Toni Morrison

Oh, Toni Morrison! Writer, professor, editor, thinker, Nobelist! Probably all of us have read at least one of her memorable novels. They challenge us, entertain us, intrigue us, perplex us, delight us, terrify us and more at one point or another. She and her works are difficult to categorize. They encapsulate so many visions—magical realism, history, family drama, and so much more. Yet the review of a new book of criticism of her works, On Morrison by Naomi Serpell, highlighted early on an idea, or more an attitude, which Morrison held and acted upon which I had not thought much about before.

 Toni Morrison wanted the fullness of the Black American experience to be known. She hated erasures, even when what was erased was excruciatingly painful and ugly. But the new perspective on this for me was her ability to take an action, symbol or event which was generally seen as insulting or demeaning of Blacks by Whites and find another frame for it, a frame with meaning and honor.

 A prime example of this involved statuettes of Black jockeys in a hotel lobby. When booking a hotel in Chicago for an NAACP convention, the organizers insisted that the hotel remove the offending statuettes, which it reluctantly did, after first shrouding them in sheets. Morrison saw this as a missed opportunity.

 “Instead of being delighted that the profession of being a jockey virtually belonged to black men before 1900; that 14 of the first 27 Kentucky Derby races were won by black jockeys; that Isaac Murphy, a black jockey, was the first to win three Derbys; that Jimmy Lee won all six races at Churchill Downs in 1907—we draped the figures and hid their glory not only from white eyes but from our own eyes.”

Similarly, her approach to statues of Confederates would be not to remove them, but to pair them with contrasting statues and explanations of the meaning, the history, the significance of each. Get the truth out there.

But truth can be so hard to hear and recognize—which is why literature is so valuable. It can create a scene, a milieu, an environment of relationships in which truth is exposed and explained through a multitude of details and connections. The full humanity of the characters and their joys and pain and suffering is priceless for communication.

 Morrison’s genius enabled her to “invent a uniquely Black aesthetic,” utilizing the depth of Black cultural practices. While doing so, the reviewer, Judith Shulevitz, notes that author Serpell explains that “Morrison envies African novelists their freedom not to explain Black life to white people,” and that “Morrison never stopped thinking about the trick of evoking erasure and undoing it at the same time.”

I write as Black History Month is winding down. May we be strong enough to acknowledge history and build a better future, recognizing the dignity and talents of all. Thank you, Toni Morrison, for writing stories that offer missing pieces that open eyes and hearts, for championing powerful ways to reframe objects and actions from denigration to uplift, for helping everyone to see everyone more clearly.