Betsey Brown

Betsey Brown / Ntozake Shange
NY: St Martins, 2010, c1985
192 p.

I came across this book very recently; somehow I'd missed this one altogether when I was looking into Shange's work after first encountering it with Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo, some years ago now. This novel also focuses on a young Black woman's experience -- that of Betsey Brown, 13 years old in 1959 St. Louis. 

The story ranges across Betsey's large family, which includes her grandmother and a cousin who live with them, and all the themes of growing up and hitting adolescence -- Betsey has a crush on a baskeball player at school, she finds herself a secret hiding place in a tree to escape from everyone and think, she negotiates friendships and boys. But the story also places these experiences in context -- Betsey and her siblings all face bussing to new schools as school integration takes place. The racism they encounter is shown clearly.

The family itself is complex; Betsey's father is a doctor, but he is also much darker than her mother and grandmother, and her grandmother is continually mentioning it. They are a well off family as things go; one of Betsey's friends has a mother who works as a nanny, and Betsey discovers the realities of class as she shares a story she thinks is funny, about her ability to run off a new nanny her mother hired, and her friend reacts with anger. 

Her parents are both loving and realistic, as they go through some strife. One of the continuous themes is how overwhelmed her mother feels, but also her inability to retain or respect household help. When her mother is gone for a time, the household finds Carrie, a housekeeper who wears a rope for a belt and keeps company with the gardener, but who is also strong and loving and maintains discipline with the rowdy children. Despite Mrs. Brown's dismissal of Carrie when she returns home, Carrie has affected Betsey deeply, and she shares the final pages with Betsey's own mother when Betsey is reflecting on her life. 

The story weaves in and out, it shows shades of everything -- class, race, gender, but is centred in the Black life that Shange is writing from. It has a rhythm that feels like life, a little bit of good and bad, highs and lows, all mixed up together. It's a beautiful, readable book that I whizzed through in one sitting as it caught me both with its characters and style. Shange's style is appealing and has a sense of musical refrain in it somehow, I'm not sure how to describe it. But it's engaging to read and illuminates a point in history that I hadn't really read about before. Recommended. 

Anti Racist Reading Resources

I've been pretty quiet over here at the blog this week; with everything going on in the US in particular, posting as usual didn't feel like the thing to do. I've been spending most of my time on Instagram, watching and listening, and thought I'd share some resources for self-education on racism and becoming an active anti-racist.

There have been many people and organizations sharing recommended resources this week. Here are a few that I've noted, and will be starting to tackle one by one.

Ibram X. Kendi is frequently cited; it's his book How To Be an Anti Racist that is often quoted. The Chicago Public Library has a lengthy booklist of 61 anti racist titles that all sound like required reading.

Layla F. Saad is the author of Me & White Supremacy, a must read for all white readers. She recommends a few more titles to explore over at The Guardian.

Here in Canada there are also racial issues to confront. The Fold Literary Festival has shared some important Canadian titles on their social media, both nonfiction and some fiction that illuminates the BIPOC experience as well.

Coursera has curated a list of classes you can take, all dealing with anti-racist themes. These are all free classes. And over at Fortune mag, of all places, there is a compilation of resources from books to articles to podcasts to Instagram accounts to follow for more self-learning.

LeadNow.ca is an advocacy non-profit based in Canada, and they've been actively creating a page of resources aimed at Canadians in particular -- there are many relevant books and online articles shared, as well as organizations to support. They're also hosting an Online Teach In on June 11 that you can sign up to attend, which will talk about anti racism, climate justice and a just Covid recovery, all issues that they advocate for.

And the document of Anti-Racist Resources for White People just compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker and Alyssa Klein is lengthy and wide-ranging -- another good source for reading and learning.

I'd encourage you not to buy any of these books on Amazon if possible. Support your local black owned bookstores by checking there first. Here in Ontario you can find relevant bookstores by searching the business directory on ByBlacks.com -- there are 12 listings currently. Or check AfroBiz.ca for your local area. Google black owned business in your region for potential shops to buy from if you are not Canadian.

This is one way I am going to start working actively in my own life. And I'll continue listening.