The death of Olivia de Havilland made me very sad. For many years I had tracked the passing of various “Golden Age” movie stars. I myself don’t remember this period, but their fame and films haunted the last decades of the 20th century. These were the artistic ‘classics’ of my youth, and the human witness of that period decayed and dying in their turn, one by one.Of the very oldest there seems to me to be three prominent women and one prominent man now that remain aliive. Of the former, Eva Marie Saint, June Lockhart, and Angela Lansberry (I date Betty White’s real fame to a much later phase in her career). And then, there is Sidney Poitier.
Poitier has always held a special place in my heart. As a small child, I remember watching his films such as To Sir, With Love, and Lillies of the Field, with great interest. Poitier was a striking figure, a black man with very dark skin who modeled a sort of dignified and earnest Western manliness. Unlike black actors such as Harry Belafonte, Poitier’s visage exhibited no glimmer of Europe. His very appearance was unapologetically black with no compromises. But his mien, his bearing, was universal and admirable, reaching out across the chasm of external difference, bringing home the common virtues which bind us.
In this way, he exemplified a particular conservative and traditional attitude toward race and culture which I have always been personally sympathetic to. Integration into the fabric of society as a man on his own terms, rather than separation as a people apart.
That was always my goal. Whether I succeeded or not is a different matter, though that might be due to my own eccentricities rather than the broader culture.
I am the father of two young sons. Men who will grow up in this century, nurtured by its cultures, tempered by its traumas. I worry about them. And yet sometimes I think of someone like Poitier, who experienced a level of racism simply due to his physical appearance that we couldn’t even imagine, and yet who became something of a role model and figure of admiration, even to brown children of immigrants new to this country.
Let your bearing be reverent when you are at leisure, be respectfully attentive in managing affairs, and be loyal towards others. Though you be among barbarians, these may never be cast aside.
If you have never watched him and Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night, you should.
That’s all fine and dandy, but you didn’t have to sink so low as to recommend that complete clown of a book based on critical race theory bs. Those who are sufficiently woke will never let you off the hook for your past thought crimes anyway.
that wasn’t a recommendation moron 🙂 just a pointer to the kali yuga
(i’ve banned you from commenting from stupidity, you can keep reading. you are probably one of the idiots who replies to me “aren’t you an atheist?” when i tweet about being a pagan despite mass conversions to christianity)
Keep on mind that the Kali Yuga has been going on for five millenia now. There is much ruin in a nation.
“Let your bearing be reverent when you are at leisure, be respectfully attentive in managing affairs, and be loyal towards others. Though you be among barbarians, these may never be cast aside.”
Was this a quote by Sidney Poitier? Greatly admire this quote and admire the the example of a man to be aspired to.
I too also have young brown sons and I worry for them. Best of luck to you in raising your sons and for mine as well, and I hope they all learn to become the brave, noble, gentlemen needed to keep civilization alight and to keep them strong in the face of the barbarians.
it’s confucius
to be entirely frank, my sons aren’t really brown. or as we would say in 2020 they are ‘white presenting’
recommend that complete clown of a book based on critical race theory
For some people, their fingers are faster than their eyes or brains.
Was this a quote by Sidney Poitier?
Does it sound like something from a black actor from the 60’s? They stopped making men like Sir Richard Burton a long time ago.
they are ‘white presenting’
Ah, but do they know how to hillbilly and blend in? Or are they SWPL-adjacent? 😉
Btw, have you heard this one?
As a young man, control your passions.
As a middled-aged man, be just.
As an old man, give good advice.
Then be contented and die well.
It’s supposedly a Greek inscription found in Bactria. Always have liked it.
Ah, but do they know how to hillbilly and blend in? Or are they SWPL-adjacent?
you can guess which one they are 🙂
yes, i’ve seen that quote. it’s great. the ancients figured most of it out.
On second thought, I think the last line of the Bactrian inscription might be pithier:
“Then die, without regret.”
Buck and the Preacher is a film directed by Poitier, starring him and Belafonte. Highly recommended!
“the ancients figured most of it out”
So true, but then they weren’t so different from us as they were faced with the same choices:
loyalty or betrayal, truth or lies, love or hate, life or death, war or peace – and the consequences of those choices.
A modern conceit.