I find it interesting that we are grappling with two beloved icons falling from grace at about the same point in time. I have only read the reviews of Harper Lee's book about carrying the news that Atticus Finch turned out to be a Ku Klux Klan member later in life. It's a little bit interesting that Harper Lee wrote this book first and then wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird", because she knew the way it would turn out in her story. Truthfully, as much as I loved the book and,later, the movie, I have always felt a little bit uncomfortable with the image of Atticus Finch as superhero. Defender of black men wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. We white people have always wanted to elevate our role to a position of leadership in the long struggle for civil rights for black people in this country. It has never been the case that white people have taken a role of leadership in this cause. Not really. Now white people, don't start sending me hate mail. I know that many white people have stepped up and participated and even given their lives for the cause of civil rights. That is not what I am saying. I am saying that the role of whites in this has often been highly exaggerated in literature and movies, even as recently as "The Help". So that Harper Lee morphed Atticus Finch into a racist jackass, that is a wonderful reality check for white people. An unlikely morph in the real world I think. But still it is fitting. Poetic almost. Because we put too much onto the shoulders of our heroes. We elevate them. We capture them. We limit them. I look forward to reading this part of Harper Lee's story.
Then we have Bill Cosby. Heroic black comedian, able to relate to whites because he was so non-threatening. I guess. He was funny and truthful and all of the things we want in a hero. An icon. And unless there is some outlandish miscarriage of justice going on before our very eyes, turns out he was also a serial rapist. Maybe a sex addict gone over the edge, at the very least. It would be heartbreaking if it wasn't so vile.
Seems like we mix up fiction and real life.
Then in the meantime, we have President Obama showing up in Oklahoma to people waving the Confederate flag. The ugliness of this is almost too much to be able to express in words. President Obama has been subjected to the rawest, ugliest, nastiest kinds of racist bullshit from the very beginning of his term in office. His family has not been spared from overtly racist comments. If this fact doesn't illustrate that we white people are so very far off from the Atticus Finch ideal, I am not sure what would. We are haunted by the legacy of racism in this country. As President Obama said at his eulogy for the pastor killed in the recent massacre, it is our original sin.
Yet I have faith that we will find a way through. I do. Maybe President Obama's term in office has served to elevate the issue to front and center, where it needs to be. We can't correct a problem that we are in denial about. We need to look at it square in the face. I believe in the basic goodness of the human race. We will find a way. We will.
