In
lieu of the ever-increasing controversy surrounding former
talk show host Don Imus’ racist, more so than sexist, remarks
about many members of the Rutgers University women’s basketball
team, (remember: he did not say, “kinky-headed (white) and nappy-headed
(black) h-es”), he said, “nappy-headed h-es”—just black females. I think it is
extremely important that the life and accomplishments of one
the most highly-regarded
and world-renown members of the alumni of Rutgers University,
and the trials and tribulations that he suffered there and
elsewhere, due to his steel-spined body, his laser-sharp mind,
and his indomitable spirit, and life-long struggle for peace
and equality for all, must be both recognized and heralded. He
set the stage for countless people after him to follow. He
told and showed them it could be done—that you could and should
stand strong and fight for right and not bow down to wrong,
even after his would-be university football teammates purposefully
broke his nose, sprained his shoulder, and even ripped his
finger nails by stomping his hands with their cleats, to prevent
him from becoming a member of the team. According to his son,
this man, one of the best examples of a man - period - and
most especially a real Black man, helped to make it possible
for the legendary Jackie Robinson to become the first, African
American to play Major League Baseball. He went by many names. I
simply call him “Superman” - the real one.
Here is a reprint of those
exact sentiments in an article that I wrote on September 30,
2006 for the African American website The Black
World Today. It was posted on Monday, October 2, 2006. After
your read it, maybe you, too, will agree with its title. The
reprint follows.
Superman Really Lived!
Superman was
real. He really
lived and breathed. He actually walked and talked and dwelt
among us, his own.
Yet, overwhelmingly,
his own received him not. Instead, with all too few exceptions, his
own used the deadly kryptonite-like trio of unbridled jealousy,
greed, and white supremacy to vilify, ostracize, and even crucify
him in the world court of public opinion. Collectively, they
tried to bury him under a mountain of lies in a relentless
attempt to white out the huge depth and extensive width of
his mighty deeds and to silence forever his thunderous voice,
which he consistently and courageously used to demand justice,
freedom, and equality for all people on the earth.
But the monstrous
devices that his enemies used against him and the fecal-filled
mountain
of relentless character, financial, and unsuccessful physical
assassinations under which they tried to bury him, completely
proved to be almost totally unsuccessful. Muscular and broad-shouldered,
barrel-chested and booming-voiced, this man, the real Superman,
disarmed the devilish devices used against him and burst through
the seemingly rock-solid mountain under which his foes tried
to bury him. He did so virtually unscathed and definitely
unafraid but more steel-willed than ever to stand firmly on,
to live out fully, and fight even more vigorously for his life-long,
globetrotting convictions in the pursuit and hopeful realization
of the ideal that “all men are brothers” and should act and
be treated that way.
And just who
was this Superman? A
native of earth, not some distant planet, he could neither
fly nor stop locomotives. He was neither bulletproof nor perfect. But
history, most especially his granddaughter’s book The Whole
World in His Hand, provides a short list of his many, mighty
deeds. The son of a former slave, he was a much-heralded college
and professional football player and an all-around college
athlete in basketball, baseball, and track; a brilliant academic
student, who graduated Phi Beta Kappa and the valedictorian
of his college class at Rutgers University; a graduate of Columbia
Law School and a practicing lawyer; an international star of
the movie screen and theatrical stage, the recording studio
(with records still selling) and the concert stage; a legendary
orator; a musicologist; and a linguist, who studied, spoke,
and wrote in more than (20) languages, including African languages
and Russian, Chinese, and Arabic!
More importantly,
however, this man of steel will, the real Superman, was an
international
hero to the world's oppressed. That was due primarily to his
life-long involvement as an activist who traveled around the
globe to give his unflinching support to racially-, economically-,
and politically oppressed people worldwide. Most prominent
among them were everyday laborers and those in progressive
labor unions, those persecuted in fascist-leaning countries
around the globe, the colonized people of Africa and Asia,
and, of course, his own heavily persecuted people, African
Americans, in his own homeland, the United States of America.
As such, the
real Superman used his singing and speaking voice, his written
and spoken
words, his huge physical presence and laser-sharp mental faculties
to right the wrongs he witnessed and believed blanketed the
world. That meant that he also used his world-famous name to
promote world peace and global unity and positive solutions
to death-dealing crises around the world, when all too many
of his contemporaries remained silent and decades before
many of today’s singers, actors, and/or activists were even
born or thought that raising their voice in protest was fashionable
or profitable.
Faithfully following
his convictions resulted in Superman - an associate, if not
a friend, of many
world leaders (Russia’s Stalin, India’s Nehru, China’s Mao,
and Africa’s Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah, among others)
and to such stellar 20th century personalities as the preeminent
African American scholar-activist W. E. B. DuBois and the world-renown
scientist Albert Einstein, a friend of over 20 years - paying
a heavy cost both physically and financially. But it can truly
be argued that, as he did in life, though now dead, he honestly
deserves the long-overdue, golden crown of honor and respect
due him for living such a long-lived and meaningful life of
self-sacrifice on behalf of his fellow human beings.
So, again, just
who was this man, this real superhero, the real Superman? Surprisingly,
he is a person who no movie studio seems to deem worthy enough
of a blockbuster, big-screen movie. But, in short, he was
a multi-talented, multi-genius and giant of a man, who strongly
believed in talking straight and walking tall. No fair-weather
friend to the oppressed, he was none other than the late but
great, African American Paul Robeson, the real Superman.
BC Columnist HAWK (J. D. Jackson) is a
priest, poet, journalist, historian, African-centered lecturer,
middle school teacher and part-time university history instructor. Click
here to contact HAWK. |