What do we ignore? What do we tolerate? What do we call out? #071

Recitatif – I didn’t know what it means either

Prejudice: Race. Class. Sexuality. Gender. Age. Religion. Relationship status. People with disabilities…

What’s your ‘favourite’ bias?

Provocative, I know.

A short story

I was reintroduced to short stories, an unfamiliar reading style for me, by fellow Substacker Emma Kriskinans.

A short story is a particular art form. The ability to set the scene, describe the characters and tell a meaningful story in a succinct format, the hallmark of a very talented writer.

Emma launched ‘The Sixty Minute Book Club’ (60MBC) in January. She challenges us to read her chosen short story (all less than an hour) each month. I’m loving it. 60MBC has introduced me to some fabulous thought provoking stories and authors I might never have come across.

This month we read a short story by Toni Morrison. I’d heard of Toni Morrison, the first Black female editor at Random House in the 60s, but never read her work. ‘The Bluest Eye’, her first novel published in 1970, has been on my ‘to read’ list for ages.

She wrote only one short story, Recitatif.

Recitatif

Like me, you may be wondering what Recitatif means. It’s a musical term meaning a vocal style between singing and speaking often used to connect differing segments.

Recitatif, the story, tells of two girls, Twyla and Roberta. They meet in the 1950s, aged 8, in a New York State children’s home mainly for orphans. The story tells of their time together and their chance encounters over the coming decades. We know one is Black, one White, but, much to the reader’s frustration, never which is which.

Their shared memories of the home, particularly of Maggie, a kitchen worker with disabilities, twist and turn with each reunion. They each question what really happened back then. Did they bully and help hurt Maggie? Or did they just want to? Their memory of events wander and separate as life pulls them through the civil rights upheaval, school integration battles and their diverging class and wealth status.

In telling the story, Morrison holds up a mirror to our biases. She explores how memory bends to fit our perspectives, how friendship survives societal divisions and how race shapes our thinking and assumptions - even when unspoken.

Biases, truth, being human?

Whilst reading the story, and during our subsequent 60MBC discussions where we shared our interpretations, I stopped to think about our inherent biases. The people and things we tolerate. Those we turn a blind eye to. Those we call out. The exceptions we make to fit our circumstances, personal experiences or convenience. The truths we believe, or deny. The memories we indulge, fabricate or forget. Judgments and assumptions we make.

On examination, our personal realities can be complicated and at times uncomfortable. Often at odds with the person we project, aim or would like to be.

Perhaps Morrison is describing the essence of being human. Our tribal roots and basest instincts for inclusion and survival leading us to exclude and persecute difference.

Feelings which perhaps epitomise some of what’s going on in the world today, nationally and internationally. I’m not sure I have the answers. But perhaps having an awareness of our biases is a start. From awareness we may identify a better understanding, from which we might find change.

You

As ever I’m interested in you.

Can you relate to the negative feelings of ‘others’? How have you dealt with such thoughts or found peace and perspective in your actions? And how have you noticed your beliefs change as you move through life?

A heavier subject this week. I won’t apologise. You can always take a peek at last week’s Beyonce blog for something lighter 😊.

And finally, you’re never going to be any younger than you are today – what thoughts and beliefs are you carrying that you can usefully upgrade or let go?

Until next week my friends,

Ruth x

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