Beautiful Just As God Made You

One of my favorite college English classes was titled "Literature of the Black Arts Movement and Harlem Renaissance." It was focused, interesting, culturally awakening and run by one of the more funny, down to earth and naturally talented teachers my college had in stock.

We read works by Langston Hughes, Malcom X, Amiri Baraka, Nicki Giovanni, Zora Neale Hurston... then we tapped into the unknown writers of the time. There was one novel we started about half-way into the class that I remember having vivid words and such rich in imagery I would dream about it when I'd sleep at night. I regrettably can't remember the name or the author but the story remains fresh in my mind. We watched The Color Purple, re-read excerpts from the high-school favorite There Eyes Were Watching God. Toni Morrison's poetry would pop up now and again as well.

I saved all the notes, the handouts and many of the novels themselves. This isn't that surprising because I also saved the majority of paraphernalia from all my other English and Religion classes. But in cleaning the other day I was relieved to see the orange spiral bound that designated English 352. In my own handwriting, "BAM & HRen" was scrawled across the top.

What occurred to me the morning after I made this discovery & unearthed my latent fondness for the era's aesthetic and artistic jewels was an untouched theme that appears over and over again in literature. African American literature, especially.

You are beautiful just the way God made you.

I look at this from two very different standpoints. A literary one(including the cultural, political and ethnic ramifications it has). Then the religious one (including the cultural, political and ethnic ramifications it has). For the sake of brevity in this entry I will only talk about the literary. Even though I would love to invite HIM to the party, I'm going to leave God out of this particular dance....

Let's look at the ladies I think comprise the triumvirate of women from the HR and BAM movements: Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Combined, they have not just produced successful, beautiful poems, novels and autobiographies but also incredible lives and careers that have stood the test of time. Morrison never let her role as mother distract her from her role as author and vice versa. Likewise, Hurston was one of the most beloved "grandmothers" of her era to the community whole. As for Walker, well, Walker not only married a white Jewish activist, bore his child, divorced him and became a lesbian who at one point was involved with Tracey Chapman - she also was and remains an activist for many causes dear to her heart.

So besides artistic genius, cultural weight, family values and gender what do these women have in common? A message to black people and little girls especially that they're beautiful just the way God made them.

Apologies, God decided to drop by unannounced.

The thing of it is, this message presupposed that the listener is spiritual in a way that is rooted in family and ethnicity more so than society or conscience. What I mean is that the religion of African American culture is so often taken for granted within its own resting place. It's an assumed action. Going to church is tradition and acceptance of God is not challenged the way it is in most other cultures. (This is an overly modified statement but will suffice for the course of this post). The discovery of Jesus comes just as simply and wonderfully as a baby's discovery that he has feet which will walk him anywhere he likes. It's natural and dare I say, unavoidable in the African American community by and large.

What is magnificent about this message of inner beauty which is based on the notion we are all "God's children" is that it never begs for explanation. Everything you need to know is right in the statement. God made you, therefore you are perfect.

But what about the atheist....

In The Color Purple, Walker's character Celie demands one day "You telling me God love you and you ain’t never done nothing for him?" She has never been introduced to Him. The social net - better yet - safety net of Sunday (or sometimes Saturday and Wednesday) church going peoples was not afforded to Celie. She is a missing link in her black culture. Although Celie is not atheist she is still an outcast and that diagnosis would have a similar affect on a black child in this scenario.

So what happened her? Was it her unfortunate circumstances leading to the unavailability of religion that resulted in her lack of faith which makes it difficult for her see herself clearly in the mirror? Or, was it disbelief in her abilities that makes it harder for her to understand how a God could love her aside from the question of His potential non-existence or existence? Both?

It is an interesting question. How does the atheist remedy the inner voice that calls forth the ego, superego and id all too often? Who is to thank or to blame for the confidence one has in their own beauty or importance? What would the staunch atheist say to these questions? Would they ask them at all? Ultimately what you're trying to determine is the origin of the intangible - the soul, conscience, the will to do good...

Anyways, I haven't gotten much further with this idea than to realize how spirituality plays a silent yet anything but trivial role on the success of someone's security. The lack of which could shake a community like that of Walker's The Color Purple.