African American Book Review: Sylvia Harris' Autobiography of Bipolar Disorser and Salvation Through Love of Horse Racing

The new book, "Long Shot: My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me," is a must-read for those African Americans like me who struggle with bipolar illness, as well as for professionals caregivers and family members who want to understand Bipolar patients and have a sincere desire to help. As someone who has seen this process from the inside, I can and do vouch for the anguish it causes in the patient, family and career.

The author, Sylvia Harris, describes exactly what it was like to be somewhat manic, floridly manic, psychotically manic and depressed. She recalls a time when she cycled through these stages with no idea of what has happening to her, clueless as to the exit from the perpetual emotional roller coaster.

Through her painfully honest autobiography, she gives readers an inside view of her manic-depressive problem and how she overcame its worst aspects by striving for meaning and healthy excitement. Desiring to become a horse trainer and eventually a jockey, she demonstrates that we need not achieve all that we want in order to benefit from the pursuit of our dreams.

Without specifically saying so, she demonstrates the similarities between Bipolar illness, alcoholism and drug addiction, in which many sufferers, their families, circle of friends and employers must often acknowledge the illness and their personal powerlessness over it, before they can find relief and redemption.

Harris courageously describes learning to realize when an attack of mania was beginning and what--for her--triggered those attacks.

Not all readers (including myself) will identify with Harris' love for horses and the essential role they came to have in Harris' rehabilitation. But, everyone perceives that having a personally meaningful goal toward which we strive helps us to find meaning in life when our lives would otherwise seem to us to be meaningless.

Essentially, Bipolars often have a necessity for a goal and aspiration larger than life, lest we be overcome by depression and the conviction that our lives are meaningless.

As in any worthwhile autobiography, Sylvia Harris brings the reader along on the trail to overcoming the worst her difficulties, while acknowledging that some "wreckage of the past" is inevitable but not utterly insoluble.

I personally do not read prefaces or introductions to autobiographies, because of their tendency to remove the mystery and discovery process from the narrative itself. Sylvia Harris's "Long Shot: My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me" ends realistically, in a manner with which we may all be able to identify.

If you enjoy the thrill of discovering what happens at the end of Sylvia Harris' autobiography, then don't read the introduction and preface at the beginning.

Read the whole autobiography and learn what happens just as Sylvia Harris did: one day and one experience at a time.

You can't be of help to a Bipolar person or patient unless you understand their world from their perspective, as well as from your own (probably) vastly different perspective on the patient and the illness. This is maddeningly frustrating, but true nonetheless.

This book provides a heartfelt, and searingly honest account of life for those like me who struggle with bipolar illness, as well as for professionals, caregivers and family members who want to understand
Bipolar patients and who have a sincere desire to help.

"Race" and Blood Types, Superstition and Science

Would you rather have a blood transfusion from someone who shares your skin color or from someone who shares your blood type?  It is my belief that transfusing blood from one person to another based on skin color would be an extraordinarily dangerous practice.  The American Red Cross, which maintains blood banks, says:

Although all blood is made of the same basic elements, not all blood is alike. In fact, there are eight different common blood types, which are determined by the presence or absence of certain antigens – substances that can trigger an immune response if they are foreign to the body. Since some antigens can trigger a patient's immune system to attack the transfused blood, safe blood transfusions depend on careful blood typing and cross-matching.

The blood table below, broken out by "race," shows that blood types do not obey superstitious sociological and cultural notions of "race".  The following chart from the American Red Cross shows that if all Caucasians received O+ blood transfusions on the logic that O+ is most common among Caucasians, then sixty-three percent of white people would receive the WRONG blood type during transfusions.

Most white people would have a higher chance of receiving the proper blood type from an Hispanic person (53%O+) than they would from another white person, since the most common blood type among whites is (O+ 37%) and is also most common among Hispanics (O+53%) of Hispanics have that blood type. 

If a white person with type O+ blood needs a battle-field transfusion and medics don't know the blood types of another white person available and an Hispanic person available, the best bet (53% O+) would be to give the white person a transfusion from a Hispanic person--NOT another white person.

All white people have a lesser chance of having O+ blood than do Hispanics (O+53).
 

	Caucasians	African American	Hispanic	Asian
O +	37%	47%	53%	39%
O -	8%	4%	4%	1%
A +	33%	24%	29%	27%
A -	7%	2%	2%	0.5%
B +	9%	18%	9%	25%
B -	2%	1%	1%	0.4%
AB +	3%	4%	2%	7%
AB -	1%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%

Dr. Dennis O'Neil Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California writes:

. . . patterns of ABO, Rh, and Diego blood type distributions are not similar to those for skin color or other so-called "racial" traits.  The implication is that the specific causes responsible for the distribution of human blood types have been different than those for other traits that have been commonly employed to categorize people into "races."  Since it would be possible to divide up humanity into radically different groupings using blood typing instead of other genetically inherited traits such as skin color, we have more conclusive evidence that the commonly used typological model for understanding human variation is scientifically unsound.

As a matter of science, Dr. Dennis O'Neil concludes that the belief in "race" has less basis in science than other more medically useful groupings.  He concludes that:
 

The more we study the precise details of human variation, the more we understand how complex are the patterns.  They cannot be easily summarized or understood.  Yet, this hard-earned scientific knowledge is generally ignored in most countries because of more demanding social and political concerns.  As a result, discrimination based on presumed "racial" groups still continues.  It is important to keep in mind that this "racial" classification often has more to do with cultural and historical distinctions than it does with biology.  In a very real sense, "race" is a distinction that is created by culture not biology.

Tyler Perry is Color-Aroused but He IS NOT an Anti-Black Color-Aroused Antagonist

I'm the editor of the blog, American Journal of Color Arousal, where we ( I ) study color-arousal issues from a cognitive behavioral perspective do determine whether a person is a color-aroused antagonist with respect to Black people and/or other skin color groups.

Tyler Perry's movies are certainly color aroused. He clearly has looked at some Black families, including his own. He clearly believes that Black people's culture or depictions of it are a worthy subject movies. He finds and evokes humor in Black people's foibles and even dysfunctional behaviors. His focus on Black people clearly is aroused by his own skin color and other Black individuals and families.  He's color-aroused.

Do thoughts (ideation) about Black people arouse his feelings of sadness, gladness, mirth and anguish, vengeance, fear and rage? I suspect that his films evoke IN HIM all of the above feelings and many more. Obviously, they do. He feels a special pull to do movies about Black people and that pull comes from his beliefs (ideation) and feelings (emotions).

Are his behaviors motivated by his color-aroused thoughts and feelings? Obviously they are. He makes movies about and for Black people because they interest him deeply.

Is Tyler Perry a color-aroused antagonist, targeting both himself and other Black people for unfair criticism and ridicule? I think the answer is "no." Tyler Perry's movies are funny to Black people because he identifies and creates characters who remind us of ourselves, our relatives and friends, in one way or another. 

When we see a Tyler Perry movie it's like listening to a masterful preacher who sleighs everyone with his incisive wit at one point or another, and we all walk away determined to do better in the future.
 
So, Tyler is aroused by skin color-associated ideation and emotions to make films about Blacks.  Is there anything wrong with that?  I prefer to see a movie about Blacks in key roles, with a Black sensibility.

Where is the anti-Black antagonism in Perry's movies? I can't find it.  Most people will agree that Tyler Perry makes us laugh--when he's a woman in his films and when he's a man. He is able to play the role of upper middle class educated man in control of his impulses just as he is capable of playing a late-middle aged Black woman (Madea) so outraged at the abuse of a women that she gets her gun and goes looking for the culprit.

Madea does what all of us would like to do (if it weren't illegal) when a Black woman is beaten and humiliated.  She pulls her gun and puts the fight and the strength in others who we too beaten down to stand up for themselves.

The trick to perceiving that Tyler Perry is not an anti-Black antagonist is in the striking themes where arrogant egotism always leads to humiliation, reconciliation and redemption.  The Tyler Perry characters with the worst Black male anti-Black-woman antagonists are morality plays made funny, passionate and dramatic, showing us each a part of ourselves that we need to work on and work out before it works on us.

Tyler Perry warns us not to become egotistic, arrogant and abusive, lest we find ourselves humbled in front of those very same people whom we believed we could abuse and humiliate with impunity.  Ultimately the theme of Tyler Perry's music is the possibility and necessity for redemption in all of us, which is a lesson which we all need to remember, regardless of our skin color.

Can "White History Year" Still Be Relevant in a Multicultural Society?

Mr. McWhorther (of The Root):

This is no time to end Black History Month.  What white America "gets" about Black people is equivalent to what a law student gets in his first two months of law school: confused and afraid, but certainly not fully educated.

The alternative to Black History Month is "White-History-Year". Before Black History Month, white and Black students learned about the French, Spanish Dutch and English settlers of America and were required to remember all of their names and dates. Meanwhile, we were not required to remember the name or date of any Black person whatsoever.

It was thought that no Black person had done anything worthy of being considered in "American History." And so "American History" was really nine or ten insufferable months of "White-History-Year" for grade school students. I don't want my nephews and nieces to suffer through that.

Black History Month's purpose is not just to teach whites about Blacks' contribution, but it is also to teach Black children about Blacks contributions. I don't think we can just assume that all Black children (or white children) know that Black man invented the blood bank:


http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldrew.htm

and another Black man, Garret A. Morgan, invented the traffic light and gas masks:


http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventors/a/Garrett_Morgan.htm

If grade schools and universities don't teach this information to Black and white and Latino students, then how will they ever know? Does everyone Black and white "get it" already? I didn't know a Black man invented the gas mask until I began researching the names of these Black inventors in order to post this comment.

Blacks and whites still need Black History Month because it compels text book publishers to include Blacks in their textbooks and it also compels white teachers to follow the curriculum by discussing Blacks, at least for twenty days out of each year.

Finally, we cannot end Black History Month because the alternative is White-History-Year.

Was Star Black MS High School Football Player Billy Joe Johnson Murdered By a Sheriff's Deputy Because Johnson's Girlfriend Had White Skin?

African American Pundit (AAP) asks how and why a seventeen year-old  star high school football player Billy Joe Johnson died on the road, shot with a shotgun, in the presence of a George County, Mississippi sheriff's deputy?  The police say Billy Joe Johnson had tried to break into the house of his white girlfriend (he had the admiration of girls of every skin color), but the police also say that Billy Joe Johnson died in a typical traffic stop, after he ran a red light.

The police say that the sheriff's deputy went o radio from his car when all of a sudden Billy Joe shot himself in the mouth with a shot gun, and the shotgun was found laying on top of him.  I wish the late Johnny Cochran were alive, such was his ability to show the absurdity of police testimony before a jury.  But, Johnny Cochran has gone on to greener pastures, leaving his his legacy for the rest of us to emulate.  'If the story doesn't fit, it must be bullshit.'

So which of the police's two stories is true, if any of them is true.  Did he die because his white girlfriend called the police after he allegedly tried to break into her house?  Did he die because he ran a red light in a typical traffic stop?  Or did he die because he was the most famous and renowned member of his community, beloved by all except those who viscerally hate Black men, and particularly Black men who "usurp" white men's "rights" by dating white women?

This case shows the poverty of the word "racism".   If the sheriff's deputy was responsible in some way, was it because he was envious, jealous, color-aroused to envy, jealousy and fury by Johnson's bi-chromatic relationships, or did he die because white policemen believe that all Black males deserve to be in prison or dead?  Did Billy Joe die because he didn't bow and scrape in the face of the sheriff's deputy?

It seems to me that the white girlfriend whose home was allegedly the target of a break-in attempt by Johnson that night is a valuable witness in this case.  Did she call the police?  Was she afraid of her boyfriend?  Or is this alleged detail just another piece of propaganda invented by the George County, MS Sheriff's Department in a bold attempt to legitimize the execution of a star football player who had not even allegedly committed a capital or criminal offense, and where it is not even alleged that he threatened an officer?

Don't the police ALWAYS come forward with some unrelated and alleged act of wrongdoing in a young Black man's history in an attempt to demonstrate that police probably made the right decision when they decided to execute a Black man during a traffic stop?

This case stinks like rat that died in a hidden corner of the House of America.

There is so much that we don't know.  That's why we call on Attorney General Eric Holder to visit the family in Mississippi and comfort them in the knowledge that the Justice Department is doing everything possible to find and disseminate the facts in this case.  If President Obama can meet on the White House lawn with a police officer whose feelings have been hurt, then certainly Attorney General Eric Holder can meet in Mississippi with the grieving and anguished family of the late Billy Joe Johnson,  promising them as much action is legally warranted after a full investigation.

It cannot and must not be a capital crime for a Black teenager to be a star football player and to date women regardless of their skin color.  And Black young men must not die at random at the hands of sheriffs' deputies in the States of Mississippi in the year 2011.

I call on Attorney General Eric Holder to personally meet with the family, and to order the questioning of the sheriff's deputy and the white girlfriend, and gather others evidence as the facts warrant, before deciding what action is appropriate to vindicate the right to be alive, even if you are a star high school Black football player with a white girlfriend in Mississippi.

Noose Found in Locker of Black Man Suing NYFD for Discrimination

The Root says a New York Fire Department electrician found a three foot noose hanging in front of his locker after he and other electricians alleged discrimination in provision of overtime and promotions within the Department. 

Gregory Seabrook, an FDNY communications electrician for nearly 20 years, found the noose Thursday at the FDNY facility at 87 Union St. in Brooklyn, his lawyers said yesterday.

It appears that there still is some extreme color-aroused ideation, emotion and behavior within the NYFD.  I says "extreme" because hanging a noose in an office is an offense that could lead to dismissal.  Only a person with  extreme color-aroused ideation, emotion and behavior would risk losing his job and public standing by hanging a noose in front of a co-worker's locker.

Growing an Afro is Cue Arousing Color-Associated Ideation, Emotion and Behavior

Getty Images.  Malcolm Gladwell experienced color-aroused antagonism when he grew an Afro.

The Root and Malcolm Gladwell report that, simply by Gladwell changing his hair to an Afro style, his new color-associated physical characteristic was the cue that aroused antagonistic ideation, emotion and behavior from societal authorities such as airport security and the police.  

Malcolm Gladwell, author of four best-sellers, including Blink and What the Dog Saw, is fascinated by explaining everyday experiences.

Blink explores how humans make snap judgments (and how often we can be wrong). In What the Dog Saw, he questions "false certainties" -- things we think we know.

What does hair have to do with it? In a recent interview with CNN, the biracial writer explains that when he grew his out and "began to look more like people's stereotype of a black male," he experienced "a striking transformation in the way the world viewed [him]," including getting stopped by police and when he went through customs at the airport.

"Even though I was exactly the same person, once I had longer hair, the world saw me as being profoundly different," he said.

Blink shows that a color-associated physical characteristic (hair in the case) is sufficient to arouse ideation, emotion and behavior in others. No wonder that Black women straighten their hair. Would we have them grow Afros and braids and then face the constant color-aroused antagonism associated with color-associated physical characteristics?