“whatever can be remembered can grow–even through the darkness.”
I highly recommend reading Racism From The Eyes of a Child by Mathew Knowles, born on this day, January 9th. At the end of the memoir, he quotes his sister Chiquita Knowles-Ash who says “whatever can be remembered can grow–even through the darkness.” The story is about the determination to accept the place that society has made for you. This book includes perspectives from his cousin Robert Avery, his sister Chiquita, his classmate Barbara Castarphen-Bush, and his cousins Linda Hogue-Anglen and Oscar Underwood, Jr.
The book is divided into five parts: one, roots in racism; two, growing up Gadsden; three, University lessons in Race; four, the Corporate challenge; five, outro: Racism today.
In the first part he begins talking about how his grandmother put his mother out the house. His mother like his grandmother had a strong personality. Linda said “that’s just the way she was.” And it was Oscar who provided the historical background of Marion where his grandparents lived. Marion, Alabama, was where an Alabama state trooper killed Jimmie Lee Jackson for defending his mother while they were both attending a voter registration meeting.
Mathew Knowles’s schooling was like mine in that he was called “Oreo” for his extraordinary academic schoolwork. He says “I couldn’t go to any Black social gathering and I never got invited to any white ones. I absolutely wouldn’t think about dating a Black girl from Carver and never did” (61). What makes this book interesting is that Knowles is very clear about consciously expressing the ways he has been socialized to only date white or light skinned women.
Despite this colorism he was raised by his mother to have who told him never to bring a “nappy headed” woman home, he was also raised by this same mother to respect himself. He tells the story of his mother telling an insurance agent who calls her by her first name: “when you can get out and ask for Mrs. Helen Knowles, I will speak with you. If not, please cancel my policy” (70).
He talked fondly about his father who “would go and tear down houses sell the lumber and he would collect metal–alumnium, copper, etc. that he would sell” (78).
I appreciated several parts of this story: one, his point that “my whole life follows that pattern of always having some job” and I appreciated identifying the connections between what he did at Xerox to what his daughter Beyoncé is doing to the music industry. When breast cancer research expanded and Xerox started selling machines that conducting xeroradiography, Knowles writes that he “studied everything” he could on breast cancer. Of his sales work he said about his clients: “I wanted that person to buy me first…they would do that [by learning to] respect me, my knowledge and ability” (154).
His transition from Xerox to the music industry was seemless because he was determined. He writes that he was never intimidated to do what he was doing because he spent twenty years in a number one position in sales and had “learned to maneuver in the best interest of whatever he was selling” (163).
He is boldly honest about his mental health challenges, revealing that he had “anxiety attacks” and that he internalized a lot of trauma.
I highly recommend reading every page of this book because it is a testament to the power of introspective growth and development professionally and spiritually. -RF.
Here is my January 9th IG video about the book.