Insanity By Any Other Name

This book is a collection of three essays, essentially rebuttals to three positions taken by uninformed people, positions that address core concerns that are the source of discussion all over American society: sex, race, marriage and infidelity. To continue perverting the painful realities of sex, race, marriage and infidelity, or to consign them to categories of being "controversial issues" is a matter of denial and indeed, insanity. These are core issues that have to be dealt with if the relationships in this country are going to ever improve. Consider this a first step toward that goal. In my view, race -- not space -- is the final frontier. This society is afraid to discuss it because it would unleash a plethora of hang-ups and inadequacies surrounding something as simple as skin color (or the lack of it). As critical race theorists, we look at situations and realities and determine how those issues really impact the way we think. We should not be afraid to use our unique perspectives, experiences and values to address information that is being circulated about our people. And revisionism and distortion of race relations has long been alive and well and living in America. Some of what is being rebuked was written by black women who should know better. One of them is a publisher and self-described scholar from the South; another is a young black woman who actually counsels children in the Omaha Public Schools. Dare we not speak out and offer contrary opinions to their distorted views of interracial sexuality and the "racial hierarchy," respectively? These race-based concerns are issues that strike at the very essence of who and what we are as human beings and social animals. In regard to "sex," I do not mean gender; I mean the act itself, and what how that act impacts on us when the variable of "race" is added. In addition, the issue of marriage, at least in this book, is viewed as a restrictive relationship, what Maulana Karenga (1978) refers to as "alienated arrangements." This book's thesis in regard to marriage is simple enough: the problems that people encounter in marriage, namely infidelity, are responses to the limitations placed on them by monogamous marriage. The first essay is a response to a book titled, Why Black Men Choose White Women, written by Dr. Rosie Milligan. In this book the author, a black woman who claims to have a doctorate, charges that black men PREFER white women and that black women are left out in the cold. My essay will put an end to that "pity party" and provide insights that clearly show that black men do NOT choose or prefer white women and that the black woman has NOT been deserted. The second essay addresses the contents of a Newsweek article written by two women (Lorraine Ali and Lisa Miller) who claim to have researched it. The article is entitled, "The Secret Lives of Wives." In this article these women attempt to make female infidelity (actually white female infidelity) appear to be some well-kept secret, as if it is something current and that it has reached its zenith courtesy of the workplace and technology. In my rebuttal I interject the variable of race, and charge that white women, for the most part, have always been unfaithful to their mates and husbands - from the college campus and workplace to the suburban scenario. The key is keeping it a secret is that they just didn't get caught. And when they DID get caught, because they were white, they were able to cover up their trysts with claims of being "raped," or the media and local institutions covered it up for her. The third essay is by another sister (Geraldine Alexis), who's book, The White Man's Purpose, alleges that in a vision that came to her - a dream - God told her that Blacks and other people of color should get in line and allow the white man to LEAD US and GUIDE US. We've come a long way as a human race, and perhaps this book will make a contribution toward interracial and intercultural clarity.