CULTURAL TREASON

“A heavy and cruel hand has been laid upon us.”- Frederick Douglas

     One thing that is very surprising in my investigation into the African American branch is how they (we?) avoided bone crushing poverty, and the “heavy and cruel hand,” of mass incarceration very early on in their histories; and continued to do so, well into the 20th century. Technical freedom from slavery in New York State was legislated in 1827, but freedom’s results were not always piquant, or predictable, for those emerging from centuries of enslavement. 

    Ten years after Charles Osterhout was elected as the representative of Hudson, at Austin Steward’s convention of Colored Inhabitants in Albany, David Osterhout moved from New Baltimore, New York, joining the Egberts and VanDerZees in Lenox, Mass.   He married Josephine Brister Egbert, and had three children: David, Jr., Estelle and Mattie. Josephine brought along her one daughter, Susan, from her previous marriage. This was James VanDerZee’s mother Susan VanDerZee, not a blood relation to the Osterhouts, but family nonetheless. 

    In Lenox, all three families catered to the wants and whims of the white, ultra-rich, during the so-called “Cottage Era” of the Gilded Age, by establishing a thriving service industry as laundresses, chauffeurs, and bakers. James VanDerZee, was raised parallel to this rarefied environment of extreme white privilege and would use it to his advantage. James moved to Harlem in the early 20th century, worked for the black revolutionary Marcus Garvey as his staff photographer and prospered as a studio portrait photographer and chronicler of the Harlem scene. As an artist, his work is world renown. I remind you once again, that my white great-grandfather Andrew Osterhout was an illiterate farm hand who died in poverty, my grandparents worked menial jobs, as have I many times. In comparison, the black branch looks like the fucking Kennedys.

    One of the more fun menial jobs I had was as a doorman at Max. Fish, a bar on New York’s Lower East Side. I bussed tables and tried to keep the patrons from walking out with their drinks. It wasn’t too difficult. My old friend Carlo “Chuck” McCormick and I shared the bussing duties, while he was more adept at chatting up the celebs, who sometimes frequented the place. One time Larry “Ratso" Sloman came in and pulled Carlo away to see who he had seated in his van parked out on Ludlow Street. I manned the door while Carlo went out to see the surprise. For some reason I got distracted and never asked who Ratso had out in the van until closing. As we cleaned up, I asked who the surprise guest was? Chuck rolled his eyes and told me, “Bob Dylan.” adding, “I wasn’t impressed. I hate Dylan’s music.” 

    Another time a bunch of us were smoking a joint just outside the bar when a skinny, ragged looking dude limped up and sat in the doorway, as we puffed away, never offering the sketchy cat a pull. I caught his eye and he smiled. He looked familiar, but I still didn’t offer him a toke. Finally he walked away, dragging a weak leg behind.

    About fifteen minutes later the filmmaker Jim Jarmusch showed up and asked if we’d seen Iggy? James Newell Osterberg aka Iggy Pop had been sitting on the stoop for half an hour, as we rudely ignored the man. Cultural Treason is Iggy’s term. I heard him say it in regard to corporate America’s abandonment of the arts in the 1960’s; in the Jim Jarmusch movie, Gimme Danger. I’m a big fan of Jim, and both Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan! I apologize for not recognizing the great rock and roller. And as far as Dylan goes, I’ll never forgive Ratso for not taking me out to his van, instead of Carlo. Carlo doesn’t know shit.   

     

Let me address any Osterhout or Jennings children (black or white) reading this, or as I’ve suggested to many in the family, having it read to them as they drift off to sleep: 

    You have been fed a bill of goods by the American education, media, and political systems; and even your own family wishes you to claim your heritage as proud heroes of empire, worthy of your daily pledges of allegiance, and monthly ancestry.com subscriptions, they mean well, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Your ancestors were greedy, butchering, arrogant, thieves. Even the clergy wielded their doctorates of divinity like weapons, viewing conversion and “civilization” as the only viable option open to First Nations. Remember, wherever you read “purchased” or “uncontrollable” in this jingoistic, “official” history, it means stolen and rebellious. We were the alien invaders; gun toting, bible thumping martians, and it was way too late to go back to the mothership. We Osterhouts and Jennings were murderous, miserly, weak, wanton, lazy, one-eyed, and just plain mean. Your inheritance is unchecked industrialization, de-regulation, climate change and global capitalism, that threatens to destroy the planet. But hey, it’s not like we are alone. Nighty-night. xx