 Ed Garren, writer, thinker and traveler. |
This has been a good week for drama in the news. Star Jones-Reynolds became the first person in the media to publicly find herself in a position of being on the "outs" with Barbara Walters. This was news, CNN, Anderson Cooper, Larry King Live and People magazine, lots of network news shows, all covered the story.
I have friends and confidants on a full spectrum of socio-racial demographics. It was interesting to hear the perspective of each, tinted with my own opinion, once again, it's culture wars.
To the casual observer, the idea of the situation being based in culture may seem absurd. After all, both women are "New Yorkers." Both are smart, that's where the similarities end.
Of all the women on the show, Star is the only one who is from the south, North Carolina. She migrated north later on, but her "culture" is still very southern, even if she doesn't have an "accent". And there is the other obvious difference, actually two. She is black and was very obese.
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For me, it always come down to the same, sad thing. Most majority people (white) don't really understand most "minority" people ("colored"). After 41 years of my own personal explorations of these issues, and the depth and breadth of them, I find it amazing that so many white people are still clueless.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
I saw "The Devil Wears Prada" and loved it. The story, about power and the use of it, pitfalls, and triumphs, all relate deeply to the loss of innocence of any person who moves from one culture to another. I remember my mother's oldest sister Louise, telling me about how when my mother first came to Norfolk, she had to make her over, hair, make up and clothes. "She was so country, right off the farm,” dripped Louise, with contempt oozing out of her lips, "She didn't know anything."
The movie could have just as easily been written about the media industry, or politics, or any other industry which has "power" attached to it. The few who have genuine power demand absolute loyalty, and severely punish anyone who crosses them. The threat, "I'll make sure you never work in this industry again for as long as you live" is real and powerful. It stalks the halls of too many workplaces. Most urban people simply eat it up and accept it as the way things are. And like the male designer in the film, who gets sacrificed in order to preserve his bosses position, one never rises or gets a break unless it is deigned from on high.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Star learned very quickly. get thin, change your wardrobe, change your life. When one is a seasoned veteran, one can afford to be gracious and have compassion. When one is clawing up the ladder from the pits of slavery, racism, obesity and poverty, being gracious and compassionate with those who are above you is rarely an option.
When Barbara Walters started in journalism, there weren't any black w omen in the business, except maybe mopping the floor, a fact that probably didn't occur to Barbara, but was a constant for Star.
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Consider the issue of ownership, or lack of it. My urban friends don't seem to realize it, but part of urban culture relates to having lives that are usually owned by someone else. One lives in a rented living space, and works a job where getting ahead is tied to the ability to know one's place and kiss posterior of those above. The greatest heresy is breaking ranks and refusing to cooperate.
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Yet having to do that is exactly why people from the country hold urban life in such contempt. It's Harry Belafonte in "Darlin Cora,” "Well I'd rather drink muddy water, and sleep in a hollowed out log, than to hang around in this old town and be treated like a dirty dog. Well I whopped that man darlin Cora, and he fell down where he stood. Don't know if I was wrong darlin Cora, but lawd it sure felt good."
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Barbara plays by one set of rules, Star plays by another. My guess is that Star is
aware of Barbara's rules, but I'd also guess that Barbara is not aware of Star's and may not even care. All the flap about focus groups, polling, etc. I can't help but wonder how many black people, particularly women, were polled or in those focus groups?
The situation hits at the very heart of what America is about, and also what America has not been, particularly to black folks. After decades of being held back, excluded and lynched, Star's offending behavior is simply payback, making up for lost time.
In Barbara's world, being the boss includes ownership. In Star's world, anyone who thinks they "own" her is asking for a fight. Too much is at stake, starting with the ghosts of 400 years of being "owned", exploited and abused. White people don't like to think about this stuff, black people do all sorts of things to not think about this stuff. As my friend Charles Stewart once said at an ACLU meeting, "Black people get up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see a life sentence."
Most white people don't even comprehend that until the early 1970s, black people weren't even allowed to live in decent housing. With some noteworthy exceptions, usually not in urban areas, black people got shoved into cold water only, vermin infested firetraps, with bad plumbing (often shared) and the rent man always at the door. That is the childhood of most folks of Star's generation, which might add some understanding as to why one might go a bit "over board" with the arrival of some prosperity.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Barbara's admonition, "It's business, wrap yourself in it", coupled with her courtship of someone who had publicly declared herself to be Star's enemy (Rosie O' Donnell) was a one two punch that absolutely shattered any "loyalty" that Star might have otherwise felt.
Unlike Barbara's culture, in which that is just the way it is, "Deal with it!", Star comes from a people who are no longer willing to play the game and work the system. They know that it doesn't pay, won't work, and if you let them compromise your dignity once they will do it again. So Star chose to do it her way, rather than Barbara's.
I suspect Star just got tired of being owned.
Barbara did not look good trying to do damage control the next day. The most interesting aspect of it was her comment about wanting Star to go with dignity. It's interesting because there are two very different definitions of the word "dignity" going on here. The person who holds power views dignity as quietly exiting as graciously as possible, even if one is lying through the smile and going along with the sugar coated rejection.
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Given the circumstances, I think Star's exit was very dignified. On the show she was very diplomatic, thanking Barbara Walters profusely for the opportunity to work on the show and with her. She saved the more direct comments for People. She got fired, it happens to a lot of people, one learns from one's mistakes and moves on.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
Lastly, one of my black women friends echoed something one of the other hosts implied as well. My friend rather cynically said, "They could handle a fat black woman who didn't compete with them in appearance. But when she got skinny, sexy, and found a man, and flaunted her beauty and prosperity, she pissed them off and they had to get rid of her. No white person likes to be upstaged by a black person." One might be inclined to think that harsh, but one of the other co-hosts had said, "Now that you've become a skinny bitch ---."
In the movie "Good Fences", one of the characters is almost lynched because he beat a white boy in a state spelling contest. And again, white people don't comprehend this stuff, black people live with it daily.
My brother was ROTC commander at a "Historically All Black College", Ft. Valley State College in Ft. Valley Georgia. Living in an interracial family, we often watch the way that white people react to "color". It is sad, amazing, painful, and boring, and incredibly predictable. He would go places with his cadets, regional events, and quietly roll over laughing inside at the way his white colleagues would react to his situation, a white guy "stuck" (from their perspective) working with these smart, dedicated black cadets.
 Photo by Mikel Gerle. |
From my own observation of life, the perspective of being an "uppity Faggot", one who refuses to live in my "place", I've noticed this pattern. The only black folks who get "approved" are the ones who hold back their pain and keep the smile at all costs. The rest who make it big, always get labeled "opportunists". It's 2006, the "Jim Crow" signs are gone, but not much else has changed. It's not much different for other folks along the color spectrum, but none of them have the history that African Americans live with. Another fact most white people don't like to think about.
The real lesson here, and in "The Devil Wears Prada" is that in order to achieve significance in any arena, one has to be cold, hard, calculating, and do distasteful things. That's just the way it is, for Barbara, Star, and everyone else who moves in those arenas. I don't see any saints or sinners here, just people, and trying to get ahead, and different perspectives on how that is to be done. But when a black person uses the same tactics, it's a different set of judgments about those tactics. Star thanked Barbara for being her mentor. I think Star learned a lot and learned it very well.
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I hope Star returns to television. The woman who had the courage to stand up to Barbara Walters and the network is too smart and talented to get shoved away because of ruffled egos. If we really believe that diversity is a good thing, then we need to include the people we genuinely don't understand, not just the people who act like us, even if they look different.
As Star said, "I may not know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future."
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There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times - Molly Ivins.
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Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT, Edward "Ed" Garren, MFT is a Family Therapist, justice activist, former West Hollywood City Council candidate, writer and sojourner. He is originally from the Tampa Bay area of central Florida. Ed has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Frontiers news magazine, and other books, including "Out of My Mind", a pictorial memoir by Kris Nelson. He is currently working on a book about Addiction in America. More information about Ed can be found at: www.edgarren.us.
Ed Garren can be reached, even in the Red America’s wilds, at