Black and White and Black

Robert Ronnow
The Imaginary i

Black and White and Black

How to start Trinity Pettijohn on her journey
through African-American history guided by a white
Italian-American tutor. With MLK’s Letter from Birmingham
Jail, Souls of Black Folks by WEB Dubois,
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, The Autobiography
of Malcolm X, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas,
an American Slave, and Up From Slavery by Booker T.
and the M.G.’s. Selections from The Black Poets edited
by Dudley Randall. Or Henry Louis Gates’ PBS series
The African-Americans—Many Rivers to Cross—too boring?
Why I’m Black, Not African-American.
Black with a capital B. I’m white, nuthin
I can do about that except be polite.
The unity in all things and the difference.

Akira Dare, 15 year old black high school student suspended
for fighting. Big smile, braces on teeth, Mom brings him to tutoring.
An overreaching enthusiasm for order: Black v. white, being v. doing,
each duality may then be said to be in a dual relationship
with another duality. Police violence v. civil disobedience.
Anomie v. rule of law. Purposelessness v. having a destiny.
There is always governance even if there is no government.
Society puts survival on us. It is tough and it is good.
I am in favor of kindness and you prefer concentration camps.
These dualities, these arm-breaking dualities,
mediated by meditation, letters from jail, autobiographies
of slaves and their descendants, Italian and Mexican immigrants,
measurements in which the last significant digit is the Other.
No Ruths on that list of books—Ain’t I a Woman?—Sojourner Truth.