Tuesday, June 05, 2007

An Apology and An Explanation

DJ Black Adam and I had something of a falling out, recently. If you're interested, here's the post that broke the camel's back.

I got so pissed at his statements (on and off his blog) so much that I did some cursing in the comments section. For that I apologized via e-mail (as of this posting I am currently banned):

"Recently, Someone told me about Misty Knight's comment, so...
You may be right about the profanity thing, Mrs. BA.
I'm torn between apologizing (because I feel bad about that) and saying nothing because I am equally offended by DJBA's comments about Black parents and communities. Seriously.
We don't have to agree or ever speak, again, and you certainly don't have to change your opinions about me, but I hope you will accept my apology. I am sorry about the profanity.
This apology is freely given and I recognize that you have every right to refuse it.
Good evening."
My apology is for both DJBA and Mrs. DJBA because my conscience says there's too great a chance that I did a bad thing, but I continue to feel offense with respect to both DJBA's statements about Blacks, in general, and his misrepresentations of my opinions. Hopefully, that doesn't venture too far into the realm of "semanticizing," but I think it's a fair hair to split. I'm sorry for the delivery (i.e. by way of profanity) but not the content.

And, for the record, it is not dissenting opinions that bother me so much as their foundations. Misrepresentation is also quite bothersome. It was those things, not the act of disagreeing, which set me off.

This is not an attempt to do anything other than to publicly apologize (since I showed my tail publicly) and clear up a thing or two.

2 comments:

Liz Dwyer said...

I have found myself thinking about how most every black relative of mine over the years did their best to be involved in their child's education...but I'm still the only one in my extended family to graduate from college. It's not because they didn't care. It's because the school system disenfranchised them. Teachers, principals and guidance counselors lied to them, didn't push them academically. I suppose you could say that too much faith was put in the system, particularly when some of the teachers doing the lying were black. "Oh, your son/daughter is doing just fine..." And then they're not. You know how it goes.

Yeah, I taught other people's children thousands of miles from where I grew up, but it could easily have been me or any one of my folks in my classroom. The issue does bring up a lot of personal stuff for me and it does make me feel very emotional. If my brother had had a teacher that didn't let him get called nigger, would his life have been different? I'm sure it would have. I just know that I am so non-confrontational that my usual response is usually to back up off of something or to joke about it. There are some issues though that I don't back up off of, and this is one of them.

Anyway, we have to give each other the generosity of spirit to say the things that may need apologizing for later. You have a good heart, West...and so does DJBA. It does no one any good for two black men to be at odds with each other. I'm glad you did what you felt you needed to do and apologized. It shows your true character.

Anonymous said...

"Anyway, we have to give each other the generosity of spirit to say the things that may need apologizing for later."

I stopped by because of something you said elsewhere and found this.

The both of you, you and Liz, make me wish I had grown up in a community of people who considered thoughtfulness, introspection, humility and a driving insight and willingness to speak the truth as you find it values worth transmitting and extolling.

As such, I come to you to make and find it.

Peace.