Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico

by Ishmael Reed

The War of Rebellion still divides the United States. Some rebel generals, whom the famous pro-confederate propaganda film “Gone With The Wind” referred to as “Knights,” earned their massacre bona fides by murdering thousands of blacks, Mexicans, and Native Americans. The “Knight” Robert E. Lee fought children during the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847. The children, Los niños heroes, refused to surrender and were slaughtered. The subjects addressed in this book include white nationalism, Donald Trump, Quentin Tarantino and Django, the musical Hamilton, Ferguson, Missouri, Amiri Baraka, a different take on #metoo, the one-at-a-time tokenism of an elite, who chooses winners and losers among minority artists, the Alt-Right, the use of immigrants to shame black America, and much more.

272 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2019

About the author

Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.

Reed has been described as one of the most controversial writers. While his work has often sought to represent neglected African and African-American perspectives, his energy and advocacy have centered more broadly on neglected peoples and perspectives irrespective of their cultural origins.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author is a spineless snowflake

[Gino Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ishmael Reed Being Ishmael Reed

Years ago, I read several of Reed's books in succession. Mumbo Jumbo, Terrible Two's, Terrible Three's, and Japanese by Springtime were no doubt hilarious takes on the sociopolitical landscape at the time they were written. Well, Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico follows suit.

I must admit that the title was misleading. It got my attention. Having not read a synopsis of the book, only that it was a collection of essays, it had nothing to do with statues or Mexico. The essays were certainly enlightening as well as entertaining in some parts.

There were a few spots that felt like an airing of grievances. Reed is afforded that if that was indeed the case. No tree was spared the ax, some deserving to be chopped. There was something personal about the admonishment in a few of the essays penned about a few current individuals.

I appreciate how Reed provided some historical context for his assessments. Too often, people rant because they have a platform, and our global society has a thirst for noise, senseless jabbering being that more entertaining. But Reed went further by juxtaposing his delivery with valid rationale based on information that no sane and rational person can argue colored his confirmation bias. Reed did his homework and he scored an A on all essays, even on a few that I bit down hard and acknowledged were laced with valid points given his viewpoint, which did not and need not match my own viewpoint.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 85, Reed is still serving up raucous satire and flame-hot polemics. This volume from 2019 collects work from the terrible tens, focusing largely on various bugbears such as the shabby treatment of black males from “corporate feminists”, the ways in which black history and modern life is wrongly perceived by Jewish writers and directors such as David Simon and Steven Spielberg, and how supposedly liberal media outlets like MSNBC fall into racist tropes on issues such as drug abuse, i.e. using images of young black males in their reports. Reed also savages the smash-hit Hamilton for its depiction of Alexander Hamilton as an abolitionist, when history suggests Hamilton was much more cosy with slaving than the musical explains. Reed also wrote a play called The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, where the airbrushed victims of history come to visit the composer one evening to correct the record. Although score-settling and personal beefs form the kernel of many of these pieces, the arguments and rants are always erudite and sharp, and offer an eye-opening view of how African-American culture and history is continually distorted through a (consciously or otherwise) racist prism.

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rant, albeit an interesting and eye-opening one. Lots of time-honoured historical myths get their well-deserved come-uppance in this set of essays. But it’s still a rant which, for me, gets a bit tedious. I think I’d prefer this as an audio book or even video with the author reading it so we’d get a fine dose of his personality along with it. That said, one of the best things here is his take down of the musical Hamilton (in the category of things-that-need-to-be-said) which made me yearn to see his play, “The Haunting of Lin Manual Miranda.” The examination of American-Mexican relations through history was also good...and sobering. Worth reading.