The Measure of A Man: To Sidney
Goodbye, Mr Poitier
Won Best Actor in 1963
YOU WILL CONTINUE TO LIVE ON IN AMERICAN FILM AND THE HEARTS OF THOSE YOUR PRESENCE CHANGED.
January has us in our feelings.
We're feeling sentimental in early 2022. Another Black pioneer has joined the ancestors. A real renaissance man with many talents including author, director, diplomat, and activist - he was well known globally for his acting career. The first Black superstar, he led films and paved the way for Black talent in all mediums.
We wanted to get to know this powerful figure better and do more than celebrate him from a place of fringe association.
In 2001 he won a Grammy for his audiobook "The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography". What better way to know a person than to review their writing? The way he expresses himself is smooth, calm, and almost melodic. Our favorite passage so far is:
“...A dear friend asked a very telling question. “On Cat Island,” he asked me, “when you looked into the mirror, what did you think about the color of your skin?” ... The question opened doors that helped me to understand that special place. I told him, first of all, that I had no recollection of having seen myself in the mirror at that time....So I never got a fix on my color. No reason to. With no frame of reference to evidence its necessity. There was one guy in Arthur’s Town, a doctor, who was white, and Damite Farrah, the shopkeeper, who was white. These guys were different-looking, yes. But neither represented power. Therefore, I never translated their color into that. Or control...or hostility...or oppression...or anything of that nature. They were just there, and I never wondered why they were white and the rest of the people were black. So in answer to my friend’s question, I didn’t think about the color of my skin. Not anymore than I would have bothered to wonder why the sand was white or the sky was blue. But outside the island of my early years, a world was waiting that would focus on my color to the exclusion of all else, never caring to go beyond that superficial characteristic to see what else I might have to offer.
— Chapter One, The Idyll, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography
Get the book with the link above. Sidney Poitier always seemed to come up in history class when white teachers wanted to prove that race relations had improved as African Americans were now allowed to portray themselves. Although his introduction was done in an ignorant and arrogant manner, no one could deny how badass Poitier was, how he left you frozen, holding your breath whenever he was on screen. Check out scenes from his best 5 films below.
Think about the real-world environment while he portrays these characters. Genius.
Here are two quotes that encapsulate the unshakeable meaning of Poitier to the African American psyche.
“Every man has his one heaven and for me, heaven has always been being in the movies. And always in my heaven, since I first started thinking about it, I’ve had one bright light, Sidney Poitier.
— Morgan Freeman
“He redefined the way in which we perceived ourselves and the way in which others perceived us. Sidney was a tactician, he was a diplomat. He was someone who understood you couldn’t always have everything the way you want it and that you have to sometimes horse-trade. Whatever negative roles he may have played, the people have defined as negative, you will see a laundry list of roles in which he projected this positive, interesting, formidable persona which causes people of colour to feel good about themselves. If you look at the whole body of his work in Hollywood you’ve got to come away with the fact that he was a major contributor to the redefining of who the African-American is as a human being.
— William Greaves
Rest in power.
Share with us how and when you first came across Sidney and any impact he may have had on your life.
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