Literature #10 DB

When Black Men’s Teeth Speak Out Reflection

 

Evidence

· Her hand is in the cookie jar and yet she says that she did not take the cookies.

· I was there until about 9:30. Then why does the street cam show you leaving the restaurant at 6:32 PM and never returning?

                    (HInt: Surely, you can devise possible faulty thinking to the judgments.)

 

Purportedly, irrefutable evidence that the man is a cannibal is his gums. They are red.  Whose are not?  He is really healthy looking.  No one can look that good relying on vegetables alone. The economy has taken a downturn: a scapegoat is needed.  The problem source is assigned.  He must be punished.

At the end of the work, he is proven innocent because when he is cut open with a razor blade, tomato vines are found growing in his stomach. Hurrah!  He is innocent.  Wait a minute. What good does that do him?

Scapegoat needed.  Scapegoat found.  Scapegoat valueless.

Clearly, the author wants focus on the scapegoat being a Black Man. Clearly, there is ongoing persecution. Look closely. Did you see that the story is one man representing many?  Did you see Men and not Man in the title? 

 

Somewhat parallel to this is the Witch of Pungo.  Off of Independence in Virginia Beach is a road called Witchduck. There is a statue honoring the woman on one of those corners --on the Sentara property. Certain people wanted a widow’s land, hence the need to get her “out of the way.”  Accuse her. Her judge and jury were the Lynnhaven River. So tied to a chair that was attached to a long tree, she was dunked -and not by a light immersion.  If she drowned, she was innocent; if she lived, she was a witch. She lived; therefore, she was judged a witch. That judgment carried barriers for years.

Not so fortunate was the Black man whose teeth spoke out. They spoke his story, not that of his accusers. 

 

Notice:

People see.

People say…

People think...

People are…

From our perspective, what and how do they see, say, think? What are they?

 

Notice:  The blaming of all Jews for the pre-WWII economy.  6 million scapegoats.