Words of Wisdom: Toni Morrison's Thoughts on Policing Black Emotions
we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (Ps. 137:2-3, NIV)
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Psalm 137 is a song where people are exploring their own emotions in the midst of captivity. They indicate that their "tormentors" have demanded "songs of joy." It is the correlation between torment and joy which grabs my attention.
How can one torment you but dictate your songs should be joyful? Yet, those who are oppressed are still told, today, that they do not have the right to govern their own emotions. Instead, those emotions are being dictated to them by those who seek to define them.
Toni Morrison speaks about this tendency to police the emotions of Black people. She says, "I'm always annoyed about why black people have to bear the brunt of everybody else's contempt. If we are not totally understanding and smiling, suddenly we're demons."
Perhaps the insinuation that someone can dictate your joy is connected to their social amnesia regarding the pain they have inflicted upon you. How many times are we told that "we long for a day when we don't need Black history," as if forgetting will mean we have somehow progressed.
This seems to be an attempt to ignore the sage advice, "Those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it." Black people have always been compelled, in "White spaces," to be of two minds. There is what is shown publicly, and what is expressed privately. WEB DuBois called it double-consciousness. Young people today call it "code-switching."
But compelling anyone to use their emotional energy to put you at ease with unfair privilege is not only unethical and burdensome. It is a form of torment. The writer of Psalm 137 shares that their very art is being appropriated by those who have oppressed them.
When we consider the creative process, whether as a form of secular expression or private worship, it is important for us to consider what compels us to engage with our art. What inspires us to write religious scholarship, or sing songs of worship? Your words, your energies may provide you with joy or sorrow. But your emotions belong to you alone.
We hope you will enjoy the following video of Toni Morrison
https://library.princeton.edu/tonimorrisonexhibition?s=03
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