Italian Sympathizer
[I’m a] photographer and writer from Rome, Italy, and I’ve just read this article by Susan Crain Bakos, “Harlem: It’s A Hard-Knock Life” (July 30-Aug. 5). I have been to New York three times, indeed for a festival of “avant-garde” creative free-jazz [in] the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
My passion for photography brought me to Harlem, where I spent one afternoon. There I realized that I would need more to learn, to walk around, to look around, pay attention, walk carefully...
My impression is that the writer-journalist—as well as myself—would need to wake up: [Stop being] “naive”... you or I are not “black,” you will never be black; it is a fact. So you cannot know how it is. We do not know how it is.
Maybe it’s your romance; the romantic idea of Harlem as a place of music, fun and jazz. Are you sure that you did not put yourself in a dangerous situation? [Do not] mistake the “good savage,” “the good poor people,” the good “Afro-American” myth. Please do not do this mistake; it’s your own creation. It’s our own mind!!!
Indeed I was lucky to meet some of the greatest “giants” around the African-American music-art-planet: William Parker, Patrician Nicholson, Hamid Drake, Leena Conquest, a Queen, Kidd Jordan, etc. These are the GIANTS of CONTEMPORARY MUSIC and the next music to be born, and they are hardly known in their own country!!!
Anyway, I hope to have the chance to come back to NYC and spend some time in Harlem, before the “building money-makers” will just move the “people” away from there. By the way, it would be great to see Mr. Obama as president of the U.S.A. Just the thing itself would be a revolution. And we need new ideas—all over this planet. Well, I beg your pardon for the long, passionate letter...
—Stefania Errore, Italian, citizen of the world
Black-On-White Action
Initially mistaking the article for a joke, written in the style of The Onion, I soon realized that the two-page tripe was a genuine article written by an alleged victim. From beginning to end, the article is so heavily peppered with condescension and entitlement that I frequently found myself doubling over with pangs of revulsion. Susan Bakos is truly an atavistic throwback, painting herself as a precious and fragile damsel who, by divine right, is supposed to be exempt from the ills of the world…
The paradox is that, while savoring all of the (alleged) attention she receives from black men, Bakos uses every opportunity to denigrate and devalue black people and their culture. Her true loathing of, hatred for and myopic view of black people came through crystal clear. Bakos apparently views herself as a gift to the poor, uneducated black masses of the world: a people who should be grateful she would even consider commingling with them. She repeatedly compartmentalized certain folks as “educated blacks” as if this is a rare anomaly that has to be pointed out at each turn. When her Negro servant passed away, Bakos suddenly felt “unsafe.” Give me a break. Would she feel unsafe if the setting was in the East Village, which has one of the highest crime rates in the city? Of course not, because Bakos’ fears are based not so much on statistical fact as it is on color. Crimes happen every day, all around the city. Yet Bakos feels that her particular misfortune requires a front-page plaster because it involved (gasp!) a white woman in black Harlem. Forget about the countless victims who are robbed and raped each day in the city. Many of these victims suffer much more than a mere clonk on the head…
Bakos is a leech. A poseur of the worst kind. She surrounds herself with people she feels superior to in order to bolster her fragile self-esteem. The people she referred to as her “friends,” those who stood watching as she lay on the ground, knew this. They saw her for the fraud that she is, although Bakos assumed they were too stupid to realize it. Mykul also knew this. Much more insidious and dangerous than an overt racist, Bakos’ cover had been blown.
Bakos globalizes her experience, maintaining “Harlem is no place for a woman without male protection.” Rubbish. There is not a patch of land or concrete anywhere in all of the five boroughs where someone hasn’t been assaulted. Yet would Bakos dare make such an assertion about Chelsea or Murray Hill? While admitting to a prior mugging, Bakos didn’t see fit to put that story in print. Could it have anything to do with where it took place? Crimes that take place in more “acceptable” communities are exceptions to be overlooked (or at least rationalized) while those occurring in less esteemed communities (particularly when it involves black on white) are world news. Brings to mind a funny little ditty I recently heard: A Republican is nothing more than an ex-liberal who was mugged by a black person. They’re happily waiting for you, Bakos.
—Rashida Ayers
Captain to the Rescue
This is the CAPTAIN. I’m sorry you were victimized in front of the Pub. Had I been there, that wouldn’t have happened. Please, please don’t condemn the Pub for an incident that could have occurred anywhere in a cosmopolitan city. When I moved to the Lincoln Center area some years ago, my house was robbed of my precious guitars. Nobody called the police as the thugs made several trips to my fifth-floor walkup. I didn’t blame the entire Lincoln Center community. I just moved back to Harlem where, to date, I was never robbed! My mom’s purse was snatched in Harlem. She didn’t vilify the community, just the crook who robbed her.
Please be careful of your words in regard to the only Sugar Hill jazz club left. You love the music...we love to play it for you...we love to work at our craft and make some kind of living. There are some who are in Harlem that want the place shut down. The Pub didn’t spawn that thief. The Pub shouldn’t, in all fairness, be blamed. I miss seeing those “pretty white legs,” and I hope you won’t hold it against us for having the “NYC-I-don’t-want-to-get-involved” attitude. I hope to see you soon, Sweet Sue!!!
Peace, Love & Blessings
—The CAPTAIN
[I’m a] photographer and writer from Rome, Italy, and I’ve just read this article by Susan Crain Bakos, “Harlem: It’s A Hard-Knock Life” (July 30-Aug. 5). I have been to New York three times, indeed for a festival of “avant-garde” creative free-jazz [in] the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
My passion for photography brought me to Harlem, where I spent one afternoon. There I realized that I would need more to learn, to walk around, to look around, pay attention, walk carefully...
My impression is that the writer-journalist—as well as myself—would need to wake up: [Stop being] “naive”... you or I are not “black,” you will never be black; it is a fact. So you cannot know how it is. We do not know how it is.
Maybe it’s your romance; the romantic idea of Harlem as a place of music, fun and jazz. Are you sure that you did not put yourself in a dangerous situation? [Do not] mistake the “good savage,” “the good poor people,” the good “Afro-American” myth. Please do not do this mistake; it’s your own creation. It’s our own mind!!!
Indeed I was lucky to meet some of the greatest “giants” around the African-American music-art-planet: William Parker, Patrician Nicholson, Hamid Drake, Leena Conquest, a Queen, Kidd Jordan, etc. These are the GIANTS of CONTEMPORARY MUSIC and the next music to be born, and they are hardly known in their own country!!!
Anyway, I hope to have the chance to come back to NYC and spend some time in Harlem, before the “building money-makers” will just move the “people” away from there. By the way, it would be great to see Mr. Obama as president of the U.S.A. Just the thing itself would be a revolution. And we need new ideas—all over this planet. Well, I beg your pardon for the long, passionate letter...
—Stefania Errore, Italian, citizen of the world
Black-On-White Action
Initially mistaking the article for a joke, written in the style of The Onion, I soon realized that the two-page tripe was a genuine article written by an alleged victim. From beginning to end, the article is so heavily peppered with condescension and entitlement that I frequently found myself doubling over with pangs of revulsion. Susan Bakos is truly an atavistic throwback, painting herself as a precious and fragile damsel who, by divine right, is supposed to be exempt from the ills of the world…
The paradox is that, while savoring all of the (alleged) attention she receives from black men, Bakos uses every opportunity to denigrate and devalue black people and their culture. Her true loathing of, hatred for and myopic view of black people came through crystal clear. Bakos apparently views herself as a gift to the poor, uneducated black masses of the world: a people who should be grateful she would even consider commingling with them. She repeatedly compartmentalized certain folks as “educated blacks” as if this is a rare anomaly that has to be pointed out at each turn. When her Negro servant passed away, Bakos suddenly felt “unsafe.” Give me a break. Would she feel unsafe if the setting was in the East Village, which has one of the highest crime rates in the city? Of course not, because Bakos’ fears are based not so much on statistical fact as it is on color. Crimes happen every day, all around the city. Yet Bakos feels that her particular misfortune requires a front-page plaster because it involved (gasp!) a white woman in black Harlem. Forget about the countless victims who are robbed and raped each day in the city. Many of these victims suffer much more than a mere clonk on the head…
Bakos is a leech. A poseur of the worst kind. She surrounds herself with people she feels superior to in order to bolster her fragile self-esteem. The people she referred to as her “friends,” those who stood watching as she lay on the ground, knew this. They saw her for the fraud that she is, although Bakos assumed they were too stupid to realize it. Mykul also knew this. Much more insidious and dangerous than an overt racist, Bakos’ cover had been blown.
Bakos globalizes her experience, maintaining “Harlem is no place for a woman without male protection.” Rubbish. There is not a patch of land or concrete anywhere in all of the five boroughs where someone hasn’t been assaulted. Yet would Bakos dare make such an assertion about Chelsea or Murray Hill? While admitting to a prior mugging, Bakos didn’t see fit to put that story in print. Could it have anything to do with where it took place? Crimes that take place in more “acceptable” communities are exceptions to be overlooked (or at least rationalized) while those occurring in less esteemed communities (particularly when it involves black on white) are world news. Brings to mind a funny little ditty I recently heard: A Republican is nothing more than an ex-liberal who was mugged by a black person. They’re happily waiting for you, Bakos.
—Rashida Ayers
Captain to the Rescue
This is the CAPTAIN. I’m sorry you were victimized in front of the Pub. Had I been there, that wouldn’t have happened. Please, please don’t condemn the Pub for an incident that could have occurred anywhere in a cosmopolitan city. When I moved to the Lincoln Center area some years ago, my house was robbed of my precious guitars. Nobody called the police as the thugs made several trips to my fifth-floor walkup. I didn’t blame the entire Lincoln Center community. I just moved back to Harlem where, to date, I was never robbed! My mom’s purse was snatched in Harlem. She didn’t vilify the community, just the crook who robbed her.
Please be careful of your words in regard to the only Sugar Hill jazz club left. You love the music...we love to play it for you...we love to work at our craft and make some kind of living. There are some who are in Harlem that want the place shut down. The Pub didn’t spawn that thief. The Pub shouldn’t, in all fairness, be blamed. I miss seeing those “pretty white legs,” and I hope you won’t hold it against us for having the “NYC-I-don’t-want-to-get-involved” attitude. I hope to see you soon, Sweet Sue!!!
Peace, Love & Blessings
—The CAPTAIN
