Are you ready for a memoir that packs a whallop?
Barbadian author debuts first book ‘Divided By Design’
Caribbean Life, June 4-10, 2021 57
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Little kids have it so easy.
Somebody feeds them when
they’re hungry, does their laundry,
buys them toys, and plays
with them. Somebody escorts
them everywhere and sometimes,
they even get carried.
Yep, life is good when you’re a
little kid except, as in the new
memoir, “Punch Me Up to the
Gods” by Brian Broome, when
it’s not.
He called Corey his “best
friend,” but Corey was no
friend to 10-year-old Brian
Broome. Sure, things were
sympatico at first but it didn’t
take long for Corey to sense
Broome’s insecurities, or to
start pummelling Broome, or
to humiliate him. Broome’s
father hoped that Corey might
act as “a form of therapy” for a
boy who played with girls too
much; Broome endured the
abuse and didn’t complain to
the adults because he was a
little in love with Corey.
As if Corey’s thrashings
weren’t harsh enough,
Broome’s dad beat Broome for
a multitude of reasons, from a
pink shirt to frustration over
unemployment to racism: he
said he’d rather kill his children
himself than to let a white
person do it. Broome. in fact,
often wished that he was white
like the people on TV, so he’d
have the benefits of it. White
parents really seemed to love
their kids...
Broome dreamed of moving
far away from the tiny workingclass
Ohio town of his birth, to
a larger city where he believed
he could avoid the bullying and
teasing, leave his life behind,
and escape the embarrassment
of his parents’ ramshackle
existence. He did leave once,
for college, but he was deeply
humiliated by the racism and
homophobia of his roommates.
He called his mother then, and
she came to get him.
She was one of a handful of
Black women who saved him.
Being a man isn’t easy. Being
a Black man in America is
harder. Being a gay Black man
led Broome to drugs, alcohol,
and away from his family –
although, he says, “… yes, I
was loved. Just not in ways that
I could understand.”
Be prepared to be messed
with here. Your emotions may
never be the same.
There’s a tighly-coiled,
ready-to-strike fist wrapped in
melancholy and a miles-long
people-watching incident in
this book, both giving aptness
to its title. “Punch Me Up to the
Gods” refers to author Brian
Broome’s father’s second-favorite
words before the beatings
began, and they’ll hit you
hard, too. You’re not embarrassed,
in fact, to be seen carrying
a book around, are you?
Because you will, this one.
Happily, there are moments
of humor, too, as Broome
recalls things that occurred in
his youth, or maybe just a few
years ago. He surprises readers
with similes that are sobering,
in the middle of laughter. He
steps back sometimes, to pick
at something else, turns it over
twice to examine it, and pulls
it into his tale.
For this, you won’t regret
picking this wonderfully companionable,
startingly gracious
and compelling memoir.
“Punch Me Up to the Gods” is
a don’t-miss, devouring it is
so easy.
“Punch Me Up to the
Gods: A Memoir” by Brian
Broome
c.2021, HMH Books
$26.00 / $38.00
Canada
272 pages
Book cover of “Punch Me Up
to the Gods: A Memoir” by
Brian Broome.
By Tangerine Clarke
Quoting Martin Luther King,
Jr. who once said “In the end we
will remember not the words of
our enemies, but the silence of
our friends,” first time author
Rodney D. Lewis said he was
tired of remaining silent on
pertinent issues and matters
that he previously ignored, and
decided it was time to write
“Divided by Design,” a book that
begins with the introduction of
a nuclear family in Africa.
The clan, he said, was living
harmoniously with man and
nature when their lives were
abruptly disturbed by power
hungry Europeans looking for
cheap labor.
The 47-year-old Barbadian
writer, told Caribbean Life in
an exclusive interview, that the
narrative transitions from one
era, into modern-day times and
focuses on the real-life scenarios
of a single mother and her
daughter as they navigate the
hardships of life in Barbados.
The author, a marketing
communications specialist, who
lives on the Caribbean island,
was compelled to write the volume
that traces how the white
man for 400 years took advantage
of free labor and resources
which secured wealth for his
race for generations to come.
“While black Bajans continue
to live in poverty which is
a by-product of slavery. One
should not make excuses for
negative behaviors but with
poverty comes crime, desperation,
sexual exploitation, and
the pressure to exercise bad
judgment,” according to Lewis,
whose book, also briefly shows
how religious, legal, financial,
and educational institutions
are continuing to support these
injustices.
Lewis, who is adamant that
slavery still exists, argues that
“There are several African
countries where all the natural
resources are being used to benefit
the industrialized nations
by the exploitation of its people
who are paid well below market
value for their labor.”
“As long as white men (and
other beneficiaries) who are
dedicated to maintaining the
banner of white supremacy and
exploiting control of their institutionalized
power, slavery will
always exist as our people will
only be paid enough to continue
to be laborers and never owners.
The oppressive model was
designed that way,” he shared.
“I never experienced outright
racism. However, what I experienced
was ‘colorism’ as my
skin is highly ‘melanated’ and
individuals would use insults
targeted at the color of my
skin to try and inflict injury.
This attempt at an insult never
achieved its goal because I absolutely
love my skin and always
saw those who tried to use it as
an insult as having an identity
crisis. Colorism, is a subtle display
of racism and its roots, can
be directly tied to the underbelly
of slavery and colonialism,”
said the author.
Lewis, who holds a Bachelor
of Science Degree with Honors
from the University of the
West Indies, Cave Hill Campus,
a guest lecturer and director of
a Canadian offshore company
that specializes in renewable
energy, expressed his dissatisfaction
that the Black man is
still begging for basic rights and
opportunities afforded to their
white counterparts.
“We should be making
progress. There seems to be
an infiltration of black minds,
especially where our identity as
people is concerned.”
In the process of publishing
another fiction sometime this
year, Lewis said, he will continue
to use the writer’s platform
as an instrument to educate.
The multi-talented individual,
who wrote songs and poems
from a young age, but didn’t
accept that he was a writer until
he realized what he wanted
to “lend my eyes to a reader,”
did several years of dedicated
research to complete the book.
He said, while writing “Divide
by Design,” he realized how
serious the art form was. “The
readers lend you their eyes and
hearts for you to take them on
a journey. When I saw that writing
would be the perfect time
for me not only to entertain
but to educate the readers with
a subject matter that I felt passionate
about, I had to transform
to seize the opportunity,”
he said, adding that the book is
for everyone.
“Anyone with an open mind
and heart is welcome to take
the journey from Africa to Barbados
with me. The book is a
sampler of this journey and persons
are encouraged to do additional
research after reading the
novel on areas of the book that
would have piqued their interest
and further broaden their
knowledge base,” said the father
of Adiella, Jabari and Nicholas,
who shares that his children
means the world to him.
The writer who maintains a
healthy stress-free equilibrium
through laughter, despite his
many roles that include providing
marketing consultation
across the region and abroad
for one of the major houses in
the region, said he does not
have a favorite author, as he
is driven by the biographies of
great men and women. However,
as a writer, Malcolm X whom
he calls a loved philosopher,
inspires him.
“Divide by Design” is being
sold on Amazon.com, in both
paperback and eBook format, at
Blackdot.com, Barbados – UWI
Bookshop, Black Rock Bookshop,
and others.
www.rodneydlewis.com.
Book cover of “Divided by Design” by Rodney D. Lewis.
/Blackdot.com
/Amazon.com
/www.rodneydlewis.com
/www.rodneydlewis.com
