grandfather was a klan member.
Once again I’m glad that the show pulls no punches as to the enormity of that fact, and I’m sad that I currently live in a world where such a thing deserves credit as opposed to just being the way it is.
Mr. Parker is, of course, trying to run a school, and having worked in education for over a decade, I empathize with the need to get and keep donors. He argues and Blair argues back. Mrs. G asks Mr. Parker to leave them alone to talk.
Mrs. G’s advice is tough here. She encourages Blair to remember the good things her grandfather did. Blair pushes back, and I understand. I have only recently learned that it’s possible – indeed, necessary, to hold contradictory truths. It is possible that her grandfather was an ugly, ugly man, AND he also gave Blair good memories. She was a little tiny baby girl; she’s still a little tiny girl that shouldn’t be expected to fully understand all of this. It’s hard as hell to make space in one’s psyche for this stuff. Indeed, she struggles with the fact that she doesn’t want to remember him, but she does, and what she remembers is him holding her hand all night when she had chicken pox.
And Mrs. G nails it:
“For a man who spent a lifetime promoting ignorance, maybe a library is a fitting gift.”
And then suddenly Blair gets it, and she declares that the library will go forward, not as the Blair library, but as the Eastland library. Letting go of ego is an important step in cultivating allyship.
If you want to do more in the context of what’s going on right now, this article lists organizations to donate to and other ways that you can support the Black Lives Matter movement. Most of all, please step back and listen.
