“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.” -- Toni Morrison (2/18/1931 - 8/5/2019), winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Beloved), professor, essayist and playwright/lyricist. Honoring Morrison's monumental works of American literature, from "The Bluest Eye," to "The Book of Solomon," to "Beloved" is something appropriate for the entire year, not just Black History Month. Sadly, her books, especially her first novel "The Bluest Eye," are the target of right-wing book banners who would white-wash the African-American experience and recast it in their twisted, benign version. That will never succeed.
(photo: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/Getty)
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