A Case Against Blissful Ignorance
Jennifer Lubin
Grandma, why I gotta see this?
So that you won’t forget.
But I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout it in the first place, so how am I supposed to forget? You showin’ this to me now, so now I know. But why you want me to see this? I don’t wanna see these pictures or read nothin’ ‘bout ‘em. They horrible.
Because it’s too important for you not to know.
But Grandma, these two men is hanging from a tree and they backs is bleedin.’ They look dead.
They are dead. They were killed.
Who killt ‘em?
Hateful white folks.
Why they did that? Why them white folks was hatin’ on ‘em so bad that they did that?
Because they was black.
Why they wanted to kill ‘em just ‘cause they was black?
Because they was newly freed slaves and the folks that killed ‘em didn’t like the color of they skin ... thought the color was too dark. And ugly. Thought they noses was too big and they hair too nappy. They didn’t believe that blacks had the same beating hearts in they bodies that was pumpin’ the same red blood. They didn’t like the way black folks looked, so they figured black folks weren’t full human beings fit enough to go ‘bout living free and unbothered lives like white folks was.
But what was so wrong with the color of they black skin? It look just fine to me. It look a lot like mine and yours. Look kinda good, actually. Just need a little shea butter lotion on the elbows and feet, like you put on me.
Nothin’. Wasn’t nothing wrong with the color of they skin. Or yours. Or mine. Shea butter lotion or not.
Grandma?
Yes, baby.
What’s a slave?
It’s somethin’ that wasn’t ever supposed to be, and ain’t never supposed to be again, baby. Slavin’ was and is somethin’ that was created by hateful people who never bothered consulting God on the matter.
Grandma?
Yes, baby.
Is all white folks hateful?
No, baby. Not all of them.
Is most of them hateful?
I don’t think so, baby. A lot of them just scared.
Just some of them is hateful, then?
Yes, baby.
Grandma?
Yes, baby.
Am I a human being?
Yes, you are.
Ain’t you one, too?
Yes, baby. I am.
Them boys was human beings too. I don’t wanna look at these pictures no more, Grandma.
You need to look.
Why?
You need to look.
But why? Do I gotta look because what happened to them gon’ happen to me?
No, baby. That’s not gon’ happen to you.
Then why I gotta look?
Because you need to know what happened to them and what happened to a lot of black folks just like them.
Why I gotta know what happened to them if the same thing ain’t gon’ happen to me?
Because what happened to them is part of your history. It’s our history. You need to know what happened in your history so that no one’ll tell you lies ‘bout it.
Tell me lies ‘bout what?
Your history.
These hangin’ dead boys is a part of my history?
Yes.
Am I a part of theirs?
No.
Why not?
Because history gotta do with things that done happened in the past. You came after they did so you ain’t a part of they history. But they a part of yours. You more a part of they future.
Am I gonna be a part of somebody else’s history?
Yes.
Grandma?
Yes, baby.
Why would anybody lie to me ‘bout my history? Especially when they got pictures and stories ‘bout it.
‘Cause they just would.
Would they would lie about everything?
No, not everything.
Just some things? Like the things they did that was bad?
Yes.
If you do a really bad thing, you gon’ wanna lie about it so people won’t find out you did it, right Grandma?
Yes, baby. Sometimes.
People ain’t supposed to do that to other people. They ain’t got no business killin’ folks just ‘cause they black, and they ain’t got no business lying ‘bout it, neither.
No, baby. They don’t.
Does Mamma and Daddy know about this?
Yes.
Does my teacher know?
Yes.
Does the President know?
Yes.
Does the King of England know?
Yes.
Does Pastor know?
Yes.
Does Coach Johnson know?
Yes.
Does the mailman know?
Yes.
Do the police know?
Yes.
So, Grandma, everybody knows this done happened?
Yes.
How come didn’t nobody do nothin’ ‘bout it?
At the time it happened, the only people who really wanted to do something ‘bout stoppin’ it was mostly black folks just like them boys hangin’ from them trees and they couldn’t do too much of anything at all ‘cause they was afraid that the same thing might was gon’ happen to them. But people can’t go ‘round doing that to black folks no more, baby. Not like that. They’d go to jail for a long time if they did.
They’d go to jail? That’s all?
Yes, baby.
After this happened, did the people who did it go to jail?
No.
If they didn’t go to jail, what happened to ‘em?
Don’t know.
You don’t know what happened to ‘em, Grandma?
No.
Then how you know they didn’t go to jail?
Because I just do.
Did the hateful people who did this to them black boys have mammas and daddies?
Yes.
Did they mammas and daddies know what they did?
Prob’ly so.
Did they mammas and daddies put them on punishment?
Prob’ly not.
Did they say sorry for what they did?
No.
How come they didn’t say sorry for what they did, Grandma?
Because they didn’t think they needed to. They didn’t think they did anything wrong. They felt that those black boys deserved to die.
Do anybody deserve to die like that just for being black, Grandma?
No, baby.
Then why’d they do it, then? And how come they never said sorry?! Is something wrong with them? Is they sick in they heads? Is they sick in they hearts?
The government done said its version of sorry on behalf of them dead boys by way of making it so that, nowadays, if some angry white men decide that they wanna take a black man and beat his back bloody, then hang him by his neck and kill him just because they don’t like the way he looks or the way he talks or the way he walkin’ ‘round livin’ his life and mindin’ his own business, then they’d go to jail for that.
Who took these pictures, Grandma?
Don’t know. Prob’ly somebody who had no problem taking a steady picture while watching those boys hang from them trees.
Did the people who did this have children, Grandma?
Don’t know. Prob’ly.
If they had children, did they children know what they did?
Don’t know.
Grandma?
Yes, baby.
What if the people who did this do it again?
The people who did this is dead now, baby. They long been dead. I don’t know what happened to ‘em before they died but I know they dead now because this happened a long time ago.
If it happened a long time ago, why I gotta know about it now?
Like I said, so you know your history.
But it makes me sad, Grandma. And scared. And mad.
Well then that’s what it does, baby. It makes you feel all them things.
Why you want me to feel all them things, Grandma? I wasn’t feeling them before you told me about this and showed me these pictures.
Neither were them dead boys’ great grandparents. Them dead boys’ great grandparents wasn’t feeling them things neither before they got put on a ship to head out this way years ago. They was prob’ly worried for they own lives, but, dear Lord, they had no idea what was gon’ end up happening to their great grandbabies.