On this 9–1–11 Anniversary, Let’s Get Rid of 1.) Toxic Status Quo Institutions and 2.) Voter Apathy in the USA!
1.) Toxic Status Quo Institutions: QUESTION AUTHORITY
Why did Closeted-but-openly-hiding-in-plain-sight Scholar Henry Louis Gates Choose THE SIGNIFYING MONKEY for his Seminal(?) tome on PanAfricanAmerican literary criticism?*
The signifying monkey is a character of African-American folklore that derives from the trickster figure of Yoruba mythology, Esu Elegbara. This character was transported with Africans to the Americas under the names of Exu, Echu-Elegua, Papa Legba, and Papa Le Bas. Esu and his variants all serve as messengers who mediated between the gods and men by means of tricks. The signifying monkey is “distinctly Afro-American” but is thought to derive from Yoruban mythology, which depicts Echu-Elegua with a monkey at his side.
Numerous songs and narratives concern the signifying monkey and his interactions with his friends, the lion and the elephant. In general, the stories depict the signifying monkey insulting the lion, but claiming that he is only repeating the elephant’s words. The lion then confronts the elephant, who in turn physically assaults the lion. The lion later realizes that the monkey has been signifyin’ and has duped the lion, and as a result the lion angrily returns to castrate the monkey and rendering him unable to reproduce.
* It may very well be academically accurate, but he had to have realized how pejorative it was when he began his research, defended it (? as a dissertation?), and began the journey culminating in its publication. Would his choice of title have been different outside of the Ivy League race-prejudiced incubator that we now know after the past Trumpian Epoch [ 1946- present day ( 9.11.2022)]? Could his Black Socioeconomic Elite upbringing have groomed him to be dangerously culturally ignorant and tragically naive? Did he intentionally of his own free will and prodigious independent/ diabolical(?) cognitive abilities choose to be provocative out of a deep ambition/craving for popularity?
From where I sit and type these words on the morning of the Twenty-first Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 USA/World Trade Center attacks, I wonder if the OBAMA-GATES-BOSTON PD “Beer Summit” was merely the beginning of the end of Dr. Gates’ storied career? Was it ever possible that his popular and robust publication bibliography might have set him and or the people who have always been PanAfricanAmericans and 100% of the Homo Sapien population of Planet Earth “FREE” to thrive stronger together? Is it now and or has it always been unfair to have such lofty expectations for anything and EVERY SINGLE PUBLICATION produced by a UK-USA-EURASIAN-OCCIDENTAL-(corrupt, cruel, cannibalistic, political, narcissistic, venal, punitive, petty, sexist, xenophobic, race-prejudiced, capitalist)-Academy?
Alone, I know I cannot answer any of these existential and essential questions. However, the extant Academy of Ph.D.s, JD’s,and MD’s must be mandated first responders to this challenge. Concurrently, I would also strongly encourage EVERY LITERATE human being on Planet Earth to weigh in with answers to these questions as well. That is precisely why I pulled all of my original content from a pay-to-participate 21st-Century app that I refer to as Dr. Karen’sKnubianKnarrative.
I very mistakenly thought I had finally found a majority BIPOC space where all paying members would be fully seen and heard as peers and all their ideas welcomed and engaged with as contributions of brilliant minds — which is what I practice with every individual and or group of learners I have encountered in education-centered spaces in 50 + years as a teacher. Instead, it was very similar to every other USA public classroom, owned and operated by skilled educator-elites at the top of a hierarchy.
In the aftermath of so many millions of OG-MCs and or BIPOCS coming out as proud xenophobes, homophobes, misogynists, and punitive/virulent race-prejudiced, I also am seriously concerned it is simply a collective of justifiably angry-but-sinning-not “brick-wielding” and potentially incendiary cannon fodder that wish to finish the demolition of the current Global/USA Capitalist Empire. Specifically, I do not wish for another toxic hierarchy to replace the toxic hierarchy we currently have.
The next level of the Dr.
Karen’sKnubianKnarrative pyramid are called “Verified members”. The rest of the thousands(?) tens or hundreds of thousands(?) of members, I would ‘label’ as “Potentials”.
The appellation “Potentials” seems doubly appropriate as many USA higher education institutions are at the beginning, middle, or end of an extremely subjective ritual otherwise known as PanHELLinic Rush. During “Rush”, upperclass women and men anoint a select subset of the potentials to become verifiable sorors and frat brothers.
(Full Disclosure: Me and two of my second-floor neighbors in the Foster-Walker Complex at Northwestern University in 1977 declared as “polar coordinates” to RhoThetaPi, an anti-PanHellenic organization
. Our colors and pledge line t-shirts were red with black Greek letters GDI( for G** D**n Independent)).
2.) Voter Apathy in the USA!: DEFY EXPECTATIONS
So, here is why I think answering the questions I am asking is vitally important ahead of the 2022 Fall Midterm Plebiscite in the USA:
1.) “How do voting laws differ by state? — USAFacts” https://usafacts.org/articles/how-do-voting-laws-differ-by-state/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvaYBhDlARIsAO8PkE0oortGTgUulTO_sU5mWO3bHul6Rb7BmTc_MBGnUDN_QFF7bsFlG5saAkOsEALw_wcB
a.) In North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, you can be registered but unable to vote without a valid state ID.
b.) There are different voter access and equity laws in the USA.
2.) While Americans typically expect to know election results on election night, the official process to finalize results in each state can last anywhere from one day to more than one month after Election Day, depending on state law.
https://usafacts.org/visualizations/when-will-each-state-have-official-election-count/
3.) In 2022 and every future election, 100% of the registered voters in all 50 states, territories, and Americans Living Abroad MUST VOTE.
LET The USA MIDTERM Elections of November 2022 mark the END of ALL TOXIC HIERARCHIES.
© Vernon Nickerson Schoolcoach 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
