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The Braselton News
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
Opinion
The Nickel Boys weaves
an unforgettable tale of racism
“Even in death the boys were trouble.”
from The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
One of the most remarkable books published in the past
year is Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys.
If you recall, Whitehead wrote The Underground Rail
road three years ago—a book which
won the author both a Pulitzer Prize and
a National Book Award.
The Nickel Boys is getting great re
views. The New Republic raved “The
Nickel Boys is fiction, but it burns with
outrageous truth.’’
Whitehead’s latest offering is a deep
ly moving story about a reform school
for young men in their late teens and
early twenties in segregated 1960’s
Florida.
Florida’s Dozier School for Boys
(fictionalized as Nickel Academy in
this book) was a real place, near Tampa, opening in the ear
ly 1900’s and operated until 2011. It was at that time that
an investigation unveiled the sickening truth about both the
school and its staff.
Whitehead wrote a piercing story about the brutal treat
ment—both physical and sexual abuse—that occurred at
the Nickel school.
And it was just not abuse that occurred at the school.
The sickening truth is that The University of South Florida
(USF), working with the state in the Dozier investigation,
discovered some 55 graves on school grounds by 2012.
And it’s not over—as USF continued to identify potential
grave sites as recently as March of this year.
This intense and unforgettable book will make you re
alize the sorts of embedded racism that contaminated the
institutions of the Jim Crow south.
This story itself is based around the character of a young
man named Elwood who was sent to the school because he
unknowingly hitched a ride in a car with a convict. A young
man with high ideals and who was inspired by Martin Lu
ther King Jr., Elwood entered the Nickel school with the
plan to simply keep his head down and serve out his time.
That did not happen, as this painfully graphic passage
shows:
“The leather slapped across the ceiling before it came
In 1978, with the help of a friend at the Augusta Nation
al Golf Club, I was approved for a credential to cover the
Open championship, the first tournament in history of the
game of golf, which was also the first golfing major and for
years the sole tournament in the sport.
Many know this tournament as the British Open, but
Open officials have always been hell
bent on calling this championship “The
Open.” Case closed! We, in America,
however, prefer to add the word, Brit
ish, to distinguish between our national
open and that of Great Britain.
As a representative of the Athens
Banner Herald, I was seated in the in
ternational section, someone assuming
my affiliation was with a publication in
Athens. Greece not Athens, Ga. I was
happy for the international grouping
which led to one of the most fortuitous
friendships of my life.
Seated by the editor of a French golf magazine, I spent
much of the week of the championship at St. Andrews pep
pering my new friend about golf in his country and soaked
up all I could about France from a Frenchman’s perspec
tive.
A year or so later, he asked if I could help a French friend,
the most accomplished and distinguished sports writer in
France, become credentialed for the Masters. I was happy
to recommend Denis LaLanne to my friends in Augusta.
LaLanne did gain press access at Augusta and a grand
and impactful bonus came about for me. I became the ben
eficiary of an abiding friendship which would uplift my
spirits and warm my heart for decades. Denis LaLanne
came early for the Masters and stayed in my home. I took
side trips before the British Open to his hometown of Biar
ritz where he was the most genial of hosts.
As the sports columnist for the French sports daily, L’
Equipe, Denis never stopped working. When he reached
mandatory retirement age with L’Equipe, he wrote nov
els. In one narrative involving the sport he loved dearly, he
named a putter the “Bisher and Smith,” for me and Furman
Bisher, the late columnist for the Atlanta newspapers.
The three of us enjoyed a warm and sprightly friendship
covering the major golf championships. There were addi
tional sports venues available to us such as Wimbledon,
the national rugby championship of France, the French
down on your legs, to tell you it was about to come down,
and the bunk springs made noise with each blow. Elwood
held on to the top of the bed and bit into the pillow but he
passed out before they were done, so when people asked
later how many licks he got, he didn’t know.”
The isolation of the school and the conspiracy among
its staff to keep a positive public reputation led state reg
ulatory officials to rubber stamp its efforts during annual
inspections.
Elwood made some friends while he was there—but the
book describes the nature of the students/inmates. Colson
writes:
“The cast of boys came in and out. Elwood got to know
some white kids he wouldn’t have met otherwise. Wards
of the state, orphans, runaways who’d lit out to get away
from mothers who entertained men for money or to escape
rummy fathers who came into their rooms in the middle of
the night.”
Elwood was raised by his grandmother, who came to vis
it him in the school, but her grandson kept from her the
secrets that went on inside Nickel. Whitehead writes:
“When his grandmother came to visit, he couldn’t tell
her what he saw when Dr. Cooke removed the dressings
and he walked the cold tile to the bathroom.. .he knew his
grandmother’s heart would not be able to take it.”
In an NPR interview, Whitehead said this book was dif
ficult for him to write—and it came at a difficult time in
his life.
“This book was hard because I was depressed. This book
was hard. I was broke and depressed,” said Whitehead,
who was working at the time writing articles for 35 cents
a word.
Whitehead, a Harvard graduate whose wife is a liter
ary agent, grew up in Manhattan. He is the author of nine
books.
The Nickel Boys is a difficult book to read. The abuse is
repugnant and the dialogue holds nothing back.
However, it’s an important book that reminds us that,
when it comes to institutional racism, things are seldom
as they seem.
David R. Altman writes about books and writers. He is a
member of the American Academy of Poets and the Nation
al Books Critic Circle.
Open at Roland Garros, the Grand Slam Tennis venue, and
the Tour de France among others. He introduced me to his
friends who included me in their socials. I did the same
with him in Athens.
As a young boy, evolving into manhood. LaLanne was
a track athlete, a hurdler. His hero was Georgia’s Spec
Towns, my college coach. Spec’s Olympic photograph
hung on his wall in LaLanne’s childhood home in the town
of Pau where he grew up. When I took him to meet Towns,
LaLanne was visibly moved by the experience
“That was,” he said, “one of the most wonderful things
that has happened to me in my life. I will never forget. I
kiss you.” He did kiss both of my cheeks, European style,
an expression which confirmed his gratefulness for the in
troduction to his boyhood idol.
Last weekend, my friend Denis, passed away at age 93.
His publisher sent me an email with the sad news. My
heart is heavy but my spirits are buoyed with the most re
warding of memories, all of which are golden. There is
not a single regret. There was no spilled milk in our rela
tionship, yet we had difference of opinions when it came
to certain subjects. He was deeply grateful for the Allied
invasion at Normandy, but we seldom talked politics.
We preferred trips across the border for dinner in Spain,
grilled quail—’’quails,” he called them—from my backyard
grill, golf at his private club in Biarritz, dinners in nearby
Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where the wine flowed without end, ac
companied by generous toasts and laughter from deep in
the heart. I often think about the beauty of this world and
the communal warmth of the people across all borders. I
cherish the friendships and the landscapes visited. It is one
thing to know a country but something especial to get to
know its people.
If I could revisit the past, it would be difficult not to give
the highest priority to those evenings in Saint-Jean-de-luz,
south of Biarritz near the Spanish border. The wine, the
laughter, the convivial atmosphere—the good times were
of such feel-good emotions that there was no remorse the
morning after. No hangover, no wooden head, no slow day
to follow.
I have been a frequent traveler to Biarritz to see my
treasured friend, and I hope to return again—to honor our
friendship and to toast our past, never forgetting the happy
times that enlightened and enlivened our lives.
Loran Smith is a UGA announcer and columnist for
Mainstreet Newspapers.
Encourages Fox
to ‘remain true to
Republican-centered
programming’
Dear Editor: As a longtime conservative viewer of
Fox News, I wholeheartedly agree with Shepard Smith’s
decision to leave the network. As a fellow Mississipian,
I wish him well.
My disappointment with Shepard started when I ob
served what appeared to be a growing disdain for almost
everything Trump. At the same time, Shepard seemed to
yearn for a more politically correct and spineless ver
sion of the GOR
Looking back to 1996, the launch of Fox Cable News
was a godsend for conservatives because it created a
Republican-centered alternative to compete with the
jabberings of every left-leaning broadcast news organi
zation on the planet.
Lately, though, some of the commentary coming
from Fox News is indistinguishable from that which
comes from CNN and MSNBC. I hope this is just an
anomaly, but if a permanent leftward drift is in the
cards, my unsolicited advice to Fox News is as follows:
Remain true to the Republican-centered programming
that has grown Fox into a powerhouse. To toy with the
idea of carrying water for the Democrat Party is not a
viable growth strategy because there are several up-and-
coming conservative news networks that are working to
outfox the Fox.
Sincerely.
Claude Diamond
Braselton
Just what did
Horowitz say?
The liberals and secular progressives have
learned it’s hard if not impossible to convict some
one of murder without a corpse. (Can we say Dem
ocrats...or is that hate speech?)
To read or to hear the experts explain to us the
conclusions of the DOJ IG re
port makes one wonder,
“Just how many angels
can dance on the head of
a pin?”
In trying to answer the
questions surrounding the
FBI’s investigation of the
Trump 2016 campaign
and continuing well into
his presidency, IG Horow
itz turned himself into
a pretzel trying to avoid
the one central question
concerning the FBI lead
ership’s role in trying to
take down a sitting pres
ident.
On the one hand he wrote
and said there was no testimonial or documentary
evidence of political bias. But in his sworn testi
mony he assiduously avoided making a definitive
statement about a lack of bias.
On the other hand either in his report or his tes
timony. Horowitz made the following statements
which seem to “hint” at bias:
1) The report found 17 major areas of either
omissions or errors.
( Writer’s note: all 17 errors favored the prosecu
tion of the investigation in a material way...not one
was found to be in favor of the president...sounds
biased to me.)
2) Explanations from officials about the errors
and omissions were not “satisfactory”
(Writer’s note: Horowitz’s gentlemanly way to
say they lied.)
3) “...the activities we found don’t vindicate any
body who touched this.”
(Writer’s note: that includes James Comey and
his nefarious cohorts.)
4) An FBI lawyer altered a legal document that
was part of an official FBI petition to the FISA
court to continue their surveillance of the Trump
campaign.
(Writer’s note: the small change altered the doc
ument from exculpatory to incriminating.)
5) Horowitz in his testimony specifically used
the words “illegal” and “unlawful” in answer to
a direct question about “spying” to describe re
port’s findings concerning the FBI’s surveillance
of Trump.
6) The IG refused to say his findings refuted the
allegations about a “deep state conspiracy”.
(Writer’s note: Horowitz has left the door wide
open for criminal charges...beware of the Southern
District of New York.)
Horowitz also said that the FISA court’s author
ity was abused, the FISA court needs reform and
there’s got to be a change in the culture (at the
FBI).
There is an old Chinese saying describing the cu
mulative result of multiple minor injuries, “Death
by a 1000 cuts”. Perhaps the IG has opened the
door to finding the truth and revealing the biases
behind torturous last 3+ years. Maybe the rule of
law can be restored or we can continue our head
long rush down the road to despotism.
Capt. Jim Kinney USN (ret) is a highly decorated
26 year veteran of Naval aviation with extensive
experience in DC. He served on Gov. Huckabee’s
presidential campaign staff. A noted international
speaker, Capt. Kinney is available to speak to civic
groups for special events, luncheons, dinners and
retreats. Contact him at Captain5772@gmail.com
David R.
Altman
Denis LaLanne