In the last two books of Brown Girl, Brownstones, something that caught my attention was Selina’s changing relationship with her father. Early on, Deighton is introduced as the center of Selina’s world. She would sneak into the parlor to see him and would spend hours on end either talking or just being around him. As we move into Books 3 and 4 though, and as Selina matures, she starts to see her father in a different light. After a brief stint as a factory worker, Deighton severely injures his arm, leaving it limp and useless hanging by his side. While rehabbing in the hospital, Deighton stumbles upon a newspaper called The New Light. The New Light is a paper that publicizes a sort of religion lead by the Father Peace. Selina, after becoming enraged at her father for being so consumed by this “religion”, asks to see Father Peace one night. At the “Kingdom,” a run-down brownstone, Selina sees Father Peace for what he really is; a small man who uses a cult of personality to take in people and almost brainwash them. As Selina takes this all in, she wonders why her father can’t be praised and exalted like Father Peace is. Instead of trying to do his best and making something for himself, Deighton is completely content being a follower. As Silla remarks earlier in the novel, it was as if Deighton was happy he injured himself since he then had a reason to take it easy in life.
Reflections of Deighton and Selina’s relationship can also be seen in her relationship with Clive Springer. Clive is your average slacker. After never reaching his full potential as an artist in the Village, Clive simply gave up. He daydreams and philosophizes all day, but he never really does anything. He used to sit at his easel, staring at an unfinished painting in front of him, but eventually even stopped doing that. His entire day was soon relegated to lying down on his couch. At first, Selina almost loved this about him. Yet, this attitude, like it did between she and her Father, began to grate on her. She wondered why Clive had all of these aspirations but never made an attempt to reach them. It was almost if Selina was drawn to Clive due to his eerie resemblance to her father.
The article from Callaloo was interesting to me because it helped me better understand why the Black Diaspora is considered different to other Diasporas throughout history. The two main causes for the Black Diaspora are the Atlantic Slave trade and Colonialism; most other Diasporas throughout history were caused by war and invasions. Another big difference about the Black Diaspora is what is defined by a return to a homeland. As stated in the article, there are two components to a Diaspora- dispersal from a host location and a desire to return to that homeland. The Black Diaspora is unique in that there is no set homeland and not everyone involved really wanted to return. Blacks were taken from all different countries from all around the world; they were not unified under a single country, but under a single race. Slaves taken from the Caribbean did not want to return to Africa because that was not their homeland. Also, many blacks were so far removed from their origins that they did not want to return to any homeland at all. This is very much different than other Diasporas, such as the Jewish Diaspora, where there was a strong desire to return to a centralized homeland.
Going almost hand in hand with a Diaspora is transnationalism. Transnationalism refers to the increasing transborder relations between peoples beyond their state boundaries. This is often done through the migrations of people between countries and the networks they establish between their homelands and said new country. As discussed in “From Immigrant to Transmigrant,” by Nina Schiller, the reasons for these migrations and their transnational effects are often different, but they often stem from deteriorating social and economic conditions in one’s homeland and other associated problems. Ironically, a very large part of transnationalism is the role immigrants play in a global economy.
Often times, few members of a family will immigrate first to help prepare for the rest of the family. This may mean securing a job or even finding a place to live. Then, these initial family members may send money back to help fund the immigration of the rest of the family or even provide for family that is not immigrating. These payments are called remittances and are a large portion of the money that leaves and enters small countries. Though on a small scale, these payments play into a global economy. Another economic side of transnationalism mentioned in the article is the importance of economic centers and their role in a global market. In short, transnationalism has shown that it is more profitable to place certain operations in cities that are emerging as centers of communication and organization. These cities would have diverse groups of peoples who interact and carry out business along networks established in countries other than the ones they reside in. Though capitalism had always been dependent upon global relations, transnationalism strengthened the idea that a global economy is only as strong as the bonds between each country. Besides the economic side to transnationalism, there is also a political side. Due to transnationalism, many politicians have had to change how they think about local elections. Since there are very strong ties between the United States and many countries in the Caribbean, for example, a person running for office in the Caribbean will need to appeal to their constituents in the US as well as those in his country. I think this surprised me the most. Like we analyzed in last weeks article about Harlem and Jamaica, it is really interesting to see how small communities hundreds of miles away can still have a very pronounced voice in what is happening in their home land.
