I
think I have some more things to say about my Black History Month reading for
the year, if I can come up with the right order and words.
One
of the books I read was Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of
Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves by Art T. Burton.
I
had added it to my reading list as soon as I found out that the book existed. It
sounded interesting, but also I had this idea that maybe there could be a
television series in there. Reeves sounded heroic and fascinating. It could
fill a need for providing some diversity and undoing some of the historical
whitewashing of the past. Also, there has been some success with shows set in
the West - "Deadwood", "Hell on Wheels" - it just seemed
like there could be some potential there. Once I was reading the book I felt
differently.
It's
not that Reeves was not heroic or fascinating. He was pretty cool, and while
the book was pretty dry as it brought out every bit of source material
imaginable, there was still some cool information. There was also a lot that
was depressing.
The
article about the book had mentioned a large family, but not how much his
travel for the job would have kept him away from them. It didn't mention him
being away when his first wife died, or some of his children getting in trouble
with the law. It didn't mention the frequent slander that newspapers printed.
He got praise too, and had loyal friends, including Belle Star, but there were
some downsides. The article didn't mention that he found the Plessy v. Ferguson
ruling demoralizing, though that shouldn't have been surprising at all if I had
been thinking about dates.
Also,
things ended up sounding somewhat less interesting in the book. While the
commitment to accuracy was honorable, it made for a more boring tale, because
often there are records of the people arrested during a certain run, but not
how the cases resolved, or often that they were acquitted. The result is that
often it feels like even being a remarkably successful lawman didn't do much
good, and that can be totally valid, but there are already plenty of shows like
that.
I'd
had similar thoughts about Chang Apana, a Hawaiian detective who was closely
associated with the Charlie Chan character, so I read Yunte Huang's Charlie
Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with
American History as well.
It
was pretty similar. There are more successfully resolved cases. He took down an
opium den full of forty people with a crack of his bullwhip. Yes, the
reputation he already had helped, but it's still pretty impressive.
And
as impressive as he was, and respected, his chief of police still decided to
try and get everyone of color to take early retirement, and despite Chang
Apana's determination to fight it, illness ended up making retirement
necessary. Also, the reason they wanted to force people out is that some white
people were convicted of manslaughter for what was really the murder of a brown
person, and even though higher ups voided the sentence after an hour in jail,
you can't have things like that happening.
Basically,
nothing felt the way I thought it would. There were amazing people with
adventures, and they did defy stereotypes, but it wasn't this exultant thing,
maybe because the stereotypes remained so deeply rooted.
It
may simply be that I got into a darker frame of mind, and so nothing seemed
promising anymore. That being said, I never really thought I would be the
person developing those materials, so maybe there is someone out there who can
do it right, and they will know when they read it. Maybe I will draw some short
comics. Right now I am still in a learning phase, and I feel like something
interesting is going to develop in my own life soon, but I do not yet know what
that is going to be.
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