May 28, 2015
Leonce Gaiter is the guest on
this installment of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show.
Leonce is the author of I
Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck
Gang.
He is a straight shooter and a real talker.
This is a great and honest conversation where Chauncey and Leonce
have a real salon. There is no agenda or prepared set of questions
in the conversation between Leonce and Chauncey: this is
spontaneous, honest, and direct truth-telling without a
filter.
We call this "grown folks talk".
The Chauncey DeVega Show has
had some generous guests, and amazing moments of learning. This
episode is one for the books.
In this episode, Leonce and Chauncey discuss notions of black male
honor, revenge, and self-respect. What does it mean to be black,
male, and brave? Why is American society afraid of black folks who
claim their honor and self-respect?
How do movies that are revenge fantasies like
Tarantino's Django, and
commercial hip-hop, fit into America's collective imagination,
anxiety, and fear about black manhood, respectability, and
honor?
How do people of color navigate elite white spaces such as Harvard
University, and what does that teach us about the color line? Why
does black male self-respect and honor scare so many white
folks?
Leonce also shares some great insights about writing, race, and the
Old West.
Chauncey does some sharing in this episode about Memorial Day,
Confederate white trash, thug cops, the Waco outlaw motorcycle riot
and shooting, Barack Obama, and his recipe for frying pork
chops.