Theology Today - Vol 50, No.1 - April 1993 - ARTICLE - Xodus Musings: Reflections on Womanist Tar Baby Theology

Xodus Musings: Reflections on Womanist Tar Baby Theology
By Garth Baker-Fletcher

"As heretical as it may seem, those who experience the boot of fierce power on their throats do not envision Jesus as anything but full of righteous indignation for the injustice visited them in the name of Jesus. So, the historical Nat Turner and all of his psycho-symbolic ancestors still living inside of black men look to Jesus as the Eschatological One, coming to set things alight. Since Martin Luther King and Malcom X could not change the destructive, oppressive ways of the United States, Jesus will."

The turn toward mythological reconstruction embodied in Karen Baker-Fletcher's "Tar Baby Theology" calls for a response from African American male theologians and ethicists. As Tar Baby womanist theological reflection intentionally "dusts off " and puts back together again the dis-remembered fragments of the ancient African tar lady myth of community bonding and perseverance, so African American males are searching to uncover the shattered myths of humanity and "manhood" (here understood in its gender-specific sense) that may bring life-giving power. Fundamentally the "problem" that all African American males face-from the most affluent and highly educated to the most poor and under-educated-is embodied in the question, How do I stand up as a human being and "man" in a system designed to negate my integrity? Mythic legends and folk images of black maleness have arisen as existential responses created to deal with that fundamental question.

As womanists and many feminists have recently discovered, the folk stories of a people are a rich vein of mythic imagery waiting to be fully mined. The folk images associated with black males throughout our tragic sojourn here in the United States point to a world of meaning about what it has meant to be a male of African descent. I want to excavate both the folk images given to black males (Sambo, Uncle Tom) and those that arose from our own consciousness (John Henry, Jack/Nat Turner, High John De Conquer). Tragically, most of the

Garth Baker-Fletcher is Assistant Professor of Christian ethics at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis.

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mythological-stereotyping power these images possess is still operative in the late twentieth century--often barely changed.

The notion of the Negro as shuffling, trifling, and lazy is summed up in the image of Sambo. Sambo is also the clown, captured in the role of entertainer. The Sambo image was nurtured historically in the age of Al-Jolsonesque minstrelsy, portraying Negroes as objects of derision and contempt. Yet, the Sambo image, originating from EuroAmericans, implies that the black male can be only a tragic selfdefeating character, shuffling and jiving for the entertainment of his tormentors. The twist of tragic, self-destructive comedy has been carried into the late twentieth century by no less a comedian than Richard Pryor, whose narrow escape from life threatening burns in a drug related accident became part of his new act. Sambo is the tragic clown whose humor belies his inner hopelessness.

Uncle Tom, on the other hand, was meant to be a heroic figure of Christian self-sacrifice and long-suffering by his creator, Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin, became part of the powerful propaganda produced by increasingly radical abolitionists of the mid-nineteenth century. For African Americans, however, the figure of Uncle Tom became a "hiss and a byword." The "Uncle Tom" is the " completely accommodated Negro"' whose selfhood is absorbed into the system of white supremacy. To African Americans, an "Uncle Tom" is used by his white superiors to create a situation where whites feel free to fire or embarass other African Americans, anything to keep himself "in good with the white man." The "Uncle Tom" appellation is the feared curse of every African American who is compelled to work under whites, while simultaneously holding a position of authority over other African Americans. Thus, "Uncle Tom" can be pulled out by blacks as a superior ideological weapon to enforce patterns of racial unity against the perceived threats of a white boss. While it becomes easy to see "Uncle Toms" in every institution when exclusivist ideologies of blackness arise, nevertheless, the notion of a completely accommodated Negro is threatening to African American survival. Such a person, like recently confirmed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, can speak for and make the same identical decisions as any racist European American. The "Uncle Tom" of our world is dangerous to the survival of African Americans because he does not have any critical distance from the system of European American racism that is using him as it rewards him. The ultimate tragedy for the "Uncle Tom, " as Clarence Thomas found out, is that a racist system can dig up "dirt" on him in order to embarrass and humiliate him, just as it can to any other black.

It would be a dire mistake to allow the impression that black men inhabited these racist stereotypes easily without any sign of their own agency. Not surprisingly, some of the most radical men many of us have

¹ A phrase I borrow from a womanist ethicist colleague, Cheryl Sanders.

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as ancestors-men who loved their wives and children and worked hard to keep food on the table through continuing "depressions" in African American communities, long after de facto slavery had been abolished-used the Sambo or Uncle Tom images as trickster masks to avoid being bothered by white power, turning potential violence aside with a quick wry joke, pleasantness, and servility.

While Sambo and Uncle Tom are predominately negative images of black masculinity, John Henry, Jack, and High John De Conquer are predominately positive mythic symbolizations. They arise from the concrete experiences of African Americans as they toiled, labored, and survived in the United States. The legend of John Henry has a concrete historical basis in the legend of a black "steel-drivin' man" in the Big Bend Tunnel of West Virginia in the 1880s.² Here we have captured in one powerful myth the symbol of the black man as superior laborer. With superhuman strength, this black man defeats the powers of technology and dies in the process. It is a heroic story to be sure, but, again, it reinforces the dilemma of African American maleness. Does it take an act of superhuman strength, of supernatural endowment leading to a certain and sacrificial death, to gain both self respect and the respect of European Americans? Is the attainment of glorious undeniable manhood for the African American male a brief and intense burst of heroic light followed by inevitable death? If that is the message, then perhaps it would be best not to bother. The superhuman athletic deeds of Bo Jackson, with dual careers in football and baseball, have been apparently cut off by an injury to his hip. While not physically dead, his career as contemporary "John Henry" certainly is. Surely "Bo Knows!" the high cost of living up to the mythic archetype of John Henry.

A pessimistic sacrifical christology is suggested by the John Henry myth wherein a divine victim is destined to "serve" the Almighty (White Man). The "hammer in his hand" is not the biblical Word dividing asunder the soul and spirit like a sword. Rather, it is the tool of sacrifical power by which John Henry forges his victory, supernatural strength, and eventually gives up his life and dies. John Henry suggests a dangerous conflation of ultimate victor and the ultimate victim. Such conflation legitimates a self destructive history of heroic self-sacrifice for African American males and many other oppressed persons.

The mythic symbol of "Jack/Nat Turner" conveys "Jack" as hard working but dangerously quiet slave who, when pushed too hard for

² There is plenty of conflicting testimony about whether the contest between man and machine was in West Virginia, Alabama, or someplace else. See Richard M. Dorson's "The Career of John Henry," Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel, edited by Alan Dundes, (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1990), pp. 589ff.

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too long, could become a revolutionary, white killing Nat Turner.³ Many African American males have been Jack for their entire lives, never having a chance to uncover Nat Turner side lurking in the depths of their unconscious rage. Yet, Nat Turner is alive in every African American male, even today. It was stirred up during the whipping scenes in the first week of "Roots." It was recently stirred for many black men during the season of riots following the acquittal of the white policemen who savagely beat a black motorist, Rodney King. So, while Jack, as the faithful, quiet, and hard-working family man, who comports himself nobly to both small and large injustices, goes to work every day, Nat Turner stands beside and within his every reaction, tacitly counting the slights, insults, and abuses.

As Nat Turner's rebellion was quick and lethal, arising without apparent warning, so is the occasional outburst of Nat Turner. Whenever Nat Turner speaks, Jack is allowed to step back for ever-so-brief a moment and relax. Yet leaving Nat Turner "on" for too long can result in the loss of income, collegiality, and self-control, so Jack usually puts Nat away after a few choice words or scenes. The dual-personality of Jack/Nat Turner can be seen in almost every African American man who manages to keep his profession and his self respect. Yet the balancing act of the two can be lethal. Perhaps it is Nat's anger that breaks out as internalized destruction in the record high number of African American males with ulcers, high blood pressure, heart conditions, and strokes.

It is Nat Turner, and not Jack, who is empowered by the Spirit to go forth slaying and killing slave owners in the name of the wrathful judgment of God. Such imagery of spiritual empowerment by violent overthrow is terrifying for whites. It is "un-Christian," and "against all of the teachings of Jesus."⁴ Doesn't this understanding of Jesus and the Holy Spirit fly in the face of many centuries of "solid" nonviolent Christian social ethics? Perhaps, but it does so based on Nat Turner's apocalyptic visions, which conceived of a wrathful, second coming Jesus, rather than the meek and mild Jesus so precious to European and American Christian tradition.⁵ As heretical as it may seem, those who experience the boot of fierce power on their throats do not envision Jesus as anything but full of righteous indignation for the injustices visited them in the name of Jesus. So, the historical Nat

³ The symbols of "Jack" and "Nat Turner" can be found in John W. Blassingame, The Slave Community Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979). The "Nat Turner" symbol flows from an historic person, however, the mythic symbol of rebelliousness is Staggolee. Staggolee is a "ba-a-d ass nigger," who risks, revels in danger, and destroys himself in the process. Cf. H.C. Brearly, "Ba-ad Nigger," in Mother Wit, pp. 578-585.
⁴ These kinds of comments have been made by Euro-American Christian theologians to me anytime I mentioned any construal of Jesus that was not consonant with "the tradition of nonviolence."
⁵ This is apparent in Nat Turner's Confessions as excerpted in Afro-American Religious History.- A Documentary Witness, edited by Milton C. Sernett (Durham: Duke University Press, 1985), pp. 88-92.

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Turner and all of his psycho-symbolic ancestors still living inside of black men look to Jesus as the Eschatological One, coming to set things aright. Since Martin Luther King and Malcolm X could not change the destructive, oppressive ways of the United States, Jesus will.

High John De Conquer is a trickster figure who derives his strength from his rootedness in Africa and by maintaining an irrepressibly humorous exterior. High John was the slave who worked in "Massa's" house, but was not of "Massa's" house (as was Uncle Tom!). High John would challenge "Massa" and, through quick retorts, wit, and good humor, escape "numerous scrapes and tight squeezes."⁶ High John was a "spirit who came from Africa, walking on the waves of sound," who "took on flesh when he got here."⁷ Thus, High John is an incarnated spiritual force. Further, it becomes apparent when reading the tales of High John that he is able to appease "Massa" while at the same time doing what is good for the survival of African peoples. These two qualities make High John a particularly attractive figure as a symbolic image of positive African American maleness.

Conversations with Marti Steussy have helped me to see that, theologically, High John De Conquer as a holy trickster is problematic because he is not the Liberator who changes the structures of oppressive power. He tricks those who grasp and wield social power coercively into momentary relinquishing of their power. While High John is attractive, his is a "holding operation," a survival strategy that ranks a bit higher than the Uncle Tom and Sambo. High John, at least as he was originally conceived, cannot be liberating enough for any contemporary reconstruction, unless we move in the direction of radicalizing High John as incarnated spiritual force who does "whatever is necessary" (the Malcolm X allusion is intentional) for the liberation, sustenance, and nurturance of his community. Such a move makes High John a male counterpart to the mythic tar lady, who embodies the values of community preservation and sustenance. High John de Conquer ought to be the spiritual soul mate of the African tar lady, and together they form an embodied spirituality of community that resists any oppressive force that violates the upbuilding of the community. This resistance to oppressive forces ought to be extended against outside forces of racism as well as those within the community: sexism, color prejudices (internalized racism), class divisions, and homophobia. A remythologized High John de Conquer may be a powerful force to come in the contemporary reconstruction of African American manhood in relationship to community.

III

It is apparent for anyone with eyes to see that there is resurgent interest in the life, thought, and meaning of Malcolm X in the life of

⁶ Zora Neale Hurston, "High John De Conquer," Mother Wit, p. 544.
⁷ Ibid., p. 542.

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African Americans. The "X" caps, which brighten the heads of many African Americans, are a commercialized attempt to capture a deeper spiritual yearning. I believe that it is time to put theological flesh and sinew onto the skeleton of Xs so that they might live! X for Malcolm and other members of the Nation of Islam was a sign of journeying away from European-named space. X symbolized the desire to rename oneself and to begin a process of reinventing oneself after a more historically informed African self image, a self image held to be truer than that depicted by slave names.

As a Christian, I believe that the message of "X" is a call for all African peoples intentionally to chart a course of selfhood outside of the moral parameters and definitions of European space. Thus, we are called to Xodus which, like the biblical exodus, is the coming out of an oppressed people toward an uncertain future. As an African American Christian man, I have found myself called into an Xodus journey this summer. I found out that many African American urban youth are inspired by a rap group "X-Clan," who have produced an album called "Xodus." "Xodus" is a fiery collection of political rap, calling for all "children of Africa" to "board the Cosmic Ark" and to "return home." Such yearnings remythologize the biblical exodus by combining poetry with current theo-political aspirations. Xodus, as the Hebrew exodus of many centuries ago, is carrying all African Americans, willing or not, for it is the Zeitgeist.

Such a space ought to be one of inclusion, not exclusion. Thus I offer the Xodus Man as a symbol of an African American male deeply rooted in African American history, yet not romanticizing "the motherland" with an uncritical spirit. The Xodus Man is a partner with the Xodus Woman, both realizing the necessity of partnership (as defined by bell hooks and Cornel West in Breaking Bread).⁸ In partnership, the African American woman and man cannot be severed or made to betray each other in the interest of "gaining ground" in European-dominated space. The Xodus Man is a listening man, hearing with depth and appreciation the words of pain and joy expressed by his Xodus Sisters.

Xodus journeying gathers up and maintains the mythic-historical energies of the Sol Legare Islands myth of flying Africans.⁹ The myth articulates a legend about supernatural Africans who maintained their ability to fly, an ability hidden from whites, and who one day fly home to Africa to the amazement of their white masters. As those Africans flew back home, so must we return to our roots-both in Africa and in America. Most of us have been in America at least as long as any European immigrant's descendent. The sweat, blood, and tears of our

⁸ Cf. bell hooks and Cornel West Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (Boston: South End Press, 1991), pp. 7-19.
⁹Found in the narrative of Phyllis Green "Dem as Could Fly Home," in Will Coleman's "Coming Though 'Ligion," Cut Loose Your Stammering Tongue: Black Theology in Slave Narratives, edited by Dwight N. Hopkins and George Cummings (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991), pp. 70-71.

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foremothers and forefathers built America right alongside Europeans. Our roots belong in two divergent places, which have a history of conflict with each other. The Xodus journey should seek to excavate and discover what this dual heritage means for our future. We need not have "two warring souls," as W.E.B. DuBois wrote in Souls Of Black Folk. We are Xodus folk, one soul forged from a dual heritage, held together by the "tar" of the Holy Spirit, washed in the blood of the holy ancestors, whose love lives on in us.