By Barbara Smith,
Blogger and Social Justice Activist,
https://www.facebook.com/HWdemocrats/
I love reading memoirs, especially when they tell inspirational stories involving overcoming adversity. Finding Me by actor Viola Davis is one such story that will hopefully open up hearts and minds, especially of people new to being “Woke” who don’t typically think about the realities of poverty and racism. The next step is inspiring readers to vote for the candidates who care- about policies that actually make a difference- such as securing voting rights, bodily autonomy and the ability to live without worrying whether or not your child will return home safely from school. Finding Me is that type of book.
No Child Should Ever Suffer as Viola Davis Has!
Davis has had and continues to have a long and admirable career on stage, television and the big screen, but I had never heard of her until The Help became a literary and cinematic success.
Film icon, Cecily Tyson was a role model for proud, Black actors such as Davis. Tyson transcended stereotypical roles of welfare queens, drug addicts and happy-go- lucky slaves and servants…..(think of: Mammy in Gone with the Wind).
Both Tyson and Davis tapped into their painful experiences to express the inner landscape all humanity shares- love, fear, shame, hope and despair. Tyson won an Honorary Academy Award in 2018 for her roll in The Help. I just adored her talent, activism and spirit….
Viola Davis wrote the forward to Tyson’s memoir Just As I Am….
“Ms. Tyson, the daughter of immigrants, had herself risen out of poverty and onto the global stage. In her journey, I glimpsed possibilities for my own….For six decades, Ms. Tyson has shown us who we are: vulnerable, magnificent, pain-ridden and beautifully human…..” and then…”in 2011, on the set of The Help, I finally met my muse. There before me on a muggy afternoon in Mississippi stood the divine giver of gifts, the legend who inspired me to act.”
Poverty, Hunger and Survival
My first occupational therapy job was a position in an early intervention program in Lynn, Massachusetts. I learned about the priorities of- food and shelter, as I treated families living hand to mouth in low income housing complexes that did not appear to be safe…. but what do I know? Families often didn’t show up for appointments or were not home when I attempted home visits. I was not yet, a parent so I ignorantly expected clients to be punctual as well as find transportation to the clinic. While I focused on evaluating muscle tone, explaining sensory regulation and suggesting toys to develop hand skills parents struggled to harness the excited siblings and politely listened to my suggestions on how to decrease overstimulation…. I don’t know whether or not these children were hungry, but many lived on food stamps-and maintaining a roof over their heads was a constant concern. I apologize for my ignorance and ridiculous expectations 35 years ago!
How does the health and Human services system ignore this ???
Viola Davis describes growing up in Central Falls, Rhode Island….. “We were “po“. That’s a level lower than poor. I’ve heard some of my friends say, ‘We were poor, too, but I just didn’t know it until I got older’. We were poor and we KNEW it. There was absolutely no disputing it. It was reflected in the apartments we lived in, where we shopped for clothes and furniture-the St. Vincent de Paul-the food stamps that were never enough to fully feed us, and the welfare checks. We were “po”. We almost never had a phone. Often, we had no hot water or gas. We had to use a hot plate, which increased the electric bill. The plumbing was shoddy, so the toilets never flushed. Actually, I don’t ever remember toilets working in our apartments. I became very skilled at filling up a bucket and pouring it into the toilet to flush it. And with our gas constantly being cut off because of nonpayment, we would either go unwashed or would just wipe ourselves down with cold water. And even the wiping down was a chore because we were often without towels, soap, shampoo…. I damn sure didn’t know the difference between a washcloth and a both towel.”
The Davis family continued to live in the building after it became condemned. The wiring became dangerously unstable, there were fires, rat infestations. The rats were so bad, they ate the faces off dolls. Davis continues: I never, ever went into the kitchen. Rats had taken over the cabinets and the counter. The plaster was constantly falling off the wall, revealing the wooden boards holding the house together.”
Laundry went unwashed for weeks and bedwetting compounded the problem of smell.
School Should Be a Safe Haven
Viola Davis is very intelligent, talented and loved school. But school didn’t love her back. Most teachers didn’t question the thrift shop clothing that didn’t fit, nor keep the children warm, an emotionally labile student who couldn’t sleep due to hunger, rats, cold and fear of fires and the bullies waiting to get her on the way to school each morning. Her school clothing was hand washed with water when lucky, with soap when she struck gold. Bedwetting became chronic because it was too scary to find the bathroom in the dark when rats might jump out at you.
School should be a safe haven where teachers, therapists and counselors notice and respond to children living in crisis. Instead Davis would get called into the nurse’s office because the teacher could not tolerate the odor and told her ‘You need to tell your mother to get some soap and water and wash you! The odor is horrible.’ Davis continues, “The nurse came in and gave a whole lecture of the complaints from teachers about our hygiene. She asked how we washed up. We said nothing. We were trained in the art of keeping secrets and we never, ever shared with anyone what went on in our home. Ever!”
It doesn’t require a professional degree to know that if children are hungry, they can’t focus- they have no energy. Davis explains- ” School lunch was our stable, assured meal…. The invisibility of the one-two punch that is Blackness and poverty is brutal. Mix that with being hungry all the damn time and it becomes combustible. “
Surviving Poverty
Viola Davis survived poverty. She has grit, brains, supportive sisters and had a little bit of luck to be recognized as a young, upcoming talent worthy of scholarships. She made it and even became a Woman King.
The psychological harm of racism and poverty can take a lifetime to overcome. Davis brilliantly describes that struggle. She struggled to find the woman who was not scarred by that childhood… the woman who she grew into, loved and successful.
There is no excuse for hunger in the United States of America. I believe that it is incumbent upon society to step in when the children we educate or provide therapy for are suffering from poverty, racism and any type of hate/bullying. Reading memoirs of courageous survivors is a great way to create empathy and hopefully improve a society that allows many of our fellow Americans, including the students we service to suffer……
Please tell your elected officials to do what it takes to end poverty…. especially hunger.
Social Justice Books in 2022
Many books that I grew up reading in the 1960’s and 70’s have been and may currently be banned in parts of the United States. Haters in power try to hide historical truths such as the Holocaust (Anne Frank’s Diary), the horrors of racism ( To Kill A Mockingbird) and native American massacres (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee). More recently I gained insight into hate directed at the LGBTQ community by reading a memoir called Tomorrow will be Different by Sarah McBride and the young adult novel that reflects the coming of age experience during the times of Black Lives Matter (The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas) and misogyny directed at rape victims ( Know My Name by Chanel Miller).
I believe that it is a sign of progress that so many “anti-hate” books are being written and read. However, I believe that these books and joining book groups such as the one I joined at the local North Shore NAACP is a CHOICE. People who do not make the choice to do anti-racist work should not be demonized because that alienates potential future allies in the effort to improve social justice. Its also not the duty of people who are in competition to see who can be the most “woke” (such as Anna Siedzik an her political lobby ) to determine what other people should believe and what should be taught in schools.
Last year I read a list of “social justice” books recommended in Massachusetts and they all looked interesting and worthwhile to me. However, a parent in Hamilton explained to me that she didn’t understand why her child was reading about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ‘s life with little mention of his basketball career. She didn’t understand the significance of Jabbar’s social justice work or why her child was reading this in school. She is not hateful; she is simply the type of parent that needs to be heard and respected without accusations of being a racist. I explained to her why Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of my heroes even though I never follow sports…I don’t have an answer in how to open minds and hearts but it is not done by forcing morality or values on others. Maybe her child should have been given an accurate history book instead. I don’t know how these students are being taught these days because my own child graduated over 15 years ago. But I did tell the teachers that I did not appreciate summer reading that included a story of 2 tweens going to camp and being hazed and suffering…. It was horrible…. so yes, parents should speak up when they have concerns.
When I joined the North Shore NAACP as part of a social book group. I chose to read Ibram X Kendi and Ta-Nehisi Coates. I didn’t agree with all that they wrote, but found their ideas compelling and thoughtful. This was my CHOICE. I also chose to read Sarah McBride’s story of transitioning and involvement in politics so that, indeed tomorrow will be different for transgendered individuals. People who choose NOT to read this book nor attend a community Pride Event should not be called bigots or TERFS. It is Mcarthyism to call anyone a TERF, COMMIE, RACIST, or a WITCH because the Coalition is on a hunt for enemies….
Memoirs and fiction are critical in helping children and young adults develop critical thinking skills and empathy. Demanding Pride Flags, Native American proclamations (much like prayers, read before meetings), asking candidates to pledge to the political lobby and demanding that high school students reveal their chosen identity and whether or not that identity is used at home is confusing, humiliating, intrusive, unnecessary and frankly- a waste of educational time. Students can share their identity and correct pronoun usage as needed and any disrespect or bullying by adults or peers is not to be tolerated. The Hamilton Wenham students should make hate unacceptable as they did when a racist incident occurred . Good work Hamilton Wenham students!!!
The backlash against the Anna Siedzik style, morality police is broad and and spreading across the United States. Women have lost bodily autonomy and marriage equality is next on the chopping block. Let’s protect human rights by supporting free speech, the separation of church and state and by all means end book banning!
