Memorial Day (2013) — Remembering My Daddy

Posted on May 27, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

It’s Memorial Day, when we remember the men and women who have and are serving in our armed services. Today, I remember my father. He served his country during World War II. He enlisted in the Army on October 31, 1944, at the age of 18. He stayed through the end of the war and ended his service in 1946. Prior to that he supported the war effort working in a munitions factory. He died in 1982. He and my mother are together in Long Island National Cemetery. They live on in the memories of their children.

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Those annoying popups (ads)

Posted on May 26, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I was on Ancestry.com doing further research into my roots when I went to print out a Census record, I got the following ad:

“Attention Visitors”

“For a short time, we are offering visitors a Complimentary Background Check.

“Perform discreet background checks on yourself, anyone you know, or people before you meet them. This background check is available today (Sunday, May 26, 2013)

*Find out if they are really who they say they are
* People who are known rapists and murderers often commit crimes again
*Search national and local criminal records and the sex offender registry”

Why would anyone do a background check on themselves? To make sure there is no erroneous information gathered on them?

“People who are ‘known’ rapists and murderers often commit crimes again.” If they are “unknown” do they not commit crimes again?

In any event, I wanted to address the clearly erroneous information in this ad. I have worked in the criminal justice system for more than 20 years, and people convicted of murder have the lowest recidivism rate of all people convicted of crimes. In fact, murder is a once in a lifetime crime and is often the only crime the individual has committed. It is also the crime people serve substantial amounts of time in prison, more than any other crime, with rape running second. In fact, in the criminal justice system rape is often seen as the most despicable crime, with no justification. Homicide, on the other hand, could be deemed justifiable homicide, depending on the circumstances. For example, a woman who kills her abuser might “get off” without a murder conviction, maybe a lesser offense, or no conviction at all.

I will do a little research and look at the recidivism rate for people convicted of rape.

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The Challenges of Tracing Roots

Posted on May 25, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I previously blogged about tracing my roots back to 1805 and how it’s getting hard to go back further in time because almost all my white ancestors in the South (North Carolina) are not on the tree. One of the most challenging and frustrating things about tracing my roots is how the Census changes in different years in terms of classifying an individual’s race. For example, one ancestor is listed as a Negro in one Census and as a Mulatto in another. I have only clearly identified one White (woman) ancestor. Ironically, she is the one born in 1805, as far back as I’ve gotten thus far. This is the exception to the rule, that is, a White woman ancestor — an exception in that she is clearly identified. What I am saying, the overwhelming majority of Mulattos are the result of the “union” between Black women and the White male slavers who took liberties with them, and the White men are almost never identified. When I learn more I’ll know if my theory is true that some of the children were given the middle names of these fathers as a way for the mothers to clearly identify and attach responsibility to those responsible. There are a number of other things that stand out that I’ll write about another time.

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“My Lord, What a Morning”

Posted on May 24, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Hard at work on my third book of poetry, tentatively titled, “The Black Feminine Mystique.” It’s a collection of poetry for and about women of color, from myth to reality, from history to my story. Here is one of my favorites, “My Lord, What a Morning” — which is the title for Marian Anderson’s autobiography. About Marian Anderson’s voice, Arturo Toscanini, an Italian conductor and one of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, said: “a voice like hers comes but once in a century.”

(For Marian Anderson)

I am Black and proud,
O Daughters of the American Revolution,
Like the soil of Creation,
Like the land of Mother Africa.
Do not look at me with contempt because I am Black.
Your mythology says I am sun burnt,
That my forefathers were cursed.
My forebears sold my ancestors into slavery,
Made generations toilers of the land;
But the land I made great rejected me
When I came up from slavery.
You found other ways to keep me down,
Would not allow me to sing my song
In this land that is mine as well as yours.

My forefathers fought in the American Revolution,
My foremothers supported the Civil War,
My father fought to make the world safe for democracy,
My brother would fight to end all wars.
How dare you not allow me to sing my song!
I will lift my voice and sing,
I will sing a song of sweet liberty,
I will sing so loud the earth will be torn asunder,
I will sing so loud those war dead will rise.
Listen, and hear the angels weep,
Listen, the temple’s curtains have been rent,
Listen, and know that God speaks through me.
Hear my voice, O Daughters of the American Revolution,
Hear my voice and eat your hearts out!

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From my book, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass — one of my favorite passages

Posted on May 17, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

II

On the auction blocks,
male and female and even child,
bronze bodies oiled and buffed,
prepared to be sold
like used furniture.
Bare black breasts weighed
with rough white hands,
squeezed like fruit.
Teeth exposed,
dirty white fingers
rubbed across pink gums.
Large, piano-shaped
ivory teeth tapped,
new music emanating
from this mouth forced open –
the gift of song.
The span of hips
measured with lecherous eyes,
calculating the number
of children she can bear.

Demure white ladies
who’d insisted to come along,
hatted and veiled,
fan in hands,
covering their faces
up ‘til their eyes,
batting them in disbelief
at the strange fruit hanging
from sturdy tree trunk-like
ebony legs.
 
Their eyes did their
own calculating,
sized them up.
Was it possible to –
no, impossible!
A lady couldn’t
she just couldn’t.
They had to stifle screams
just at the thought of it.

There were screams.
Screams as they were taken
from Mother Africa.
Screams as they were shackled
in holding pens.
Screams as they were forced
on slave ships.
Screams as they jumped
to their death,
into the waiting arms
of the deep,
or into the jaws of sharks
who knew the itinerary
of the triangular trade.
Screams in the holds of ships,
where the rapes began.
Screams when they alighted
on foreign land.
Screams when they were separated
and placed on auction blocks.
Screams at the bodily invasions.
Screams in the slave quarters,
where the rapes continued.
 
Screams when they’re beaten
into submission,
‘til they’re beaten into silence.

These screams are now
thought to be silent,
but they can still be heard.
They echo off the walls of history.
They are remembered and relived
in the collective unconscious.
They can still be seen,
in every woman of color,
the different shades of color –
fifty-five strains.
Look deeply into her eyes.
See the past reflected there.
Glance at the descendants
of the children
she was forced to bear.
And scream,
scream,
scream.

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“I’ll Always Love My Mama (Part 1)

Posted on May 12, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Today, Mother’s Day, if one turns on the radio one is bound to hear The Intruders’ “I’ll Always Love My Mama,” inspired by one of The Intruders’ (Kenny Gamble) Mama, Ruby. Although the song, released in 1973, didn’t make it to Number One on the Music Charts — R&B #6, Pop#36 — today it will be the Number One Song.

In the song one hears how Mama is “one of a kind” and that “you only get one, you only get one.”

Anyone who has never herd this song must Google it today; watch one of the videos or read the lyrics.

To all the Mothers: Happy Mother’s Day!

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“Prison-Based Gerrymandering” and the 3/5ths Compromise

Posted on May 4, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

                The U.S. Census Bureau counts incarcerated individuals at the locations where they are incarcerated rather than at their prior addresses.  This has political as well as economic consequences. 

                Most states’ state prisons are located hundreds of miles from urban centers where the majority of individuals are arrested, tried and convicted.  After convicted and sentenced, these individuals are often transported from the place they call home to distant prisons.  Additionally, because of the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color, including Latinos, the political landscape changes dramatically, that is, because political representation as well as Federal funding is based on the number of people in a district.  In terms of political office, especially locally, seats that otherwise would not exist are created in certain districts because of the number of people in the district, including and most importantly counting the incarcerated and, on the other hand, seats are lost or a party that doesn’t have a political advantage in a given district gains one, as well as the entire Caucus.  Needless to say, these districts that benefit from having the incarcerated counted in their districts want to have them counted there. 

     Because of the disproportionate imprisonment of people of color, the 3/5ths Compromise is implicated again.  As any student of American history should know, the 3/5ths Compromise was a Compromise between the North and the South concerning how slaves would, if at all, be counted for purposes of political representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.  The South wanted its slaves (“property”) counted.  The North did not, knowing that this would give the South disproportionate representation in the House, counting individuals that could not vote.  Finally, the Compromise was that every five slaves would be counted as three for purposes of representation in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Still, this weighed in favor of the South.

     Sometimes the connections aren’t obvious, but tell me there’s no connection between prison-based gerrymandering and the 3/5ths Compromise.

 

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Roots – Back in 1805

Posted on May 1, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I have been doing some research into my family’s family tree, and I have made it back in time 200+ years! I am back in 1805, and the White people in my family tree are starting to pop up. They’re popping up in both the South (North Carolina: father’s side) and the Caribbean (Barbados: mother’s side). Now it’s getting hard to identify individuals, because White slave masters didn’t claim their progeny by black women, and in the Census the children, even the mulattos, are identified as the children of the Negro husband (“relationship to head of household) and Negro wife — now tell me how that’s possible! One striking thing I encountered is the number of children women had. I’m seeing as many as 14, 10 surviving.

One thing you can say for the Old South: it kept good records, keeping track of African slaves (their chattel “property”). I bet this had something to do with the Three-Fifths Compromise, where every five slaves were counted as three for purposes of representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Census records have been invaluable in tracking my ancestors.

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From “Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass”

Posted on March 9, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Preamble

From slavery to freedom.
From pre-colonialism to post-modernism.
From revolution to reactionism.
From the War for Independence
to the Civil War
From the slave enlistment bill
to Selective Service.
From Articles of Confederation
to the Confederacy.
From agrarianism to technocratism.
From pre-industrialization.
to post-industrialization

From George Washington
to George Bush.
From the birth of a nation
to a kinder, gentler nation.
From Thomas Jefferson
to William Jefferson Clinton.
From Democratic Republicanism
to the New Democrats.
From honest Abe
to tricky Dick
to Slick Willie.
From preserving the Union
to fighting a “lawless society”
to establishing a New Covenant.
From Radical Republicanism
to Roosevelt’s reign
to Reaganism.

From Reconstruction
to public works
to trickle-down economics.
From the Welfare State
to a Police State.

From the Do Nothing Party
to the Freedom Now Party.
From New Deal Democrats
to Dixiecrats.
From the Grand Old Party
to the Great Society
to this dialogue on race.
From the melting pot
to multiculturalism.
From Jim Crow
to the Rainbow Coalition.

From Griots to the Last Poets
From Phillis Wheatley
to Gwendolyn Brooks.
From highly imitative
to Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry.
From Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
to Annie Allen.
From Zora Neale Hurston
to Toni Morrison.
From Their Eyes Were Watching God
to Paradise.
From folklore
to Nobel Laureate fiction.
From Mules and Men
to Beloved.
From Richard Wright
to James Baldwin
to Walter Mosley.
From Native Son
to “Sonny’s Blues”
to A Devil in a Blue Dress.

From the Royal Family—
Count Basie, Duke Ellington
and Nat King Cole
to the King of Pop.
From a Lady singing the blues
to the Funky Divas.
From the Queen of Soul
to Queen Latifah.
From Bojangles
to M.C. Hammer
to the Tap Dance Kid.
From Porgy and Bess
to Jelly’s Last Jam.
From slave songs and spirituals
to soul.
From delta blues
to rhythm and blues.
From New Orleans jazz
to Brass Construction.
From ragtime
to rock ‘n’ roll
to rap.

The gift of story and song.

From slavery
to sharecropping.
From pickin’ cotton
to hoeing fields.
From the farm
to the factory.
From grapes of wrath
to industrial traps.
From the plantation
to the penitentiary.
From the old slavery
to the new slavery.
From chattel slavery
to the convict lease system
to the chain gang
to prisons for profit.

The gift of sweat and brawn.

From Africa to America.
From chains to the cross.
From a slave religion
to a religion of salvation.
From segregated balconies
to the front of the pews.
From hearing the Word
to proclaiming it.
From making a way out of no way
to leading the way.

The gift of the spirit.

The long shadows
of black history in America,
once hidden, often denied,
now revealed.

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About the book — Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present

Posted on March 9, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present is about the captivity, exploitation and suffering of Black people in America, and their triumphs.

The author, a history buff, took the challenge to look at the history of Black people in America, who are normally given one month, the shortest month of the year, February, to highlight “Black History” in America, and wrote this “epic.” For those who would separate “Black History” in America from American history, know this: American history and Black History in America are one and the same; one does not exist without the other, even though the latter has oftentimes been relegated to the shadows of American history.

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