"Written by Himself" essay by Drew John Ladd
Drew John Ladd impresses the reader of need to challenge the conventions of Eurocentric criteria that permeates the "standards" by which narrative accounts of literature (and history] get defined.
In truth, there is an entire planet perspectives of non white people that so often get ignored. Yet it precisely these heretofore ignored perspectives and insights that need to be heard; they help make real the lies that have sustained human knowledge since European imperialism ran roughshod on this planet that past 500 years.
FIND HIS COMPLETE ESSAY: "Written By Himself" on his Patreon Page ~ https://www.patreon.com/c/drewwritesstuff/posts...
HERE'S AN EXCERPT
"Black experience is not monolithic, but it is distinct. The realities I draw from are not incidental. They are foundational to the way I build stories. And those foundations are just as worthy of exploration and development as any traditional European mythology. I do not write from the outside. I write from where I stand. I do not need to explain why that place exists. It exists because I exist.
"The phrase “written by himself” or “written by herself” was historically used by Black authors to assert their authorship and humanity in a society that often denied both. This practice was a powerful declaration of identity and ownership over one’s narrative, challenging prevailing norms that sought to erase or appropriate Black voices.
"And unless black authors did this, unless they made it explicit that it was their work, the default assumption with be that someone white wrote it for them. Even when they did, they weren’t often believed. Writing was so much the white man’s domain that they saw themselves in everything. Even in stories that could only be ours, the assumption was that someone white MUST have been the one to record it."
FIND HIS COMPLETE ESSAY: "Written By Himself" on his Patreon Page ~ https://www.patreon.com/c/drewwritesstuff/posts...