FundamentallySound Blog

"This is Mississippi, the middle of the iceberg."
-Robert Moses, political activist and schoolteacher in Jackson, Mississippi

"Apartheid is an English word that came into South African English from Afrikaans, the language of the Dutch settlers of South Africa. They in turn had made up the word from the Dutch word apart, “separate,” and the suffix -heid, which corresponds to our suffix -hood. Thus apartheid literally means 'separateness.'"
-Joseph Lelyveld, from his book Move Your Shadow

Mississippi Becomes A Democracy (listen via realplayer): a radio documentary by Soundprint that provides an overview of the recent (in the last 40 years) racial battles of this state, a place which has historically embodied the most insane, paranoid, and violent tendencies in American culture.

Why has there never been a truth and reconciliation committee here? Where are the public testimonies to apologies? There are so many things I do not understand at all about this place. Before coming back this time, I thought I was ready to face it, I had plans to make art about it, to celebrate the musical history, make digital samples of gospel singers in countryside churches (fun!) and blues musicians in juke joints. But in reality I just feel demoralized and powerless while here. The problems of this part of the world are beyond rational comprehension. I will not be leaving a moment too soon.