Christmas Presents for a Multi-Ethnic Society.
Welcome, and looking forward to a joy-filled Christmas & a New Year overflowing with God’s gracious presence. This week, on a more light-hearted note, here are my suggested Christmas presents to give people a truly multi-ethnic Christmas. This is a very personal list, and since I have not read, heard, seen anything as much I would have wished, it is a very personal and distorted list. I realise also that several items are, well, old; but hopefully that may point people to gems from the past they haven’t been aware of. All are warmly recommended if you are looking for last minute Christmas presents.
Films.
Though I am not a great film buff, for some reason I wrote this section with the greatest relish. I really loved all these three films.
‘The Harder They Come’. 1972. Dir: Perry Henzell.
A ‘must see’ classic depiction of Jamaica in the early 70s, with a great sound-track from the golden age of reggae, including great tracks by Jimmy Cliff (the film’s star): ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ and ‘Sitting Here in Limbo’. It is a version of ‘the tragic defeat of the defiant rebel by the system’ narrative - but with no resurrection. The heart-rending lament of the pastor’s daughter/baddie-hero girl-friend that ‘Every game I play, I lose’ resonates with the harsh dilemmas of the poor across the world.
‘Lagaan’. 2001.
All cultures love the gospel-glimpsing story of a diverse, random group being gathered together to bring down the mighty: in this case, a contest set in India of a scratch cricket match with a triple-or-quits outcome as to whether or not the arrogant British colonial authorities will increase the villagers’ taxation. Nail-biting finish. Rightly won a Hollywood Oscar for the Best Foreign Language film.
‘Dheephan’. 2015, Dir: Jacques Audiard.
The story of an artificially thrown together man/woman/small girl ‘family’ formed in the chaos at the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka; and of their vicissitudes of making a living on a drug warfare riddled housing estate on the outer fringe of Paris, whilst at the same time evolving into a true family. Features a great genre switch from French art-house to Tamil gore-fest. The final scene of a Tamil back-garden gathering in a peaceful middle-belt London suburb had me swooning with nostalgia.
Books.
My taste in books is heavily weighted to sociological/historical/theological non-fiction, so there is quite a narrow range here.
‘Brown Face, Big Master’. Joyce Gladwell. 1969.
Originally an IVP contribution to ‘race’ in 1969, it received an upgrade into The Library of Caribbean Classics in 2013; whose blurb writes: ‘This open, forthright story of her life reveals a deep awareness of some of the major social issues and personal problems of our time - race, colour, human relationships, mixed marriage, the search for God. With vivid descriptions of people and her surroundings, she tells of her Jamaican school-days and the attitudes and prejudices which influenced her; of her life as a psychology student at London University; of the discrimination against her which came to a head when her proposed marriage to an Englishman was opposed by his family; and of her early problems of adjustment in marriage’. The poem at the start is a superb depiction of the ‘two Jamaicas’ mind-set. Described by Malcolm Gladwell as the best book ever written (her son).
‘The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race’. Willie James Jennings. 2011.
Jennings is a professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale. The most important book of any ‘black’ theologian (though I sense that he resists being labelled into a black niche). It is a detailed and wide-ranging historical study of how ‘whiteness’ created race, and a foundational challenge to the history of western Christendom. Rather than reading on Boxing Day, make reading it your New Year’s resolution.
‘Race and Culture: A World View’. Thomas Sowell. 1995. Basic Books.
Different in a great many ways from Jennings, this is part of the vast out-put from a black conservative nonagenarian economist and sociologist. I have chosen this for its wide reach and sharpness of judgement. He is still writing and was recently quoted at the end of Kemi Badenoch’s pitch to be Prime Minister, and also by the Sunday Times journalist Matthew Said. The blurb summarises: ‘Encompassing more than a decade of research around the globe, this book shows that cultural capital has far more impact than politics, prejudice, or genetics on the social and economic fates of minorities, nations, and civilization’.
‘Seeing a Colour-Blind Future: The Paradox of Race’. Patricia J Williams. 1997. Virago.
Another book that for me has stood the test of time. The 1997 Reith Lectures, Williams’s humane, wry, anecdotal depiction of the out-workings and stupidity of racism is sad as much as angry. She is a legal academic and still writing. She is also endlessly quotable.
‘Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible’. E Randolph Richards and Brandon J O’Brien. IVP/USA. 2012.
Shrewd and wide-ranging account of how we so easily mis-read the Bible when we naively but frequently assume it was written from and to our culture. Also has a useful reading list of books from a wide range of cultures. So definitely worth thinking of giving to your vicar.
Music.
I am afraid I really am stuck in a time warp here, then again the various lists of ‘greatest records ever made’ do tend to lean heavily on the 1955-1975 time-band.
‘Young, Gifted and Black – 50 Classic Reggae Hits’. Trojan Records.
Trojan funnelled music from a lot of Jamaican labels into Britain, and this selection or records made between 1960 and 1975 covers the ground from ‘roots’ music to rather anodyne pop (the title track). The often copied Melodians ‘Rivers of Babylon’ is a classic of Rastafarian up-take of biblical texts, whilst Desmond Dekker’s ‘Israelites’ launched reggae at a popular level.
‘The Best of Chess Records’
Chess was an independent Chicago label that was ideally placed to catch the crucially important sounds of post-war black migrants moving from the rural south to industrial northern cities, and which eventually began to source the soundtrack to urban life the world over. I still don’t know the words of Howling Wolf’s ‘Smokestack Lightning’ but for me it perfectly captures industrial townscapes.
‘Chuck Berry Platinum Collection’. 3 CD Box Set.
Chuck Berry also recorded on Chess, hardly any later than the above recordings, but quickly saw the potential markets of not only black city dwellers but also white teenagers and depicted the lives of both group with superb precision and fluency. For me, he is with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan one of the three great geniuses of rock music. ‘The Promised Land’ beautifully captures the vicissitudes and happy surprises of low budget travel.
‘We are all in this together’. Dave. 2021.
My only concession to (post?) modernity. The south London West African background rapper’s anger needs listening to, and communicates with originality and inventiveness as well as passion, without the bluster that too often comes with the genre.
These are my twelve very personal and partial suggestions that help us live in and understand a multi-ethnic society. Please use the response bubble to fill out and enlarge the suggestions.
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Add Ons.
Cancelling Hymns?
There has been a lot of controversy about what should be done memorials that are deemed problematic. But what we actually sing probably impacts us more than part of the ‘given’ of the building. So we should interrogate what we sing.
‘Hills of the North, Rejoice’ is often sung in churches at Advent. I have just realised what Eurocentric, spiritually arrogant geography it expresses. It was written by Rev Charles Oakley in the early 1860s in the heyday of British Imperialism. The first verse about the ‘north’ (us!) highlights fresh and vigorous rivers and mountains (a little like a bottled water advert), but no mention of our dark Satanic mills, awaiting the arrival of the victorious Lord. By contrast in the next verse ‘the southern seas’ are marked by ‘warring breezes’, suggestive of inter-tribal warfare, ‘restless waves’ and ‘wastes’. In reality the hymn was written during the ‘New Zealand Wars’ when 2,100 Maoris died fighting the British Army to defend their land rights.
The ‘East’ is marked by the ‘sleep of ages’ – a passive, inert people awaiting the dawn of liberty, whilst the ‘utmost West’ was unvisited, unblessed (even by its indigenous peoples?)
Whilst admirably the last verse joins worshippers from the four compass points in journeying together to the ‘city of God’, and rightly exalts the spread of the gospel, nonetheless there is a strong sense of the deficiencies of all cultures but that of the North, the hub from which all the other cultures will be transformed.
Please suggest other hymns that you think convey a racial or ethnic mind-set that hinder rather than help a good understanding of our place in the world.