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62
In my search for answers as to why we constantly
see an enemy image in our fellow human beings—an image we use to justify
violence—I wondered about the working conditions that continue to blunt us in
body and mind. Rough work is still performed by blacks while whites direct
it. Many blacks have been killed in these sawmills and even more feet and
fingers have been cut off—as on this worker. In Central America I saw how the
US provides military support for the bloody repression of trade unions, yet I
was shocked to find almost no trade unions in the Southern States that could
protect such workers. These workers received no compensation when the saw cut
their fingers off, and they had to be back at work two days later, for as one
was told, “there are a lot of hungry niggers outside waiting to get work.”
In a society that makes such violent inroads into life, in a country
where European concepts such as workers’ management and unions are light
years from the worker’s consciousness, the time-clock
easily becomes the new whip of the slave master—a symbol of our perennial
violence. When, five years later, I returned to see Sam Kator
(photo on page 65) to give him my book, I found he’d been beaten to death by
police in a prison cell. Traveling in the world of black Americans inevitably
becomes a journey into the soul and into the history of every person you
meet. You begin to understand the traits and tendencies we’ve impressed on
the souls and collective consciousness of black people through slavery as
well as how, ever since, we’ve not only perpetuated and revived both their
distress patterns and our own, but also intensified them.
65
Poor slave, take the shackles off your body,
poor slave, put the shackles on your mind.
Please listen to me carefully
and if I’m wrong then correct me.
But if I’m right my song do praise,
now let’s see if we agree:
The definition of a slave
means one not free entirely
so a slave is still a
slave
if he can’t think independently.
66
A tree is still a tree
though it sheds its leaves when winter comes.
But it blooms again in spring
for it did not lose its roots at all.
But a slave remains a slave
without the knowledge of his roots
until he’s taught the past
not just some, but all the truth.
Poor slave, take the shackles off your body,
poor slave, put the shackles on your mind.
69
There was a brother the other day
telling me he’s feeling high
but I just sadly had to sigh
for drugs and booze ain’tglory,
and if I had the chance to get high
I would tell the truth and not a lie,
for the highest high a man can get
is from wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Poor slave, ease the pressure off your body,
poor slave, put it on your mind...
70
When I lived with the underclass, I understood how
the physical shackles also became mental shackles. These shacks in which
we’ve confined our slain brother Cain since slavery are utterly inhuman and
do not admit a feeling of freedom or the opportunity to unfold intellectually
and creatively. One hundred years ago, we lived next door to blacks. Seeing
our neighbors consigned to inferior living conditions is incomprehensible and
hurtful to the innocent white child. Growing up, we’re slowly manipulated
into developing hostile images—with the result that the natural joy of being
with blacks in the US or immigrants in Europe is violently suppressed. When
the vicious circle of oppression is thus fulfilled, it becomes natural for
whites to rationalize away how these outcasts live right next to their own
luxury homes in miserable shacks, often smaller than this original slave
cabin. Or as white students often say after my lectures, “Before I saw your
show, it never occurred to me that real people lived in those shacks!”
Yet, the gloomy abyss in our minds, reflected by these slum
conditions, is far worse than in my photographs. The pictures don’t show how
the wind whistles through the cracks, making it impossible to keep warm in
winter or the sagging rotten floors with splits so wide that snakes and
vermin crawl right into the living room. The powerlessness I feel trying to
photograph these stifling sensations mirrors the powerlessness they impose on
our trapped victims. Even if I could have afforded a wide-angle lens to
record the narrowness, the images couldn’t show the absence of running water,
toilets, showers, and electricity. I saw thousands of Americans grow up in
the glow of the kerosene lamp.
72
In the same way I didn’t feel capable of portraying the strange
psychic feeling of suddenly being transferred to a condition we in Denmark
haven’t known for the last hundred years (although it is delightful, after
all the stifling noise characterizing American homes, to suddenly stand in
the silence of no TV or radio). Liberal whites, who don’t fear their lights
will be turned off, sometimes argue during my lectures that blacks should be
happy for the same reason. With such romanticism we reveal a terrifying
insensitivity toward the psychology of involuntary poverty.
And even if you are perhaps free from the invasion of the commercials
of affluent society inside your shack, you nevertheless have your prospect
destroyed by the aggressive omnipresent billboards right outside.
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62
I
min rejses søgen efter svar på, hvorfor vi konstant ser et fjendebillede i
medmennesket og derved bliver i stand til at udøve vold imod det, undrede jeg
mig over de arbejdsforhold, som fortsat afstumper os i krop og sind. Hårdt
arbejde udføres stadig af de sorte, mens hvide dirigerer. Mange sorte er
blevet dræbt i disse savværker og endnu flere fødder og fingre er skåret af -
som på denne arbejder. Jeg havde set i Centralamerika, hvordan USA gav
militær støtte til blodig undertrykkelse af fagforeninger, men var alligevel
chokeret over næsten ikke at finde fagforeninger i Sydstaterne, der kunne
beskytte sådanne arbejdere. Disse
arbejdere fik ingen kompensation, når saven skar deres fingre af, og de måtte
være tilbage på arbejde to dage senere, for som en af dem fik at vide,
"der er en masse sultne niggere udenfor, der venter på at få
arbejde".
I et samfund, som gør så voldsomme indhug mod mennesket, og hvor europæiske begreber
om medarbejderindflydelse er lysår væk, bliver tidsstemplingsmaskinen i
arbejderens bevidsthed let opfattet som slaveherrens nye pisk – et symbol på
vores fortsatte undertrykkelse. Da jeg fem år efter kom tilbage til Sam Kator (foto
side 65) for at give ham min bog, var han blevet tævet ihjel af politiet
i en fængselscelle. At rejse i de sorte amerikaneres verden bliver
uundgåeligt en rejse ind i sjælen og tilbage i historien i hvert eneste
menneske, man møder. Man
begynder at forstå de træk og tendenser, som vi har påtrykt de sorte
menneskers sjæl og kollektive bevidsthed gennem slaveriet, og hvordan vi
siden da ikke blot har videreført og genoplivet både deres og vores egne
lidelsesmønstre, men også forstærket dem.
65
Poor slave, take the shackles off your body,
poor slave, put the shackles on your mind.
Please listen to me carefully
and if I’m wrong then correct me.
But if I’m right my song do praise,
now let’s see if we agree:
The definition of a slave
means one not free entirely
so a slave is still a
slave
if he can’t think independently.
66
A tree is still a tree
though it sheds its leaves when winter comes.
But it blooms again in spring
for it did not lose its roots at all.
But a slave remains a slave
without the knowledge of his roots
until he’s taught the past
not just some, but all the truth.
Poor slave, take the shackles off your body,
poor slave, put the shackles on your mind.
69
There was a brother the other day
telling me he’s feeling high
but I just sadly had to sigh
for drugs and booze ain’tglory,
and if I had the chance to get high
I would tell the truth and not a lie,
for the highest high a man can get
is from wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
Poor slave, ease the pressure off your body,
poor slave, put it on your mind...
70
Når jeg boede hos underklassen, forstod jeg, hvordan de fysiske lænker også
blev til mentale lænker. Disse shacks, som vi henviste vore udstødte til
siden slaveriet, var aldeles umenneskelige og gav på ingen måde følelsen af
frihed eller mulighed for at udfolde sig intellektuelt og kreativt. For 100
år siden boede vi fysisk tæt på vore sorte naboer. At se vore udstødte altid
henvist til inferiøre boligforhold er uforståeligt og sårende ikke blot for
de undertrykte, men også for det uskyldige hvide barns sind. Under opvæksten
manipuleres vi langsomt til at danne fjendebilleder – med det resultat, at
den naturlige glæde ved samvær med sorte i USA eller indvandrere i Europa
bliver voldsomt undertrykt. Når undertrykkelsens onde cirkel således
fuldbyrdes, bliver det naturligt for hvide at bortrationalisere, at de afviste
bor klods op ad deres egne luksushjem i usle shacks
ofte mindre end denne oprindelige slavehytte. Eller som de hvide studenter
ofte siger til mine foredrag: "Før
jeg så dit show, faldt det mig aldrig ind, at der boede rigtige mennesker i
de shacks!”
Alligevel er den dystre
afgrund i vores sind, som afspejles af disse slumforhold, langt værre end på
mine fotografier. Billederne viser ikke, hvordan vinden pifter gennem
sprækkerne, hvilket gør det umuligt at holde varmen om vinteren, eller de
sunkne rådne gulve med så brede sprækker, at slanger og skadedyr kravler
direkte ind i stuen. Afmægtigheden, jeg føler i forsøget på at fotografere disse kvælende
fornemmelser, afspejler den magtesløshed, som de pålægger vores indespærrede
ofre. Selv om jeg havde haft råd til en vidvinkellinse til at
registrere trangheden, kunne billederne ikke vise, at der ikke var rindende
vand, toiletter, brusebad, eller elektricitet. Tusinder af amerikanere så jeg
vokse op i petroleumslampens skær.
72
Jeg følte heller ikke, at jeg magtede at skildre den underlige psykiske
fornemmelse ved pludselig at lade sig henføre til en tilstand, vi i Danmark
ikke havde kendt de sidste 100 år – skønt det var herligt efter den kvælende
støj, der karakteriserer amerikanske hjem, pludselig at opleve stilheden uden
radio og TV. Bedrestillede liberale hvide uden frygt for, at der bliver
lukket for elektriciteten, hævder ofte under mine foredrag, at de sorte burde
være lykkelige af samme årsag. Med sådanne romantiske indstillinger afslører
vi en ufølsom mangel på indsigt i den ufrivillige fattigdoms psykologi. Selv
om man måske var lykkeligt fri for invasionen af reklamerne fra
overflodssamfundet inde i sin shack, fik man alligevel sin udsigt og sine
perspektiver ødelagt af de allestedsværende aggressive reklamer lige uden for
hytten.
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