Rooted Against the World By Gloria Wade-Gayles Beacon Press, 1997; Boston; 197 pages; Paperbacks: $12.00
Rooted Against the Wind is a collection of essays in which Gloria
Wade-Gayles takes us with her as she grapples with personal responses
to some gripping issues: aging, rape, homophobia, where Black scholars
should teach, and choosing to live in a Black community. Her responses
are loving, sensible, and wise.
Although I could have written the first essay–“Who Says an Older
Woman Can’t/Shouldn’t Dance?” — with very few changes, Wade-Gayles has
a wonderful way of putting complex ideas into a few words. Take the
following statements, for example:
“Perhaps I dance because many of our mothers could not, or did not.”
“Becoming older is a gift, not a curse, for it is that season when
we have long and passionate conversations with the self we spoke to
only briefly in our younger years.”
“To be Black, woman, and older is to be plunged whole into toxic
waters from head to torso to heel, and we must find creative ways to
prevent the damage from being consummate, for this triple jeopardy
removes us from what this culture values: being White, being male, and
being young. [African Americans] have yet to develop immunities to the
ailments White America suffers. We love young as much as we love White
and we continue to privilege male over female.”
I like the way Wade-Gayles articulates these unformed understandings of mine eloquently.
