This intertwining of oppressor and the oppressed is the tangle that we call “nation.” And no matter how much we try to separate ourselves, we can't. We are inherently connected, bonded not out of sentimentality but rather, of consequential fact.
How else would the so-called “founding fathers” have stood up to revel in the glory of that title without the Black people they enslaved? And yet, the unnamed often remain unheard even while living in the mouth of an enslaver whose image has been immortalized in monuments and currency.
The power of naming is indeed real and it appears that many formerly enslaved people understood this when selecting their last name before, during and after Emancipation. Some chose their surnames based on their last master, others chose popular names that were associated with legitimacy and existing social capital. No matter the reasoning behind selecting the last name, “Washington” has become “the Blackest name in America” with over 90% of those with that last name being of African descent.
It was actually quite a power move. By taking on the literal name of THE master in the eyes of white America—the often glorified founding father and first U.S. president—the formerly enslaved Black people set the stage for embracing their own future influence. It was a kind of symbolic reclaiming that came from having their own identities stripped away and beaten out. So, when given the opportunity to decide whose name they were to pass on to their descendants, they both knowingly and perhaps unknowingly, made a cause to position themselves as important from a societal standpoint after enduring the demeaning atrocity of American slavery.
Another layer to this is the idea of who came first in the history of humanity. Who we call “founder” is loosely based on a mistaken idea that our civilization began with a white man and a white woman—in the case of our nation, it is George and Martha Washington and in the case of Western religious history, it is the idea of a white male Adam and a white female Eve. However, we know that scientific evidence shows the origin of human civilization, the original founders so to speak, came from Africa.
It's poetic justice, in a sense. The complicated relationship we have with one another in this nation is expressed vividly through the myths and facts surrounding Washington–the myth of George chopping down the cherry tree, the myth of his wooden teeth and the reality of him enslaving Black people while serving as the head of this nation. I saw all three of these components as connected and so, tied them together in my poem. It is about deconstructing the false narratives of our roots, especially those that have festered and rot, and now give space to grow a true understanding of how we all got here.
Washington is the Blackest Name in America
We like to believe
our father’s teeth
are made from trees,
although in reality,
what he held in his mouth
were the bones of those giants
from the Motherland–
This is the real wood
he chopped down on purpose,
with each bite
feeding himself
brown limbs
that eventually
bear fruit and blossom.
