History And Ideas

"History is shaped by its battle of ideas, and I wanted to be in the arena, not because I want to fight, but because some things need to be said. And some things need to be defended."--Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018), conservative public intellectual/syndicated columnist, quoted in "Charles Krauthammer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Columnist and Intellectual Provacateur, Dies at 68" by Adam Bernstein, The Washington Post, June 21, 2018, republished in the Los Angeles Times.

Harlem Week Celebrates 44 Women Achievers

This year marks the 44th anniversary of Harlem Week, which is now actually a month-long event (July 29-August 31). Its goal is to celebrate "the gravitas, history and brilliance of all that is Harlem," to quote the Calendar of Events brochure.

Harlem Week 2018's theme this year is "Women Transforming Our World: Past, Present and Future." And since Harlem Week is 44 years old, 44 women of achievement will be honored at various sites in and around Harlem. Among the honorees are opera singer Marian Anderson; actress Ruby Dee; choreographer, dancer Judith Jamison; U.S. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor; New York Amsterdam News publisher Elinor Tatum; activist Rosa Parks; tennis champs Venus Williams and Serena Williams; future activist Yolanda Renee King, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 9-year-old granddaughter; and television journalist and talk-show host Rachel Maddow.

Included in the Calendar of Events is acknowledgment of Harlem's LGBTQ members, "our community within the community." "The LGBTQ community has played a significant role," stated the brochure, "in developing Harlem's music, art, theater and literature scenes, and has been responsible for producing some of the greatest artists, thinkers, philosophers and poets over the past century."

With that in mind, I hope that next year's Harlem Week will do a month-long tribute to the LGBTQ community. The headline the brochure used for the acknowledgment of the LGBTQ community--"Harlem's LGBTQ Roots Run Deep"--would be an appropriate slogan for such a tribute.

How Hot Is It In Hell?

During past heat waves, I remember hearing religious zealots say when people complained about the heat, "Hell is hotter than this." I don't know how they knew that unless they'd been to Hell and back, an unlikely occurrence.

Plus, I've heard that there are microorganisms on Earth that can survive in extreme temperatures. If such a place as Hell exists, would these microorganisms survive and thrive in such a hostile, uncomfortable environment?

Stepin Fetchit, In Real Life, Was Not Dimwitted

The following is an unpublished letter-to-the editor.

Voice of the People
New York Daily News
450 West 33rd Street
New York, NY 10001

October 20, 2005

To the Editor:

Re: Stepin Fetchit retrospective at MoMa [Museum of Modern Art] ("Now Entertainment," 10/18/05). As an African-American, I am not proud of the racist stereotypes he perpetuated on the screen. However, I don't think he should be singled out for special vilification. In the 1930s and '40s, black performers were extremely limited in the types of roles they were offered. Clearly Fetchit [1902-1985] was aware of this situation himself when he made the following statement: "A Negro couldn't do anything straight, only comedy." (The quote is from Donald Bogle's book on Black Hollywood, Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams.)

Plus, Fetchit went broke financing a production company in an unsuccessful attempt to make a movie about [boxer] Jack Johnson and [baseball player] Satchel Paige, two African-American sports heroes who were the antithesis of Fetchit's screen persona. That should be proof enough that Fetchit (born Lincoln Perry), a third-year college dropout, was not the dimwitted, shiftless character he portrayed on screen.

Sincerely yours,
Charles Michael Smith

Two Unbuilt Projects In The American West

There were two West Coast real estate projects that never saw the light of day.

In the mid-1980s, a gay interracial couple planned to establish a gay resort in a Nevada ghost town called Rhyolite. I was asked by a friend to interview them for a publication he was involved with. For whatever reason, the interview never happened.

The second project was announced in the New York Times in a two-page spread (no doubt costing a small fortune). It was to be called Beverly Springs and was going to be a city in California built exclusively for the rich and the super-rich. The person behind the project was a young black man who had been a professional football player.

After all these years, I'm still wondering why these two projects never materialized. Did they have trouble finding investors? Were they poorly conceived ideas? Was too much government red tape involved?

One day I hope to find the answer to those questions.

Happy Pride Month 2018

I hope everyone has a happy pride month.

I'm looking forward to Stonewall 50 next year when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village.

Anthony Bourdain, A Man Worth Knowing

R.I.P. Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018), chef, author, journalist, TV host.

After reading articles about Anthony Bourdain online and in print, I regretted not having the opportunity to meet him. Or interviewing him about the restaurant business for a newspaper or magazine article. It would have been a thought-provoking, possibly life-altering, experience.

Now I intend to read his books as well as look on YouTube for episodes of his television programs. (I love watching food shows.)

I do recall hearing Bourdain being interviewed by talk show host Leonard Lopate on New York's WNYC-AM when his restaurant tell-all book, Kitchen Confidential, came out in 2000. Maybe that interview, and others, are also on YouTube. I hope so.

Sarah J. Jackson, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston, in an article she wrote for the Sunday New York Times (June 10, 2018) stated that Bourdain "was not just curious about food and the world. He was aware that injustice and inequality are systemic issues, and he never shied away from pointing that out."

Another writer, Jonathan Gold, a restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times, reported in that paper (June 8, 2018), that "Bourdain was most interested in the intersection of food and culture, and a shot of a fish on a plate would usually be preceded by an exploration of the people who had cooked it, sold it in the market or landed it on their boat."

Such a man was worth knowing and being given our full attentions.