Q: Have you ever decided not to pursue research on a niche topic?
A. Yes. I had planned to write about the entrepreneurial film
Sunshine Cleaners but realized quickly during the preliminary
fact gathering, that I did not want to learn the gritty details about
businesses that specialize in crime scene cleanup….
And I had decided not to update a previous post on The Black Russian,but have decided to reverse the decision by answering here.
Last week, C-Span featured Professor Koritha Mitchell’s lecture “Living with Lynching: African American Lynching Plays, Performance, and Citizenship, 1890-1930″and I remembered a puzzling issue I had encountered last year after learning about the life of the little-known 19th century African American millionaire profiled in
The Black Russian.
There had to be underlying circumstances that would explain what happened
in the end to the internationally known entrepreneur. Details supplied
by the author via email confirmed my suspicion.
But last week, I understood fully after Professor Mitchell’s lecture,
And I went back and read portions of the The Black Russian…
I will stop here and let you draw your own conclusions
1. Watch…or listen to Dr. Mitchell’s lecture.
2. Read my post about the Black Russian
3, Scan the book bio for the Black Russian and check the
description of the socioeconomic status of his parents.
4 A related underlying point can also be found in my post
titled Nathaniel Hawthorne http://wp.me/p3Kr4S-3V
Conclusion
In addition to clarity about The Black Russian another major lesson I came away with after Professor Mitchell’s lecture is this: Apparently, even in light of horrific circumstances many human beings use their innate ability to create a way to keep living as those playwrights and dramatists did not so long ago…
Sources
Booktv.org
http://tinyurl.com/mqzwvde
Ohio State University
http://english.osu.edu/people/mitchell
The Black Russian
Amazon.com
http://tinyurl.com/oh2a48r
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