THE E MAG
Treve de blues
Leon Damas
Compassion is my art
Grace A. Ali
God makes stars. It's up to producers to find them
Samuel Goldwyn
INTERVIEW WITH TODD WILLIAMS.
While in Budapest (February 2013) I met Todd Williams. What a wonderful person. I felt we had known each other for years. This guy will keep you laughing for days. He will also make you think. No way I wasn't going to stay in touch with him once I returned to the US. What follows is a short interview.
Where were you when
Obama was elected president the first time? What was the mood in
Hungary?
I was
in Hungary, Budapest to be exact, when Obama was first elected. I
remember at the time that one of my colleagues gave me a flier urging
me to vote for Obama. It seemed as if it was a kind of proxy vote for
her, meaning since she couldn't vote for Obama directly, she could
somehow feel as if she voted for him if she could get a friend
who was American to vote for him. I think, overall, there was a sense
of hope, a sense of change. The people that I know in Hungary wanted
to get rid of Bush as much as I did. In fact, I would say the mood
was quite similar to that of the United States. One thing you have to
remember is that Europeans are aware of the politics in the United
States. Unlike American media, European media overall covers other
countries, including the United States. But another thing that must
be kept in mind is that the United States exports its culture; it
exports its stories, its history, its current affairs. People in
Europe watch a great number of American movies and TV series and
often, they know the cultural aspects of America just as any American
would. People know New York through Woody Allen movies and Friends
just like people in California who've never been to New York. And I
think this is the reason that people were so caught up in the
election; they had lived through the eight years of Bush just as
Americans had.
But
that's just one side. On another side, there was the clear
understanding that with the election of Bush, America had taken a
turn for the worst. Since people in Europe consume American culture
in the same way that Americans do, they also pick up the beliefs that
are propagated throughout American media. The belief that the United
States is a true democracy, the belief that America is "free",
the belief that Americans, as a people, are inherently decent and
good. This is coupled with the understandable expectation that
politicians, statesmen, have some sort of qualification, i.e., are
intelligent enough, to be the head of state. I think Europeans felt
that Bush violated these expectations in every way imaginable. In
particular, Europeans were rather suspect of Bush's intelligence.
After the regime change in Hungary in 1989-1990, the first prime
minister was a history professor which is a far cry from Bush in
their eyes. It appears as if Europeans believed the story that
America was the light of the world and with the coming of Bush, that
light had dimmed. I think what Europeans wanted to see in Obama was a
return to civilized, reasonable government in the United States.
And,
after the election, it took a while for Europeans, and here I'm
talking about Hungary but I presume there was a similar mood in the
rest of Europe, to get over the euphoria and recognize the
shortcomings of Obama. Here, like in the United States, people simply
didn't want to stop believing. Nobody wants to believe that the
shining light of the world is going out so they hold on tightly to
the image. In 2012, there was no such euphoria and I think people are
much shrewder in their critique of Obama now. On a personal note, I
had very little illusions about Obama since I had had a tipoff that
some of the financial people from Bush's administration would stay in
Obama's administration. It was fairly obvious that Obama was not
going to represent the change that everyone expected.
Does the concept of
being post-racial make any sense to you as a black man living in
Hungary?
I had
to look up what "post-racial" meant, and when I did, I had
to chuckle. It's obviously ludicrous to suggest that with the
election of Obama, race as an issue in the United States has
disappeared. Individuals who were racist before Obama was elected
weren't going to suddenly stop being racist after he was elected. But
perhaps that's not what is meant by "post-racial". Perhaps
what is meant is that, because a black man was elected president,
then the racial barriers, at least in institutions, that had
previously hindered African Americans (and presumably Latinos, Asians
and Native Americans as well), had come down. So, presumably,
"post-racial" means that opportunities that were previously
unavailable to minorities in the United States are now available.
Again, it's ludicrous to suggest this. And I think everybody knows
it. Whoever suggested it, although I was unable to find the exact
reference of the article that started the whole thing in 2008,
succeeding in being a hot potato issue for a hot minute. Nothing
more, because people know the reality. In fact, I can't even believe
people gave this issue any traction at all.
I
didn't feel a sense of post-racial when I recently had to go to the
American Embassy in Budapest to have a notary sign a document. While
there, I felt an overwhelming sense of being in the “Land of the
Watched” rather than the “Land of the Free.” And I don't know
where this feeling came from, that's the strange part. Perhaps it was
the tank barriers and the high and heavily-guarded perimeter that is
set up around the embassy building that made me feel uneasy. Or maybe
it was the fact that the guards directed me towards the line for
those seeking visas rather than towards the Services for Citizens
line. I can't help wondering why those guards didn't think I was
American (though of course I know). Or perhaps it's the knowledge of
how we always say one thing and mean another in the States, that kind
of double speak we have, and being in that heavily-fortified building
trying to have a harmless service done simply brought that feeling to
the fore. I don't know, but as I sat there talking to a Hungarian
woman who had decided to come back to Hungary after having lived in
North Carolina for 7 odd years, I wanted to exercise my right to
freedom of speech – and found I couldn't. I just felt like I was
being watched and that, if I were to say anything untoward, they'd
(who, exactly?) haul me in. When I had to raise my right hand and
swear, I asked the vice-consul/notary (as I wondered if he thought
his job was crappy having to be reduced to being a notary) where the
Bible was. He said that's only in the movies. Perhaps I have watched
too many movies.
So,
does the concept of being post-racial make any sense to me as a black
man living in Hungary? No. “Post-racial” is an exclusively
American concept that simply wouldn't apply in Europe (I doubt even
in Britain), or anywhere else for that matter. One can see simply by
observation that racism and discrimination vary across the world;
these issues manifest themselves differently in different contexts
and historical backgrounds. Enslaved Africans did not have a large
presence in continental Europe; most of Europe's slaves were in the
colonies. Because of this, most of the nonwhite population who came
to Europe came after World War II (when colonies worldwide began to
be independent) and were immigrants in some form (including
refugees). Hence, racism against peoples of African descent takes on
a different form in Europe as a whole, and in Hungary in particular.
The black population of Hungary is rather small and so widespread
discrimination of blacks, as it's understood in the United States, is
really a nonstarter since there aren't very many people of African
descent in Hungary. I would say the concerns of people of African
descent in Hungary are more about immigration policies than they are
about institutional biases. I'm not saying that immigration policies
are not influenced by racist notions; I'm just saying the source is
different and, therefore, the context is different.
What do you like about
Budapest?
I
like many things about Budapest, but one of the things I like the
best about Budapest is the sense of freedom. And by freedom, I don't
mean the abstract concept of "freedom" that exists in the
United States; I mean freedom from the barrage of fear-mongering
newscasts; freedom from the barrage of ads urging me to buy, buy,
buy; freedom from the blanket of fear that seems to cover everything
in the United States; freedom to walk down the street with a beer in
my hand and not in a brown paper bag; freedom from waiters who drop
the bill on the table before you're done eating and then tell you
"oh, don't worry about it" when both you and they know you
should worry about it; freedom from dependence on cars; freedom from
crappy French's mustard.
I
also like the sense of community in Budapest. The center of the city
is rather small so walking is not a problem. There are also a great
number of public spaces for people to meet and mingle. This is
something I miss when I go back to the United States. Here in
Budapest, any time I walk anywhere I run into someone I know and
often we sit down and have a coffee or a beer, catch up on old times.
Metros, trams, trolley buses, buses, reasonable taxi prices, get
anywhere easily and cheaply without a car. I love this. 24-hour
nonstop grocery stores that are walkable; artisans (cobblers (have
you ever used this word in a real context?), seamstresses, tailors,
leather workers, metal workers, and the list goes on) in every
neighborhood; art spaces and art collectives everywhere for artists
to exhibit without the need for sponsorship; it's very much about the
community in Budapest.
Bio Note: Todd Williams is an African-American living in Budapest. For the past 21
years, he has provided entertainment in some form or other to the
people of Budapest and the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. When you ask him
what he does, he says, "I live and learn."
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