Why didn’t we riot? : A black man in Trumpland — in review, #BlackHistoryMonth #intersectionality #LGBTQ #BookTube

I found Why didn’t we riot? : A black man in Trumpland by Issac J. Bailey and published by Other Press to be, in a word, fascinating.

Issac J. Bailey is an award-winning journalist as well as a professor.

He lives in Trumpland in the South.

I grew up in Trumpland in the North and fled. After my father died almost five years ago, I had no reason to return from the safe multi-cultural urban hamlet where I have made my home.

My experience as a white lesbian (even as someone who was young at a time when there was extreme homophobia including lethal acts of violence) who had to flee from my working-class origins was quite different.

Even as someone who sees the intersectionality of all—meaning that there are plenty of overlapping identities—I understand that if there was a hierarchy of oppression that racism would be at the top.

I found Why didn’t we riot? : A black man in Trumpland to be a brutal and honest look into the racist heart of America.

Of course, the trauma of racism in America goes far deeper than the results of the 2016 Presidential election. But the fact that Americans in 2016 voted in a way that allowed Donald Trump to be President and that they may do so again in 2024 is a major cause for concern.

An old friend, also an escapee from Trumpland, drives across the country for work purposes and through small towns which sport signs reading “Trump 2024 Take America Back Again.” As he pointed out, the language that is being used is very aggressive.

Bailey successfully makes the case that racism—and the willingness to make a bully a winner and to emulate that bully and to echo his racist sentiments—is at the root of the election of Trump.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about trauma. I attended an online conference on the effects of trauma and my ears perked up when I heard about the trauma experienced by marginalized groups, including LGBTQ people.

One of the speakers used the metaphor of a frog in the pot who doesn’t feel the temperature of the water going up because it is getting hotter gradually. In my case, I was the frog and fortunately was able to get out of the pot before I was cooked entirely.  I looked up lesbian and bisexual women and saw that we are more likely to die early from conditions related to obesity. In my case, I had a life-threatening medical emergency that scared me into slimming down to a healthy weight which I achieved by switching to a plant-based diet.

My point is that the health results of trauma are real.

I knew that before, but just recently realized it on a personal level. I had some understanding of how trauma affects other marginalized groups. In this way, my compassion for others led to a greater understanding of myself.

When I came across Bailey’s writing about trauma, I read it several times exhaling slowly as I let the reality of his writing sink in. As he writes:

“… I’ve struggled, along with the rest of my family, for several months watching Mama remain in a physical state just above vegetative after she endured a stroke and more hardships than I have, struggled because I desperately want to talk to her again, seek her counsel, and because I’m afraid I’m headed for the same fate. Because I’ve learned that the body never forgets that significant and persistent early trauma lingers in the body for decades, long after you’ve overcome the great odds you are supposed to be proud of having beaten. That’s one of the reasons black life expectancy is less than white life expectancy, why black people in their fifties and sixties are more prone to succumbing to chronic diseases than similarly situated white people, and maybe why I developed an autoimmune disease in my forties.”

…

And as he continues,

“Persistent stress puts the body in a near-constant state of emergency, making it difficult for the body to moderate itself, rendering people like me less capable of discerning the line between real and imagined threats…. Racism kills. Literally.”

Why didn’t we riot? : A black man in Trumpland by Issac J. Bailey published by Other Press is a must read particularly for white Americans open to knowing the lingering and living damage of history and how the results continue to live in this moment.

This is Janet Mason with reviews for Book Tube.

To learn more about my most recently published novel (available online & everywhere books are sold and lent such as your local library) — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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Memoir — the art of reading it #amreading #LGBTQ #difference #BookTube

There’s something about losing myself in a good memoir that I find hugely appealing.  The book that I found this time was titled “I Did It My Ways,” by D’yan Forest with Stephen Clarke.

D’yan describes herself as an 86-year-old standup comedian, who was previously a singer and an American in Paris who lived a scandalous life that was a far cry from the conventional expectations of her Jewish family in Boston in the United States. She was born in 1934.

As a writer, I have spent so much of my time under a rock that I have not even heard of D’yan Forest.

Still, desperate to get away from my own life—at least temporarily—I began turning the pages. Memoir as a form draws me in because I am interested in learning how people construct their lives and live on their own terms especially against the backdrop of conventionality.

It’s possible that conventional people don’t write memoirs—or maybe it is that I have never been interested in reading such a memoir. By definition, a memoirist has to have a story to tell. And if the story is just like everyone else’s, then why bother?

“I Did It My Ways” is an interesting story of a woman who lived – and continues to live – an unconventional life. It held my interest. And I may have a very different unconventional life myself, but there at the heart of the memoir is a story that dovetails with my own.

D’yan Forest had to struggle to find herself and she has always dealt with the feeling of difference. I have long struggled with feeling different also. In my case, and D’yan’s, over the years, this has lessened. As D’yan writes, maybe she just didn’t care anymore.

When she was growing up, the United States was rife with antisemitism and many of her ancestors in Europe had lived in Latvia and were killed in the Nazi-run concentration camps.

Later in life, she becomes obsessed with going to visit the concentration camps in Europe. As she writes: “My never-ending fight to avoid getting judged for who my ancestors were, made me even more determined to go to Europe and face the truth about what real hatred can do.”

Of her trip to Leningrad, she writes, “It was a hard lesson. Silence, I realized, can kill almost as much as violence. When we keep our eyes and mouths shut in the face of prejudice, we’re collaborating in that prejudice.”

Her issue of not fitting in began in childhood when she was a self-described tomboy. But she wanted to fit in and that meant dating boys. But fortunately, the boys didn’t go for it, so D’yan ended up going to college.

She attended college in New England at a time when sororities didn’t let Jews in. Wanting to fit in somewhere, D’yan ended up joining a Presbyterian choir. Her mother told her that was fine but to hum whenever they mentioned Jesus.

In college, D’yan studied French and spent a year abroad in France which ended up changing her life. She experienced less antisemitism in France and observed that the kids there who she encountered didn’t ask her who her grandparents were or what religion she was. Throughout her life, D’yan observed that she felt freer to be herself in Paris.

D’yan spent her life as bisexual which probably made it easier to bend to her parents’ demands of conventionality and she did marry a man which lasted a relatively short time.

 D’yan went back to Paris after the marriage ended and pursued an active sex life with both men and women. She became a singer in Paris and later in life reinvented herself as a standup comic.

I found “I Did It My Ways: a memoir by D’yan Forest with Stephen Clarke” to be an inspiring page turner of a good read.

This is Janet Mason with reviews for BookTube.

To learn more about my most recently published novel (available online & everywhere books are sold and lent such as your local library) — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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Suffering and wellbeing — #Fournobletruths #Govegan #Shame

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism and how they relate to my life.

The Four Noble Truths are as follows:

The truth of suffering;

The truth of the cause of suffering;

The truth of the end of suffering;

The truth of the path that frees us from suffering

I’m one of those people who have a history of food addiction, and I was heavy for most of my adult life. After I went to a healthy plant-based diet in the past two years, I have slimmed down a lot. It wasn’t why I made the change. My primary motivation was just to stay out of the hospital. But once I started losing weight, I started feeling so good that I kept on going. Animal products — including dairy — are very heavy in calories. Prior to having a medical emergency which motivated me to go vegan, my partner and I had been getting to know the cows at a local farm and we were thinking of going vegan for the animals.

Since there is so much shame and guilt associated with excess weight, it has been hard for me at times to not judge my past self. It helps to understand how the refined foods industry profits from keeping people addicted. It also helps to understand how trauma works, including ancestral trauma. After my father died less than five years ago, I did a genealogy search on my paternal line. Many of my ancestors died young from conditions related to addictions, including food and alcohol addictions.

I know all this intellectually, but I felt myself feeling guilt and shame about being overweight in the past. I’ve long known that guilt and shame are heightened by the patriarchy. And since going vegan, I’ve developed a theory that excess fat on the body is simply another symptom that things are out of balance.

But feelings run deeper than knowing things intellectually.

So, when I was listening to a talk by the late Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn talking about the “inter-being” of all things, it was extremely helpful to hear that suffering is related to happiness. In this same talk about the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism, he also mentions that that suffering helps us realize what the absence of suffering feels like. In other words, I understand how well I feel because I remember how bad I felt. And this includes the suffering of the animals. I feel that I am very lucky that I was able to make the change.

“Happy,” the dairy cow, is crying: another reason to go vegan.

To learn more about my most recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

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Inspiration for a long-lived life–#govegan #music #amwriting

We got together with an old friend today — who also coincidentally has been vegan now for a few years.

We did it for the animals, including us (the human animals), and the planet.

The top of longevity came up and we agreed that going vegan can extend your life.

I recently attended an online conference about longevity and one of the speakers suggested that you listen to music for inspiration. She suggested a variety of music. So, in the spirit of honoring the old and the new, I chose two pieces from my past and present. About a year or so ago I discovered vegan rap and really love this piece by TK The Artist. In the past I really loved Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and in particular The Spring. If you have any favorite pieces feel free to suggest them. I’m all ears.

To learn more about my most recently published novel — The Unicorn, The Mystery, click here:

The Unicorn, The Mystery now available from Adelaide Books — #amreading #FaithfullyLGBT

Read Full Post »