I had already been
planning on having multiple posts about Queen Sugar this week,
and that one of them was going to be about the men. I just didn't think it would
come first.
I relate more to the
women. I could probably write a single post each for Charley and Nova, and
there is a whole other post about family dynamics that is coming. Still, today
we will focus on the men, and the boys, and the impressions and emotions that I
have had with them.
I'm not writing about
Remy, Prosper, and Hollywood. My love for them (especially Hollywood) is uncomplicated and pure.
It was first noticing the
love that everyone else had for Blue that started to scare me. It would
devastate so many people if something happened to him.
I started having those
thoughts in the first season, but with the new credits for the second season,
there is a scene of Blue running away from the camera, so happy and carefree,
and this sense that it can't last.
That was when it flashed
back to me what Nova had said about Too Sweet, the teen she was trying to get
out of prison. He was only in there on trumped up charges and a lack of means
for paying for bail. I don't have the exact quote, but she asked how many Black
boys can get to be his age and still have the nickname "Too Sweet".
There are too many things that happen to harden them.
I suppose it made sense
that it was going to touch Micah first. He had grown up relatively sheltered,
but I still saw over and over again that he feels things deeply and silently.
It shows in the liquid eyes of Nicholas L. Ashe, but in those pauses where we
read his feelings in his eyes, Micah has always stayed silent. When he was
arrested and terrorized, of course he would not be able to talk about it.
When Micah did finally
tell his story, it was the first time I have cared for Davis. Adultery is a sore spot for me, and I am not
particularly fond of liars. I do believe that things like that affect the
quality of love you can give.
Despite that, I had not
doubted that Davis loved his son. To see it there in the physical tension in Timon Kyle
Durrett's body - to see how badly he wanted to physically destroy someone for
hurting his son - and to see the helplessness as he realized that all he could
do was comfort Micah, yeah, I felt that.
That only really leaves
Ralph Angel, as portrayed by Kofi Siriboe. He has been the hardest.
One of the first things
we see him do is rob a store. We then immediately see him being tender with his
son, Blue. We also quickly learn that he stole the money not because of a
pressing need, but so he would have something to offer, first to his aunt, then
to his father, neither of whom had asked for it.
Ralph Angel is
wrong-headed a lot, and that is frustrating, but it has also struck me how
broken down he has been, over and over.
Things go wrong so
easily. Getting a warehouse job recommended by your parole officer should be a
success story, until it results in getting cheated by being sold infected seed
cane, and then being dragged into a stolen goods operation run out of the
warehouse. Getting out of that involved getting physically beaten and fired.
How can you stay too sweet?
When something goes
right, Ralph Angel's smile is pure grace. For that I keep hoping that other
things can work out.
Ralph Angel has been
wrong-headed a lot, but he is also consistently caring and supportive of Blue.
He is a loyal friend. He does love his family. He probably has the most to
learn, but as he does learn it, his life gets better. The next lesson appears
to be learning that someone can love and support you and still love and support
others, and have other responsibilities. He will be better for knowing that. Learn
what is real. Let the other stuff go.
I thought I would start
with the family dynamics post - that was the aspect that struck me first and
drew me in the most. Instead, Charlottesville happened. Raw emotion could lead many places,
but one place I ended up was a discussion on Facebook trying to explain racism,
and how it is not about feelings, but structure.
That is an important
discussion to have (even if the only real result is getting told I am angry,
wrong, and racist against white people). Racism is poorly understood, and
taking down the systemic racist structure would eventually do a lot to fix the
bad feelings, though doubtless with a lot of emotional turmoil on the way.
All of that is true, but
the feelings do matter. It matters that the structure breaks hearts and spirits
and kills hopes and dreams. You can't fix it by focusing on feelings alone, but
the feelings do matter. The pain, and the chance to heal that pain, is why
fighting the structure is so important.
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