T.J. JOURIAN, PH.D.
  • Home
  • About
    • Scholar
  • Services
    • THE Scholarly Collaborative
    • Past Work
  • Testimonials & Media
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
    • Scholar
  • Services
    • THE Scholarly Collaborative
    • Past Work
  • Testimonials & Media
  • Contact
Search

Waking up tired - Not your T*oken

Musings, reviews, news, and writings from a complex web of centers and margins

The Lazy Book Club and James Baldwin's "My Dungeon Shook"

1/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Recently, I had the fortune of joining a dear friend’s new venture, a budding community of individuals looking to connect around short readings and talk about the themes of justice, intersectionality, and power they discuss. The Lazy Book Club: Woke in 30 is a bold initiative, calling on folks to devote a mere hour every month or so – 30 minutes to read, 30 minutes to dialogue – to engage intellectually and emotionally with strangers and not-so-much strangers alike. The first one started off with a powerful piece that admittedly I hadn’t read before, so I was grateful for the assignment. It was “My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation” from James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time.
Picture of James Baldwin leaning back. There is a quote in the upper right corner -
Cover of James Baldwin's book
Like so much of Baldwin’s writings, his words echo as real today, as in the 1950s and 1960s when they first graced our world. His incisive abilities to bear witness to injustice and voice out demands for other possibilities are unmatched in my humble opinion, and this piece is no different. I was particularly called to a specific passage that I want to share here: “There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it.”
 
I can’t recall how long ago now did I abandon any desire to have others – white, cis, heterosexual, non-immigrant others – accept me and realize that that was not my burden to bear. But what I have avoided realizing is that there is a different, perhaps heavier burden, in accepting them, with love. At some level, I know this to be true, have voiced it internally and out loud with the intention of believing it and living it, but I don’t know that I have thus far. So this passage – especially now – is a scary reminder of the burden I must come to accept, to take responsibility for, and to live out in the coming years. I’m not so delusional to think I might achieve this any time soon or in entirety or that my commitment will be unwavering, but I know I must try. I must try because my own self-love is implicated in it.
 
So I am grateful for the gift of the Lazy Book Club and for my friend Tamara Plummer for inviting me into it. I look forward to the next reading of Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” and discussing it with others. Maybe you’d like to join too.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Un/de-centered

    It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Jiddu Krishnamurti

    Tweets by @tjjourian

    Blogs I Like

    Black Girl Dangerous
    Conditionally
    Accepted
    Crunk Feminist Collective

    D
    ances with Dissonance
    Eric M
    at
    a: Words
    Son of Baldwin

    TransGriot
    Trans* Resilience Blog
    Wilderness Voices

    Archives

    July 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    January 2015

    Categories

    All
    Academic Freedom
    Activism
    Administrative Violence
    Armenian
    BlackLivesMatter
    Brokenness
    Colonialism
    Community
    Corporatization
    Ferguson
    Healing
    Intersectionality
    Latinx
    LGBTQ+
    Love
    Media
    Neoliberalism
    Palestine/BDS
    Personal
    Race/racism
    Self-love
    Solidarity
    Tone Policing
    Tone-policing
    Trans
    Transgender
    #TransLoveNov
    Trauma
    TV
    TW
    TWOC
    Vulnerability

    RSS Feed

© 2015-20 T.J. Jourian. All Rights Reserved.
About that asterisk: This website uses the asterisk (*) as a linguistic disruption of sorts that shifts the meaning of words to intentionally reference from a trans perspective (e.g., trans*form). In most cases, it is not used after the word "trans" as is becoming common in many spaces (see this article for an explanation of the etymology and meaning of trans*), except when directly cited or is part of an already published piece.  This is to honor the ongoing discussions and tensions amongst trans communities regarding the use/misuse of the asterisk. See, the following three articles to learn about some of these discussions and tensions: by Julia Serano, by the Trans Student Educational Resources, and by Practical Androgyny.
  • Home
  • About
    • Scholar
  • Services
    • THE Scholarly Collaborative
    • Past Work
  • Testimonials & Media
  • Contact