Reading the Absence
In his novel Waterland, Graham Swift suggests that history is a means of forgetting, the implication being that history is filled with narratives that are forgotten in favour of those that are recorded. Our history books are missing more than they have, but these absences can often serve to tell as much and sometimes even more than that which is present and it is this mode of reasoning that should always be carefully applied when we engage with the world around. A history of civil rights for example will be emblazoned with images and narratives of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while the likes of: Ella Baker, the founder of the Student Non-violent Coordination Committee NCC’s (SNCC) and a consultant with the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC), Constance Curry, Diane Nash and Ruby Doris Smith, are all relegated to the metaphoric index pages of history text books. The impact of these women in the civil rights movement is huge, but their absence from covers of history text books is not the least bit perplexing because speaks to and is evidence of the broader biases of the society that produces these text (the biased in this case being the Patriarchal Tradition of the Western World). Without questioning the absence of women in such historical headlines, one might assume that women simply did not play a prominent, or prevalent, or integral part in the civil rights movement, but nothing could be further from the truth and their absence speaks to broad social issues, not the least of which is the Patriarchal bias that poison traditional historical texts. Also missing from the headlines are the masses who made the movement successful. Countless people were arrested during “freedom rides” and “sit ins”, but their names too are missing, or at least dwell in the shadows of Jessie Jacksons and Malcolm Xs, and it is not because they did not contribute as much, but rather because Western history is as poisoned by a hierarchical bias as it is by a patriarchal one, meaning that the leaders, who are often responding to, and/or acting on behalf of the masses, are often given more than their share of the credit for the success of a particular movement. The civil rights movement is just an example. There are always a multiplicity of factors that have helped to bring any given moment to fruition, but not all are represented (indeed a truly comprehensive narrative on any topic is impossible to achieve). In the news headlines, in history books, in novels, and movies, and music and in art, there are always things that people choose to include and things which they choose (consciously or not) to exclude, and that which is excluded can often speak more than that which is included. Artists use negative space just as film makers keep some things off screen and writers are careful as to what to show their readers. A doctor or detective can diagnose or determine a mystery sometimes by noting what is not present in the context of what is present. That which is excluded is that which is absent, and reading the absent, reading the absence, being aware of it, and questioning it, is integral to understanding the world around us. It makes us aware of our own ignorance and that is the first step to gaining enlightenment as we cannot become enlightened until we are aware of our own ignorance. So the next time you read a book, or a news paper, or watch a movie, or the news, listen for all those things that aren’t said.