American Revolutionary
June 27, 2015 3:27 AM Subscribe
For this weekend only, you can watch the award winning documentary "American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs". "It tells the story of Chinese American and Detroit icon who has spent 70-some years as a writer, activist and philosopher with an eye on social justice and change. The portrait by filmmaker Grace Lee (who is not related) finds Grace Lee Boggs at the forefront of major movements of the past century.." Today, June 27th, 2015, is Grace's 100th birthday.
Just watched the doc (its wikipedia page). Decent, although it has a number of shortcomings. The film portrayed her as dedicated, intelligent, militant, self-sacrificing, etc., but beyond that I felt I learned little. The film might be summed up in a sentence as "GLB thought things, and then things happened, and she thought about things some more." It doesn't really answer questions such as:
- Did she have a theory of political action? What was it?
- What was her involvement in these very important events (for instance, the urban riots of the 60s)?
- What was her relationship to the other figures in the activist movement of the time (aside from James Boggs and CLR James)?
- How does she cope with the fact that her "revolution" has not materialized and that she has been reduced to organizing gardening projects?
- She wrote a book about "The Next American Revolution" ... what is her theory about what that will be?
- Given current trajectories, what does she foresee for the future of Detroit? America? Capitalism?
The director attempts to delve into some more personal subjects (does she ever feel self-doubt?) at the end, but I can't fault the director too much for being unable to coax anything out of GLB on the subject as GLB seems an adept question-dodger on her internal life.
One has to admire, however, the spryness of the elderly Boggs. Amazing that she can be this involved and intense at such an advanced age.
The personality of GLB also has a parallel to that of Rachel Dolezal -- one who assimilated into a black population in order to do political work in that sphere. (Although, GLB never claimed to be black -- she was, however, assumed to be partially black by some others -- "Afro-Chinese" -- and would say things such as "we in the black movement", etc.).
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 7:18 AM on June 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
- Did she have a theory of political action? What was it?
- What was her involvement in these very important events (for instance, the urban riots of the 60s)?
- What was her relationship to the other figures in the activist movement of the time (aside from James Boggs and CLR James)?
- How does she cope with the fact that her "revolution" has not materialized and that she has been reduced to organizing gardening projects?
- She wrote a book about "The Next American Revolution" ... what is her theory about what that will be?
- Given current trajectories, what does she foresee for the future of Detroit? America? Capitalism?
The director attempts to delve into some more personal subjects (does she ever feel self-doubt?) at the end, but I can't fault the director too much for being unable to coax anything out of GLB on the subject as GLB seems an adept question-dodger on her internal life.
One has to admire, however, the spryness of the elderly Boggs. Amazing that she can be this involved and intense at such an advanced age.
The personality of GLB also has a parallel to that of Rachel Dolezal -- one who assimilated into a black population in order to do political work in that sphere. (Although, GLB never claimed to be black -- she was, however, assumed to be partially black by some others -- "Afro-Chinese" -- and would say things such as "we in the black movement", etc.).
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 7:18 AM on June 27, 2015 [2 favorites]
GLB is a local treasure. I hope this doc helps make her a national treasure.
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:12 AM on June 27, 2015
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:12 AM on June 27, 2015
The personality of GLB also has a parallel to that of Rachel Dolezal
No.
Not to those of us familiar with her work on the ground here. You're stretching to make this analogy, and I wonder why.
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:14 AM on June 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
No.
Not to those of us familiar with her work on the ground here. You're stretching to make this analogy, and I wonder why.
posted by Xavier Xavier at 8:14 AM on June 27, 2015 [8 favorites]
Er, "personality" was a poor word choice on my part. I meant to convey that their political environments had some similarities (and, no doubt, great differences).
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 8:48 AM on June 27, 2015
posted by Noisy Pink Bubbles at 8:48 AM on June 27, 2015
More on Grace Lee Boggs: The Life of a Chinese-American Radical
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:18 AM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister Bijou at 9:18 AM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
I saw this when it was screened in SF -- what an extraordinary woman. And bonus! She was at the screening and did a short Q&A as well. It was quite inspiring to me, as someone who vacillates between believing wholeheartedly in movement work and...not.
Also, I vehemently disagree with the comparison to Rachel Dolezal.
posted by Ragini at 1:28 PM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Also, I vehemently disagree with the comparison to Rachel Dolezal.
posted by Ragini at 1:28 PM on June 27, 2015 [1 favorite]
Interesting side note: Detroit is one of the few major North American cities without a Chinatown. Maybe the only one. I knew some Chinese American kids who went to public high schools in the city, and they said their choice was to identify as white or identify as black.
There were thus a couple Chinese teens who were, culturally, accepted by their peers as "African-American."
posted by kanewai at 3:24 PM on June 27, 2015
There were thus a couple Chinese teens who were, culturally, accepted by their peers as "African-American."
posted by kanewai at 3:24 PM on June 27, 2015
I had the honor of playing music at her 95th birthday party and she was sill a firey motherfucker. She's got one of my favorite quotes about the systemic change: "Everybody is part of the problem, so everybody is part of the solution".
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:00 PM on June 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Jon_Evil at 7:00 PM on June 27, 2015 [3 favorites]
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Boggs has been a guest on "Democracy Now" many times - she's always inspiring.
posted by ryanshepard at 5:30 AM on June 27, 2015