Departure

At this point in the book we are seeing the departure of the central characters from their southern homes.  This is very interesting to me, because although their specific reasons for departure defer they are all shrouded in both despair and hope.  Mortified by the brutal beating of her relative Ida Mae finds it necessary to flee the south in order to escape the inhumane societal conditions that would allow such an atrocity to occur. In fleeing the South, Ida Mae is tacitly acknowledging that she has more faith in the unknown of the North than in the ability of Mississippi to change.  The amount of blind faith demonstrated by Ida Mae and her husband led me to question what it would take to get me to leave my home, and i came to the realization that i already have.  I left California to attend Howard University in hopes of procuring a better future.  I had only been to DC once or twice and my experience with the city was limited to the tourist brochures and illustrated maps handed out at the hotel. Now of course my situation is much different from that of Ida Maes and the other people depicted in the book, but to a degree we are all motivated by a desire to do better.  These past few chapters have really highlighted that for me.  Sometimes delving in to the unknown for a better reality is a necessity, and we will see if it pays off for Ida Mae in the next few chapters and for me in the next few years.

The Great Migration

When i think about it the Great Migration, is responsible for my very existence.  I was born in California in 1993 yet i am a product of the Black exodus from the south.  My fathers family is originally from Louisiana but left to settle in San Francisco.  Upon reading The Warmth of Other Suns I cant help but think about my great grandparents who made that same journey and sought to etch out an existence in the West.  The reasons for such a mass migration varied depending on the individual but they can be boiled down to two motivating factors 1. A desire to escape the repressive rigidity of the Southern caste system and 2. A longing to create purpose and meaning.  Although the ways in which racism oppresses blacks in America has become much more covert, I feel that the beauty of the Migration lies in the fact that its still relevant to this day.  I find myself still motivated by the ideals expounded by the Migration, the need to create purpose in a world that has denied my ability to do so. I often feel as if i am looked down upon or seen as less than due to my skin color and that motivates me to be better, just as it motivated others to leave for the North.  We should all study Great Migration and other movements like it for their beauty lies in the eclecticism of all the people involved.