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"we cd even have em over for dinner
& get raped in our own houses
by invitation
a friend. ”
We Live As Strangers
Ms. Shange speaks personally, outside
the play of this “stranger’s mentality,”
which makes “the rape of others,” whether
physical or symbolic, an ever-present possi
bility. She tells, for example, of celebrating
a birthday and of asking a male friend to
share in its joy with her. He froze. For him
—sadly characteristic as he was of the
alienation, impersonality and hence exploi
tativeness of our times —“doing some
thing” was an aspect of life with which he
was familiar. But simply to feel, to share,
and to engage in loving and carefree give
and-take was frightening. So he turned
away in fear... and froze.
The “stranger syndrome,” or set ol
symptoms, reveals more than the “user
mentality”; it discloses also the horrendous
ly devastated reaction of those who sense
that they are misused. It is the “lady in red”
who, once more, regarding the sense of
alienation and indifferent user-ship, recites
some of Shange’s favorite lines. She speaks
of a woman who wears “orange butterflies
& aqua sequins.” Next to Sechita, the
figure here is in Shange’s mind most deeply
revealing of the incoherent, unanchored
and often antagonistic life in which we find
ourselves today.
“Passion Flower’’
The “lady in red” speaks of the woman
who was “the passion flower of southwest
los angeles” and who wore “orange butter
flies and aqua sequins”:
"... she didn’t let on
she knew
from behind her waist was aching to be
held...
she wanted to be a memory
a wound to every man
arrogant enough to want her. ”
The “lady in red” continues her descrip
tion of this “passion flower” by noting
that after she had shared her charms and
then engaged in her cleansing and cere
monial ablutions, she became defiantly her
old “colored” self:
“... she had been so divine
devastatingly bizarre the way
her mouth fit round
& now she stood a
reglar colored girl
fulla the same malice
livid indifference as a sistah
worn out from supportin a wd be
hornplayer
or waitin by the window... "
How strange to even ourselves are black
women,...and are we all!
Raw Anger
To Ms. Shange, it is the realization of “a
righteous gospel” which will free black
women—and so also all of us as we seek for
reality—from life’s worst enchaining cir
cumstances, from the fetters which we call
anger.
Ms. Shange holds that the intense anger
in all women is largely unrecognized and
undealt with in our world today. We raise
girls to not want to achieve, to not want to
make decisions, to not want to be indepen
dent. That kind of powerlessness, so
Shange notes, breeds anger: “All women,
whether black or white, are exceedingly
. angry. This makes us less than our true
selves.”
How does one get at this anger? Shange
suggests three ways. “Essentially,” she
says, “we must bring the anger out into the
open. In this respect, my book and show
speak to some women by an open display
of raw anger and revenge.”
Another approach is to have facilities for
women to deal with their concerns, with
support systems for women who need to
grow into far greater independence and
integrity. Ms. Shange tells of a woman who
claimed that she could not meet her at the
Moulin Rouge in Paris because the woman
had never been out alone. Ms. Shange sees
the dependent woman as having perhaps
the most deep-seated anger, anger which
will probably never be faced precisely
because it is doubtless so deeply sup
pressed. No woman, in Shange’s view,
really wants to remain like a dependent
child.
A final approach to women’s anger
which Shange notes is to stay away from
some of them, especially those who are
rigid and uptight. Os this group Shange
says, “They make me nervous. They make
me feel that could have happened to me.”
The Lady and The Tramp
In a forthcoming piece, sub-titled, “A
Photograph—A Study In Cruelty,” Ms.
Shange tells of two women who come from
different social class backgrounds. One
(who is thought of as a tramp) has sought
to find herself and to be released from
anger. The other (a black lawyer who has
cemented herself in her work and status
symbols) fears growth into freedom and
reality.
The woman lawyer is asked: “Don’t you
want to be free? Don’t you want to feel?
Don’t you want to be no longer afraid?”
The answer of the lawyer is “No.” To
the suggestion that she can stop being
afraid, the lawyer adds revealingly:
“There’s no place where I can’t be afraid.”
Os such women, Ms. Shange explains:
Their self-perception is much too limited.
We have to continually try to re-assure
them, until we’re tired. We’ve got to get
them to see that there’s infinitely more to
them than they imagine.”
Beyond Imagining
The problem...or the fact...of being
black, according to Shange, represents “a
metaphysical dilemma,” in that it relates to
the essential nature of our being or our
reality.” For black women, the “lady in
yellow” speaks of this circumstance:
“... bein alive & bein a woman & bein
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The MacMillan Company publication of
Ms. Shange’s choreopoem, "for colored
girls who have considered suicide/when the
rainbow is enuf. ”
colored is
a metaphysical dilemma/i haven’t
conquered yet /do you see the point
my spirit is too ancient to understand
the separation of
soul and gender/my love is too delicate
to have thrown
back in my face... ”
Here the “problem” of growth is put
forward as the will to accept the tension
between what is the immediate, on the one
hand, and what is the ideal, on the other
hand.
An implicit assumption on Shange’s part
is that life in its ideal form is meant to be
orderly. In this sense, one would find that
ultimately there is in fact no tension
between “being a woman” and “being
colored.”
The missing ingredient which, when
found, makes the ideal into a present fact
for all of us, is described in Shange’s book
and play as “strong,” “cool,” “movin,”
and “pure.” It is symbolically:
“a lay in on of hands
the holiness of myself released. ”
This is the “righteous gospel!” This is
what lies beyond the most far-reaching
imaginings of most of us in our altogether
uptight world. This is what womanhood...
and life for all of us...is about! We are
divine! We are thus to live as those who
have dominion, power and g10ry...; and
so we are to strut and dance out our divin
ity with every breath we take.
The prophetic “lady in red” proclaims
the release-filled words, singing out, as the
play and book conclude:
"i found god in myself
& i loved her/i loved her fiercely. ”
Ms. Shange’s play, “for colored girls
who have considered suicide when the rain
bow is enuf,” which has been released in
book form by the MacMillan Publishing
Company, is a classic document which
might profitably be read and re-read for the
“righteous gospel” of freedom and release
it sets forth for all of us in our world today.
New National BLA CK MONITOR - September. 1977
That Ms. Shange’s star will continue to
rise is certain. What remains is for those of
us who hear and read her precious, saving
words to simply heed.. .and follow.
MONITOR
Microscope
(Continued from page 4.)
dared to assume, the possibility of racial
conflict or conflagration on the African
continent and beyond.
Specifically, he has noted that a racial
war is not beyond possibility in sub-Sahar
an Africa. Then he suggests that (as in the
case of American backlash and fears during
the 1790’s over the Haitian revolution)
right wing elements may stir flames of
racial antagonism in the United States,
leading white Americans to make “preven
tive attacks” upon black Americans.
Here again, Mr. Young’s thought is
supported from outside black American
circles. In a most remarkable new book, A
Time To Be Human, Howard Griffin
suggests in a poignantly beautiful docu
ment how blacks and whites (largely due to
the different worlds of information from
the black press, on the one hand, and the
white press, on the other hand) are at
odds, even though the white majority does
not consciously admit to the existence of
either tension or any difference.
This book is well worth reading, if one
accepts the assumption offered by Mr.
Young that racism abounds and potential
or actual polarization may exist.
* * *
... For those who may doubt the far
reaching import of what Andrew Young
has sought to symbolize for America as a
whole and for blacks in particular, these
courageous and forthright words of an
editorial several months ago from the
Chicago Defender should provide pause for
reflection:
“Throughout history men with clear
vision and deep conviction have appeared
on the scene heralding new gospels trying to
rescue mankind from the quagmire of
harmful social errors committed in the name
of civilization. There is a new awakening
among the people who are slowly, but surely
discovering that Andrew Young is a re
deemer of chaos unto order.”
In the Scriptural scheme of redemption,
the redeemer-figure becomes inevitably the
Sacrificial Lamb of whom it is said:
“Blessed is the one who comes.. .Hosan
nah in the highest.”
(Your questions or comments concerning
the "Microscope" are encouraged. Please
address: The Editor, Black Monitor, Suite
1108, 507 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y.
10017.)
Remember:
The Seventh Annual Congressional Black
Caucus Dinner is on September 24th at the
Washington Hilton, Washington, D.C.
Page 9