Reading Nietzsche in school when I was 20 was a first-time experience for me. Finally found a true genius - someone who agreed with everything I been saying for years. Like, we all have unlimited potential, and we none of us know it. But that never quite happened again, the meeting of sheer genius - someone who was so like me.
Now that's a bit tongue in cheek. Though defining "genius" as someone who closely agrees with us, isn't a stretch. Likely most people see it that way, if pressed for honesty. Just that it's rare to find people who agree with us so closely, on so many fundamental issues. Parents and siblings don't even do that.
I was quite amazed to read Losing My Cool, and say "wow, he thinks just like I do; what a brilliant fellow." And I continued feeling that, even when the author throws around the ideas of Sartre and Heidegger as if we'd all studied philosophy. Which I did, so I can relate. Doesn't everybody - if not, how come. That's supposed to be: how the greatest human thinkers thought about stuff. Like how to live. Anyway, you can see what I mean.
A basic premise of Thomas Chatterton Williams' book is that there isn't a lot of intrinsic difference between us as people. (I'd say none, but he and I don't agree on everything.) To illustrate, Williams takes us on his journey of growing up black in America. I know of that cuz I've been there. Wait...how does an old white guy in Dakota relate to that. Well, we'll get there. Like I said, it's a journey, and each of us has been places no one else has.
So, I was a kid in Athens GA, when Stokely Carmichael was jailed in Atlanta, and Lester Maddox was barring black people from his Varsity Restaurant in my home town. Lester went on to be Governor and Stokely became my hero; though our ideas diverged as we got older. I got smarter; Stokely, I'm not so sure. But he was cool. Or rather - cool was him.
And this inner demon that's been tearing at me for years now, as I'm secluded away in a quiet little white enclave - those folks I see on the TV are like minstrels of Jim Crow. Half-wit athletes talking to half-wit commentators who used to be athletes; or half-wit rappers who I never bother to listen to cuz I don't expect they've much to say. Not to single out Lil Wayne, but yeah okay. He might be real smart, but I'll never know cuz he sure doesn't look like it, to me.
But what Thomas Chatterton Williams doesn't know, what yall don't know, is - I've done that. The Hippie culture of the mid-60's to mid-70's was pretty much the same as the hip hop culture of today. Kids (and their idols) dressed weird, took drugs, and didn't want any part of mainstream values. The biggest difference is that most all Hippie-types outgrew it, cut their hair, and became like their parents. Successful, at least financially, and with some lingering "peace love dope" ideology.
What Williams so desperately fears is that blacks - gonna live hip hop, gonna die hip hop, and never gonna know better. There're a couple ways to take that. If you think (like me) that there's no difference in skin color other than skin color - this is an immense tragedy, a needless waste. Millions of people worshiping a false god who'll lead them straight to hell. But if you're a bigot for some odd reason, you might think - full speed ahead.
Problem is, hip hop is either inclusive, beckoning everyone to tune in, turn on, and drop out - or is exclusive for folks like me "man...stay away...please...just as far away as you can." Cuz I aint gonna debate Lil Wayne over the value of tattoos and drugs and the money you might but probably won't get. I'd rather just say "steer clear of me and mine." And I saw that same reaction for Hippies, back in the day. Hell, we invented "no shoes, no shirt, no service" cuz we wanted the earth under our feet.
But there's a difference worth highlighting. William's recalls the brutal beating of his brother by the police. My own experience was this: I was often harassed by crazy cops as a Hippie youth. One rainy night, with nothing better to do, I was grabbed off the street and hauled away to the local doctor's office where the drunken police chief demanded I be tested for drugs. My reaction (maybe my learned response) was - okay. Cuz me, the doctor, and my dad who was more angered by this than anyone, all knew it weren't nothing but a thing. And that was the end of it. Crisis averted, case closed.
When you read this book (I got one for my granddaughter cuz "everyone needs a copy of the bible at home") you'll notice Williams writes better than most. His opening sentences are Faulknerian in length and breadth. He has big ideas, profound truths to tell. And little clever phrases might trick the street mark, but won't hold immense thoughts. Like how to live; or how not to ensure your own suicide. Good book - for everyone who's a parent or a child, and everyone else.
Especially for me, as I was worried about it - do I only like black people who are like me? "White" with darker skin, like maybe Barack Obama or Don Lemon. But Williams' book answered that. Of course I like people who are like me - everyone does. And skin color has nothing to do with it. My issue isn't with people - they're good or bad on their individual merit - it's Hip Hop that disgusts and repulses me. And as Williams explains, it's not a racial culture. It's simply a cheap exploitation of kids searching for direction; and taking a wrong turn.
The book is dedicated to Williams' father, to whom he owes his life, in more ways than one. For the elder is the architect of the younger's success. It is Clarence Williams, the patriarch, who searched for and found the knowing of things - the collective knowledge of all mankind. And he passed this along to his son, as his gift not only of life, but of what life could be. We're obliged to pass along his gift to everyone. All kids are malleable, and some or most never get past that. But Clarence Williams gave us a blueprint of how we can be more than just clay pigeons.
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