What Black Communities Can Glean from the Trauma in the Lives of Legends Tina Turner and Jim Brown, Happy Memorial Day, The Many Ways Harry Belafonte Contributed to the Cause of Black Advancement.

In the Spotlight:

Tina Turner and the Essence of Freedom

She still sashays across the prism of our minds, just as she did the world stage, strutting—sexy, alluring, and stunning. In full grown, natural Black woman effect. The voice raspy, strong, and capable of doing anything she commands it to, including the sultry trademark growl. She treated us to incandescent, darn near indescribable, performances that took us over completely.

Tina Turner triumphed, persevered, and bent light in her direction. She had fought for and, faithfully, willed her happiness—spiritually, professionally, and romantically. For years, behind closed doors, she had endured unspeakable personal pain. The world was dumbfounded to learn that this vivacious woman had suffered through much more than anyone could have possibly imagined, even in her early life. But she turned it around, poetry in swirling motion, a whirlwind of glorious sound, a force of nature commanding international stages with audiences eating out the palm of her hands.

So, the news was arresting, stopping so many of us dead in our tracks. Tina Turner, an ancestor? Who even thought Tina Turner could expire? Many figured she would live forever—or at least longer than the rest of us mere mortals.

But we are so fortunate. She taught us so many lessons. Essentially, she conducted a masterclass on how to live life abundantly.

Now, she rests in the ancestral plane. And the rest of us have been bequeathed her legacy, for she left a blueprint that reminds us that we must never, ever engage in acts of self-abandonment by giving up on ourselves. With this gift, she proves, in the end, that her love had everything to do with it…

Rolling with Tina Turner: Tina Climbs the Eiffel Tower, Tina in Paris doing her thing, Tina and the other Black females who are the progenitors of Rock and Roll. Here’s a great podcast that breaks down her life, her career, and her mammoth influence on Rock and Roll, as well as how she conquered the art and science of being a free woman.

History

They participated in the Revolutionary War. In fact, Black people participated in every American war, skirmish, and conflict with courage, brilliance, and tremendous mental agility, given that they were fighting for a country that denied them basic freedoms and opportunities at home. Black people often fought, too, with the rational, but ill-founded, belief that defending the country would “prove” that their communities had a right to the constitutional freedoms they were being refused in America. After all, it was illogical for a nation to “fight for democracy” abroad and then not extend those same principles to everyone at home. World War II was specifically branded the “Double V Victory,” meaning Black people were fighting for victories abroad and at home.

We have been consistent in challenging America for telegraphing a reverence for democratic ideals to the world, while simultaneously, and hypocritically, treating Blacks like third class citizens.

And, sometimes, Black people straight up and steadfastly challenged an illegitimate power structure that liked to put Black people on front lines to die for lies they knew were not true. Muhammad Ali was a powerful example of what it meant to risk everything and stand on principle:

And Ali “likely knew something else—that many Black men who had served this country valiantly had been treated savagely, not only in the military, but upon returning home.”

And let’s not forget to highlight some of the extraordinary service Black women rendered, too, including the sisters who delivered mail to World War II soldiers desperate for news from home. (As The SHE Newsletter has previously reported, these women were so awesome a movie is being made about them.) Indeed, we can celebrate their bravery and compassionate heroics from the Revolutionary War to the present day. (If you really want to go deep, check out the African Queens who commanded war. We are not new to this—not at all! 

Also, Black people founded Memorial Day after the Civil War. Yale historian, David Blight, is credited with bringing this information to light.

Culture

Entertainment

The Little Mermaid, with Beautiful Haile Bailey, swims to successful box office numbers despite ugly, racist criticisms and controversies.

Books and Literature

IN Memoriam: Harry Belafonte

Because we can never say enough about the important, and even vital, contributions superstar Harry Belafonte made to better the existence of Black people in this country, and in Africa, we celebrate his life again and again. Everybody knows Belafonte was super close to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whom he would often bail out of jail, and that he and people like the beloved comedian, Dick Gregory, practically financed the 1960s civil rights revolution. But did you know about his fight against South African apartheid with TransAfrica, alongside other notables like Randall Robinson, or about his important hand in bringing Kenyan students, including Barack Obama’s father, to the states to further his education? (Barack Obama, Sr. never would have met Barack’s mother, Stanley Ann, without access to an American education.) The first entertainer to sell a million albums, in 1956, Belafonte was a recording artist who infused activism into his art. In motion pictures, he was a barrier breaking star, with matinee idol looks, in addition to being a serious freedom-fighter. Belafonte wrote a fascinating page-turner, My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race and Defiance, that is chock full of historical information. It also gives a great glimpse into his life, including the fact that he was in therapy for decades and he credits therapy with helping him discover himself close up! Trust us, you want to read, My Song.

Sports

A preview of today’s NBA Eastern Conference Final: the Boston Celtics vs. the Miami Heat

Legendary NFL running back, actor, and activist, Jim Brown died on May 19th. Despite his complicated legacy, no one can dispute that he did great things in the community, as was obvious when he and Curtis McClinton (Kansas City Chiefs) founded the Black Economic Union in 1968. He also took courageous principled positions, including supporting Muhammad Ali when he refused to be inducted into the military, that could have easily impacted his livelihood. Admirably, Brown was his own man, quitting football rather than being told what he could and could not do! Clearly, Brown was deeply committed to freedom and advancing the Black community. This is true even though one of his last public political forays with Trump and Kanye West was deeply disturbing to many.

Perhaps the fact that Jim Brown, who had a documented history of abuse, and Tina Turner, who survived intimate partner violence, left us in the same month is a cosmic reminder that we have some very difficult issues to grapple with in order to heal. Our history as Black people is complicated by vicious forces of racism, poverty, discrimination, injustice, and numerous other noxious influences that have put tremendous stress and strain on Black families and communities.

 (READ the rest in the “HEALING” section below)

Science

Can CHATGPT AI solve math brain teasers?

Mental Wellness

Talking to your youngsters about mental health 

Reducing social media use and body image in teens/young adults

Humor

Harry Belafonte struggling to keep it together with the muppets

Find Peace

Incorporating other traditions on the road to finding peace

Just say “No” and mean it and find peace and success

Healing

By Dr. Rhonda Sherrod

Legendary NFL running back, actor, and social justice activist, Jim Brown died on May 18th. Despite his complicated legacy, no one can dispute that he did great things in the community, as was obvious when he and Curtis McClinton (Kansas City Chiefs) founded the Black Economic Union in 1968. He also took courageous, principled positions that could have easily impacted his livelihood, including supporting Muhammad Ali when he refused to be inducted into the United States military.

Admirably, Brown was his own man, quitting football rather than being told what he could and could not do! When Art Modell, who owned the Cleveland Browns franchise that Jim Brown played for, threatened to fine him for not reporting to training camp on time, Brown wrote Modell a letter that stated, “You must realize that both of us are men and that my manhood is just as important to me as yours is to you.” His views on women were anachronistic and highly problematic, as revealed in his book, Out of Bounds, and Brown was invested in self-determination and advancement of the Black community. This is true even though one of his last public political forays with Trump and Kanye West was deeply disturbing to many.

Perhaps the fact that Jim Brown, who had a documented history of abuse, and Tina Turner, who survived intimate partner violence, left us in the same month is a cosmic reminder that we have some very difficult issues to grapple with in order to heal. Our history as Black people is complicated by vicious forces of racism, poverty, discrimination, injustice, and numerous other noxious influences that have put tremendous stress and strain on Black families and communities.

And although we have, individually and as a community, been able to accomplish astounding and mind-blowing things, suffering has been a large component of the equation. For all our greatness, we still have a great deal of healing to do in our communities, so that we don’t replicate the pain that has been inflicted upon us, from generation to generation, in our own homes.

Yes, I know, all throughout the history of this country, we have courageously done the seemingly impossible. Yes, we are strong, mentally and physically. Yes, we are resilient. Yes, we are brilliant. But we are also human beings who have been under unconscionable pressure. We die earlier than we should, we have more chronic illnesses than we should. Too often we don’t live the lives we deserve, because we are always compelled to fight—and it’s exhausting.

I often say that Black people are the only ones who have to fight for everything—from decent housing to world-class schools, from the right to consume clean water, to the right to live where we want to live, and to work in workplaces that are not subtly or overtly hostile, to get the promotions we have worked hard for, and to get the business loans for which we qualify. The issues are overwhelming, from daily microaggressions to police brutality and beyond. And that’s just tip of the iceberg. We even have to fight for our right to show up as our whole authentic (rather than assimilated) selves; and none of the foregoing even begins to consider the fact that we all have traumas that have taken place in our personal lives that have yet to be addressed.

Whew! Is it really difficult to understand why, despite the love we have for each other, sometimes our households feature tension (or as Gil Scott-Heron wailed, “Home is where the Hatred Is,”), and some of our neighborhoods feature insensate violence?

Unfortunately, Jim Brown and Tina Turner both had rough starts. They had parents who abandoned them, no doubt, opening up deep psychic wounds. There is no need to demonize the parents, that’s not useful. Although Brown has been quoted as saying that he was loved by his great-grandmother, grandmother, and aunt, and that he enjoyed growing on St. Simons Island until he was able to join his mother at 8 years old, the fact is, his parents were not there during his early formative years, and that must have had its painful moments. Tina Turner was left with a grandmother when she was young, and she has said, “I didn’t have anybody, really, no foundation in life, so I had to make my own way.”

Indeed, there is a ton of empirical research on early childhood development, today, that has made it clear that adverse childhood experiences can have a profound detrimental impact on the quality of one’s adult life. It’s important to remember that people can be super successful—materially and by the world’s superficial standards—and still operate in immense pain, the suffering made all the more intense because everyone around assumes they “have it made.” What we know about trauma is that it can easily become the main organizing principle in one’s life if left unattended.

I love to read autobiographies. This is because, often, later in life, people are able to step back and analyze their pain with a level of clarity and brutal honesty that eludes them during their youth when they feel compelled to just “keep on keepin’ on with the immature emotional tools they may have. They just roll with the punches, but often the punches are really hard, and there is little time for self-reflection as one strives to make it in life. Later, they can see why this or that relationship fell apart or why a child feels alienated. Time passes fast, and sometimes its gets very late, but the unaddressed pain is still searing...

Harry Belafonte’s parents had a highly conflictual, poverty-stricken relationship that featured domestic violence and Harry, too, was a victim of his father’s rage, as well as his mother’s harshness. Belafonte made big money relatively young, and, fortunately, recognizing the wounds he carried, in his young adulthood he began engaging in therapeutic work that spanned decades. One of the reason’s his book, My Song, is a gift is because he addressed his trauma head on, giving a lot of valuable insight into his thinking at various points in his long life.

I never had the pleasure of meeting or assessing any of these legends, so I am not trying to psychoanalyze any of them. I am, however, keenly aware of the empirical research on trauma and on adverse childhood experiences. It’s likely that trauma informed some of their worst decisions, too, because success is simply not a buffer for psychic injuries. Tina Turner’s words were profound when she said, “I want to tell people how to live spiritually. After you’ve brought all your houses and your clothes, you want something bigger.” (I’m sure she wanted each person to find their own spiritual practice, whether it involves organized religion or not. Her point was that people need something deeper than the material to sustain themselves and to be truly fulfilled and happy—or at least content.)

Part of the healing process for Black people involves learning from the lives of others in our community who graciously bless us with their life’s lessons and words of wisdom that just might be useful in our own lives.

Operating from the African-centered perspective that each generation is supposed to get better and stronger, my hope is that, with the passing of these giants of the culture, we all can reflect, compassionately, on their lives and derive some best practices, while arriving, perhaps, at some different ways of showing up for ourselves and for the people in our lives.

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MORE HEALING:

• Janet Jackson’s poignant, spot-on written tribute to Tina Turner in the Rolling Stone 100

• Tina Turner’s magnificent performance while breaking attendance records. Rest in Paradise, Queen.

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

SHE (Surviving, Healing, and Evolving)

“Unlocking Healing, Fearlessness, and Freedom”

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