It’s about time, isn’t it?
Hoodcelebrityy releases ‘Ungrateful’
Caribbean Life, DECEMBER 1 BQ 8-24, 2020 31
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
You’ve got mail.
No, real mail, delivered by
a carrier in a mailbox outside
your door. It doesn’t happen
very often and it’s rarer
if there’s a letter in those
envelopes because everybody
you know texts or emails
and a hand-written, lick-theenvelope,
put-a-stamp-on-it
letter is so old-school. Who
even writes letters anymore?
Author Michael Eric Dyson,
that’s who, and in “Long Time
Coming,” you’ll want to read
them.
“Dear Elijah McClain…” he
begins.
When the grief of history is
a part of a burden, the pain of
now becomes keener and the
action more urgent. “Black
death” has been in this country
for more than 400 years.
We know how Elijah died and
the knowledge is unbearable.
It’s time for a “reckoning.”
“Dear Emmett Till,” it hurts
to know that if you were a boy
today, your life could be taken
as easily as it was in 1955.
Maybe not the same way, but
taken nonetheless and the fact
that it happens is something
most white folks don’t see. We
need all eyes opened
When George Floyd died, it
echoed what happened to you,
“dear Eric Garner.” You said
you couldn’t breathe; Floyd
said he couldn’t breathe. Neither
of you were real troublemakers,
but both of you
called out in pain to the “blue
plague,” and lost your lives
anyhow.
Why is it that Black women
are victims, too, but we don’t
talk about them quite as
much as we do Black men?
“Dear Breonna Taylor,” there’s
irony in the fact that you
served as an EMT but the city
you served gave you no justice
after you died. “Dear Hadiya
Pendleton,” we can’t use “cancel
culture” as justice. No,
“dear Sandra Bland,” we must
Book cover of “Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in
America” by Michael Eric Dyson.
eliminate “white comfort”
before we can end the lack of
knowledge that contributes to
the end of Black lives.
As you may have guessed
– especially if you’ve read
any other works by author
Michael Eric Dyson – there’s
a lot to unpack inside “Long
Time Coming.”
It starts without preamble,
as Dyson dives straight
into his series of letters written
to Black Americans whose
deaths demand a reckoning
with racial issues. This
abruptness is unusual in a
work of nonfiction, and it
forces readers to pay immediate
attention.
Though there’s a lot of repetition
from story to story
here, each chapter examines
a separate aspect of racism
by speaking directly to a
deceased individual while also
referring to another. There’s
an urge embedded in this, to
understand each issue before
dismantling it, and to see how
it matters. Readers may also
find Dyson’s choice of subjects
to be interesting; there
are other victims of racial
violence he could’ve picked,
as evidenced by his long list of
names, each of which begs to
have their own stories told.
Perhaps the most crucial
thing about this book,
though, is that it’s not so
much for Black readers as it
is for White ones who metaphorically
started school late
last May. Respectful discussion,
soul-searching, urgency:
if that’s what you need, “Long
Time Coming” delivers.
“Long Time Coming:
Reckoning with Race in
America” by Michael Eric
Dyson
c.2020, St. Martin’s
Press
$25.99 / $34.99
Canada 240 pages
“Long Time Coming ” author, Michael Eric Dyson. Nina Subin
It said each message handwritten
by the artist herself
is meant to encourages fans
“to repeat as affirmations the
same way that she does.”
“The handwritten notes are
things I have to remind myself
of everyday,” Hoodcelebrityy
said. “They help me a lot to
love myself and reaffirm that
things going to be okay; put
myself first and understand I
could never make ungrateful
people happy.
“What inspired me to write
‘Ungrateful’ is because the
pandemic gave me so much
time to really see people for
who they truly are,” she added.
“There comes a time when
they will ask for something
and, because you are unable
to provide at that moment,
they write you off or forget
all you did prior to this very
moment.”
Hoodcelebrityy said
“’Ungrateful’ will resonate
with all demographics and all
nationalities.
“Many have experienced
ungratefulness and need that
extra motivation or drive to
push past the roadblock before
them,” she said. “Despite the
ungrateful acts bestowed upon
you, God’s blessing will give
you the strength to persevere
– ‘who God bless no man
curse.’”
“Ungrateful” is available on
all major streaming platforms
and digital outlets.
Continued from Page 29