In Defense of Phil Robertson (The Right Thing To Do)

I haven't been following the dust-up about Phil Robertson's quotes in GQ magazine as closely as some, and I don't necessarily share the same feelings about them as does my sister, The Writing Diva.  I think issues of race and sexual orientation in the South are more complex than those of us raised outside the South understand.  When a white Southerner expresses a point of view about sexual orientation or race that isn't in line with moderate America's expectations, we're quick to dismiss that person as an ignorant, backwoods hick.

It's more complicated than that. 

Maybe it's because of Nelson Mandela's recent passing that I'm stepping back and taking the longer view on what Phil Robertson said in light of his life experience and mine.  Here's my life experience.

I lived in Mississippi for a year.  What I learned living there is that even if Southern or rural Southern whites believe that the Bible forbids what you're doing or how you're living, that doesn't necessarily mean that they hate you or that they would mistreat you.  My experience is that there is a Southern code of conduct, so to speak; I would call it "The Right Thing To Do": -- No matter what people might think of you or what you do, unless they're rabid racists, they're going to treat you with respect and human kindness just as they would want to be treated.  The culture of respect runs deep in Southern culture.  My mental litmus test for anyone, including Phil Robertson, is, "Would this person help me if I were stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire?"  Trust me, you're more likely to be helped by a Southerner of any race than a Californian.  Southerners of any race help strangers simply because it's The Right Thing To Do.  I watch "Duck Dynasty," and although I've never met Phil Robertson, I think he would pass my litmus test.

There are a lot of Christians of all races who believe that homosexuality is a sin.  That doesn't mean they hate gay people or would harm them.  I don't recall there being this much of a dust-up when, on "R&B Divas," the singer Monifah, who came out, asked her daughter if she could support Monifah's union with her partner Terez.  Her daughter said, "No, no I can't."  It was a matter of faith, not hate, for her.  It didn't mean that she loved her mother less; it simply meant that, as a matter of faith, she could not encourage a gay union.  Good Christians are perfectly capable of hating the sin (or at least what they consider sin) and loving the sinner.  They need to be because we're all sinners.

Finally, I think we have to look at context and life experience when taking the measure of someone.  Phil Robertson's remarks about black people were based on his life experience, which I hazard to guess is rather limited.  I doubt that black folks picking cotton with him back in the day could tell him how they truly felt about their lives and experiences.  Just as we black folks today can't necessarily share all our feelings at work lest we be branded as radical or angry, I'd be willing to bet that the happy temperament of black folks that Phil Robertson experienced while picking cotton with them was the part of their feelings that was safe to share with whites during that time.  That is what he experienced.  The implication of his statement that this state of black affairs was "pre-welfare" and "pre-entitlement," although misguided and ill-informed, doesn't appear to me to be an expression of hate. Maybe I'm naïve.

I watch "Duck Dynasty," and I think many people who are quick to criticize Phil Robertson have never seen the show.  I enjoy the show.  The reason I enjoy it is because, like Tyler Perry's "Madea" movies, there's always a moral to each episode.  I like that they are family that hasn't let wealth change them, they stick together, and they have all the same characters and problems that all families have: A crazy but loving uncle (Uncle Si); a patriarch (Phil Robertson) who, like many Southern patriarchs, is really ruled by the matriarch of the family (Miss Kay); and adult sibling rivalry (Jase and Willie).  They end each episode at the dinner table saying grace and thanking the Lord for their blessings, like many families of all races do daily across the South.  They truly appear to love one another, and it's clear that Phil Robertson loves his family deeply.  What I don't see on the show, and what I've never seen, is hate.

I have advanced degrees from two Ivy League institutions, and I have lived all around this country. If you asked me to bet whether one of my "to the manor born" white Harvard classmates or white trash (his words) Phil Robertson would be most likely to help me if I were stranded by the side of the road, I'd pick Phil Robertson every time. He'd do it because, as a Southerner, he knows it would be The Right Thing To Do.

If Mandela was a Communist and a Terrorist, What Were the Afrikaners?

I had been reading all the online tributes to Nelson Mandela, learning things about him that I didn't know (his favorite dish was tripe, which the author incorrectly identified as animal intestines -- tripe is stomach), when I made the mistake of reading the comments below one article.  One commenter objected to the tributes for Mandela, calling Mandela a communist and a terrorist.

Really?  And what were the Afrikaners?

I usually don't respond to stupidity because the response elevates the stupidity.  But in this case, I won't let the ignorant corrupt history, anonymously online, no less. Never mind the fact that such comments violate the maxim that you should not speak ill of the dead.

We've seen this all before.  When a great political figure, usually a person of color, is known for having stood up to make humankind accountable to the principles of freedom and equality, they are politically slurred in death without any reference to the context in which they acted.  Think Dr. King.

True, Nelson Mandela had once been a communist.  He also refused to renounce violence.  But he didn't come to the world that way.  If Mandela was a communist and a so-called "terrorist" (one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and sometimes both -- ask the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan), he was made that way by the Afrikaners who came to his homeland and corrupted the idea of democracy.  I guess Mandela, like many oppressed people, had the nerve to think that democracy and freedom and equality should go hand in hand.  How dare he.

And therein lies the problem.  Anytime a government or any majority corrupts a system of beliefs -- whether it's democracy or religion -- people who suffer under such corruption turn away from it.  Why would you continue to support a system of beliefs that people hide behind in order to oppress you? If Nelson Mandela, Bayard Rustin and Paul Robeson were communists, it was because democracy had clearly failed and oppressed them and their people.  They were not wrong.  The terrorists wearing the mantle of democracy were.  Think Bull Connor.

If Mandela was a so-called "terrorist," it was because non-violence in pursuit of freedom and equality in what was ostensibly a democratic society had failed. Non-violence by black South Africans in pursuit of freedom and equality was met with bullets, not conciliation. Nelson Mandela becoming willing to use violence in defense of his people was no different than the Black Panther Party doing the same, and for the same reasons.  George Washington fights for freedom, and he's a patriot; Nelson Mandela fights for freedom, and he's a terrorist?

So to call Mandela, or any person with the courage to be willing to die for freedom, equality and democracy, a communist or a terrorist without reference to the political forces acting against them at that time is sheer ignorance.

The difference between Mandela and most people is that he wouldn't have even engaged in this debate out of the spirit of reconciliation.

Thank You to the Family of Nelson Mandela

There's not much I can say about the passing of Nelson Mandela that hasn't already been said.  I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge about him that historians and Wikipedia have.  I participated in anti-apartheid sit-ins once or twice, not with the same commitment to the cause as some of my college and law school classmates.  Much of what I know about him comes from accounts about him, not from what I observed first hand.

But there is something I can say that may not be said enough during this time of grief and mourning:  Thank you to the family of Nelson Mandela.

We often forget that when someone accepts the mantle of leadership, they serve their cause, their country, or both, usually at the expense of their family.

Nelson Mandela's leadership of the ANC, his imprisonment, and his leadership of his country meant that his family was deprived of time that might otherwise have been spent with him. I doubt he would have had it any other way.  His sacrifice was his family's sacrifice, too.  They were deprived of him by imprisonment and then had to share him not only with the nation of South Africa, but with the world.

Thank you to the family of Nelson Mandela.  At a time when you probably most wanted to hold him close and savor however many years he would have left after leaving Robben Island, you shared him with the world.  The world is all the better for your sacrifice and his.

Godspeed, Madiba.  My prayers, condolences, and deepest gratitude to the family of Nelson Mandela.