By Miles Jaye
Fantasy is fiction, the imagining of things not real, things that are improbable or impossible.
Fantasy is an idea with no basis in reality. Make-believe is a child’s fantasy. Creativity is the artist’s fantasy. Vision begins as fantasy. Daydreaming is fantasy. Hope is fantasy. Nightmares are fantasy.
To desire is to fantasize. To covet is to fantasize. To wish is to fantasize. To lust is to fantasize.
Fantasy is belief in that which does not yet and may never exist. Fantasy is illusional or delusional pie in the sky. Equality is fantasy, justice is fantasy, and peace is just a dream– make believe.
The Nigger is fantasy. It’s not a real thing, it’s someone’s fantastic night- mare. The Nigger is a boogeyman created to justify fear, paranoia and brutality. We’ve been convinced that it’s real… but it’s not. There are only good and bad Black men, women, boys and girls. The Nigger is Frankenstein– he’s not real.
The American social, political and economic dynamic is predicated on the existence of a Nigger class, but the Nigger is a fictional monster, absent any function but to generate fear and justify brutality. America has a long and uninterrupted history of creating boogeymen, who, if not destroyed, will wreak havoc on and bring destruction to the American family and the American way of life– the American dream.
Cowboys and Indians is an American classic depicting courageous red-blooded Americans fighting to protect the land against the savage Nigger class– the Indians. Today, it’s Muslims, Mexicans and Asians who join the Black population in this underclass. It is we, who are collectively undeserving of respect and decency much less kindness and caring from our neighbors. It is we, who are collectively undeserving of justice and equality much less inclusion and access to our institutions. So, we continue to wish and dream.
Rev. Jesse Jackson’s well-intended slogan, “Keep hope alive,” innocently but perfectly portrays the impotence with which we see and address our lot in this, our unintended homeland. Is keep hope alive not inherently powerless? Is keep hope alive not inherently helpless? Don’t give up the dream? Don’t give up the fight? Don’t despair? Then what’s left? Keep marching, keep praying, keep waiting on the dream?
In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Son,” Walter Lee pleaded to Mama, “Now you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living room couch. You tell it to him in the morning when his mother goes out of here to take care of somebody else’s kids, and you tell it to me when we want some curtains, or some drapes and you sneak out of here to go work in somebody’s kitchen. All I want is to make a future for this family. All I want is to be able to stand in front of my boy like my father was never able to do to me.”
That was Walter Lee’s dream! He went on to say, “I want so many things Mama. It’s kinda driving me crazy.” Wishing, waiting, dreaming and fantasizing can take its toll. Helplessness can drive you crazy.
He said, “Money is life!” We teach our kids luxury cars, expensive jewelry, and designer clothes are life.
King famously declared, “I have a dream, that one day my four little children will be judged, not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” He would still be dreaming, but “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun, or fester like a sore – and then run?” Harlem by Langston Hughes. Today, we judge not by character but by Kors, Chanel and Gucci.
James Baldwin debated, “Until this moment, there is scarcely any hope for the American dream, because the people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence, will wreck it.” The monster, the creation, Frankenstein will bring the whole house down, laboratory and all. That’s the nightmare!
I too wish! I too dream! I wish there were a true, direct, and unfettered through line between freedom, potential and opportunity. I wish I didn’t have to dream that one day things would be as they should be right now. I wish it had not been necessary to spend a lifetime wishing. Nina Simone sang, “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free. I wish I could break all these chains holding me.” That’s my fantasy!
That’s what’s on my mind!
Website: www.milesjaye.net
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Email: milesjaye360@gmail.com
