McCall, N. (1997). What’s Going on: Personal Essays

. New York City, NY: Random House.

OVERVIEW

 

(Download What's Going on overview as a PDF)

After Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna Holler became a New York Times best seller, he was suddenly asked to speak to audiences across the country. In these travels he had the opportunity to face various challenges, hear many personal stories, answer all kinds of questions, and generally observe the racial contours of our culture. McCall came to see these experiences as a microcosm of the racial issues of our society. His reflections on these experiences are a follow-up and extension of his first popular book. Taken together, his books stand in the tradition of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

and are an update to Malcolm’s voice.

 

The four parts of this book are entitled: "Mixed Messages," "The American Dream," "White Fear," and "Redemption."

 

Nike’s ads are a commentary on the times. One of them informs us: " ‘these (rising black NBA stars) are the men who will lead the revolution because the revoloution is about basketball’ " (p. 5). The black revolution that once challenged a racist system is being co-opted for commercialism. A society threatened by young black men in business and politics feels safe in allowing ‘boys’ to play a game. And even in sports, it is easier to become a superstar than general manager. McCall laments the basketball cult that encourages brothers to be "athletic mules rather than thinking men" (p. 11).

The mostly white group touring Mount Vernon, and its guide, were astonished and dismayed when McCall asked the question: "Did George Washington have any children by slaves?" McCall writes: "When Newt Gingrich and the boys on Capitol Hill rail against men who fail to take responsibility for their children, they aren’t talking at all about white men like them. They’re alluding specificly to black males" (p. 80). Citing a doctoral thesis, other evidence and the story of West Ford

, McCall makes quite clear, what the tour guide denied, that the Father of Our Country, like most of the slave holders of his time, did have sexual relations with black slave women. And the historical cover-up of these facts is indicative of how we deal with racism in our society.

The section, "White Fear," begins with a chapter on babies. In one scene a white mother tries to keep her young child, not yet contaminated by racism, from fraternizing with McCall in a Long John Silver’s

restaurant, finally taking him abruptly from the place. In another restaurant scene a small black boy plays and a same-age white girl play together until the father "snatches his laughing daugther from the boy’s playful clutch." (Ch. 8). Then there is "The Elevator Ride" of a fearful white woman and confused black man, a kind of tension so familiar to blacks.

The section, "Redemption," begins with a chapter about Muhammad Ali

.

It is impossible to talk about boxing and Muhammad Ali without talking about race and America. Where race is concerned, boxing is the most candid competition there is. It’s an open acknowledgement of what’s really going on here between this country’s blacks and whites.

 

Shen Ali fought after 1970, the year he made his long-awaited comeback, there was always the sense that much more was at stake than the outcome of a boxing match...Even in a match between Ali and a black opponent, there was always the feeling that the other guy was really white; or worse, he was dismissed as a stooge, an Uncle Tom, sent to knock our hero down. (p. 182)

 

Chapter 9 is entitled "The White Church." Its theme is that black people have too long looked to whites and the white church for their salvation; their help must rather come from themselves. Nathan and his friend, Itchy Booty, have driven deep into the Virginia countryside one time when both were on probation to look for some fine marijuana from "a hillbilly white boy" with good drug connections. Once high, they drove along in silence and conversation that at one point turned to God. Just then they passed a country church which was alive with folks on this Saturday evening. Itchy had recently almost found salvation at a Rock Church, and somehow persuaded Nathan, who had also been sensing a need for God, to park the car and go in with him. Having stepped in the door, they found to their surprise, then to usher, the whole congregation, and the pastor’s amazement, that they were in a white church. The service proceeded but came to an early and awkward ending. The chapter concludes:

Itchy Booty and I had gone to that white church as two scared sinners reluctantly delivering themselves to God’s color-blind altar with the hope of redemption. In a symbolic way, we’d done what blacks in America have done all along: relied on whites’ profession of faith to reel us in. But the sight of two blacks had sent their faith running for cover.

 

As those people filed from the church, I shook my head at the pitiful sight. And then a voice spoke to me about deliverance. The voice spoke almost as if it had come from on high. It said, ‘Blacks can’t look to white folks to save them. White folks can’t even save themselves.’

 

In the last chapter of this book, McCall tells how his homeboy Shane went off and shot and killed Darryl Tucker at point blank range. Friends and family of Shane wondered how the pastor would bring meaning and redemption out of this sadness in his funeral sermon. In fact, the eulogy failed miserably and everyone, including the parson, knew it. Shane’s brother and McCall himself stood up and tried, but still missed the mark.

 

After the service a woman McCall did not know approached him. Trying to discern her identity, McCall asked her if she lived in this neighborhood. She replied, " ‘I don’t live in Cavalier Mannor. I’m Darryl Tucker’s mother...Darryl is the young man Shane killed.’ "

 

McCall was too stunned to respond realizing that in all his grieving, he had given little thought to the victim. Finally, the woman revealed what had brought her. " ‘I came here to pay my respects. I have forgiven Shane for what he did (even though Shane had been remorseless at his arraignment).’ " Seeing McCall’s confusion, the elderly Vessie explains,

‘I know I have to forgive him. I’m a Christian, and if I can’t forgive someone who has done something against me or mine, then I can’t expect God to forgive me for what I do to someone else.’

I looked deep into her gleaming eyes and felt her sincerity. There was no sign of malice. No hint of revenge. There was a definite look of resolve, of peace, and of pain. (p. 202)

More than any other people I’ve seen, black folks believe in redemption. That kind of belief enabled blacks in Alabama to forgive.

It’s ironic that in America, whites who have committed so many unspeakable wrongs against so many others can be the most unforgiving people of all. There is, I believe, a dangerous arrogance in people who choose not to forgive.

I don’t know what, if any, wrongs Ms. Tucker had committed in her life, but it was clear to me that she, too, believed that she needed forgiveness.

 

I was grateful. Grateful to learn that there was redemption for my homeboy after all. And thankful to know that that meant there is also forgiveness for me. (pp. 203-205)

 

And those are the closing words of this book.

 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION

1. What most impresses or distresses you about this book? Is it a book you would want to read through?
2. What point or issue from this review would you most want to discuss with others?
3.  

1. Have you forgiven O.J. Simpson? Could you forgive someone who ruthlessly murdered someone you love most in the world and remained unremorseful or even proud of his deed?

 

IMPLICATIONS

•  

• Would you agree that W.E.B. DuBois’ (1901) "problem of the color line" is at the end of this century characterized by a breakdown in communication even after integration? If so, this book furthers such communication and dialogue.

•  

1. This book is not to be read for its theological or political correctness, but for its candid expression of one man’s experience and perspectives. It may even be helpful that the perspectives here, especially about faith, are left more dynamic than set and established.

Dean Borgman cCYS