George Floyd Blues

By: Joe Farmer Follow

At a time when tensions are rising from all sides, it seems relevant to us to draw the contours of a virus much more insidious than the Covid-19. This virus, rooted in the reflexes and behaviors of another age, is the irrational manifestation of fear, ignorance and impunity that has been tolerated for too long. This virus is called racism. He too has touched and continues to touch entire populations internationally. This social drift, however, is sadly the norm in many countries today.

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The United States is a prime example. Institutionalized segregation has tipped the fragile balance between communities into violence and chaos. Beyond legitimate indignation, it is essential to seek the roots of this visceral malaise. We have chosen, this week, to go back in history and listen to the words of a simple African-American citizen met in Greenwood (Mississippi). At our microphone, this formidable storyteller felt the need to tell us about his daily life and that of his elders. A daily life punctuated by humiliation and bullying, punctuated by the songs of his ancestors in large cotton farms in the southern United States. A heavy daily blended with blues that he wanted to describe to us in detail so that we realize that the revolt of the black American people, which we are witnessing at the start of the 21st century, has its source in the deep south, over 100 years.

Our journey therefore begins where the legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker was born in 1917 and where Sylvester Hoover, a warm sixty-year-old man waiting for us, was always quick to tell his destiny and that of his ancestors to visitors passing through his region. Listening to Sylvester Hoover is like opening a history book. This brave man, incredibly modest, took the time to take us to the very place where The Epic of Black Music was written. He also wanted, and for good reason, to show us around the open-air cemetery of Greenwood where the famous Robert Johnson rests. In this abandoned place, the sound heritage of the first bluesmen undoubtedly espouses the human drama of the black American community.

What the United States is experiencing today is certainly frightening, dramatic, deeply moving, but the death of George Floyd is unfortunately only the disastrous consequence of an authoritarian, unequal and perverse system, which has maintained for ages the privileges of the white man in a society where the illusion of supremacy allows all justifications. Sylvester Hoover recalls the shameful abuses perpetrated against blacks over 60 years ago in his native Mississippi. Nothing has changed since then, and yet he continues to fight against the racist hints of his contemporaries so that one day this venom will disappear forever.

“  You have to communicate as much as possible, that's what gets things done. I try to educate my loved ones on this subject. Recently, my granddaughter asked me if she could come with me to discover all these places that I have been talking about for so long. And when I chat with her, I notice that we do not have the same look on this southern rural decor. She marvels at seeing all these cotton fields as far as the eye can see, when, for me, it is the image of misery and racism. It is trying for me to look at this landscape. I only see the past when I look at the cotton fields. Finally, the young people help me to look at my environment in the present. Before they opened my eyes, I was unable to see the beauty of this region. As soon as I heard the word "cotton", I felt the weight of history, I felt the heavy burden of my ancestors. I was unable to see the beauty of the cotton fields. So it was a five-year-old girl who taught me how to move forward. Children have a young look on their environment, but we should not, however, elude certain aspects of the past. It is important that they know this painful history of the black people.  "

Ignorance is one of the evils of our societies. When he misses the words to defend himself, only the fists remain to fight. When you don't know your neighbor, fear sets in and spreads. Let us listen, be curious, be selfless and reach out. Even if the confrontation seems more productive at the moment, it generates only rancor and distrust. How sad to hear a 12-year-old boy, Keedron Bryant, singing his simple desire to live on the internet. Yet it is this cry from the heart that moves the entire planet today ...

►  Black Lives Matter website

► Keedron Bryant's video

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