HARRIET – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

We’re so used to our historical figures, our Great Men, requiring a bit of grading-on-a-curve. “Oh, we must forgive So-and-So for that aspect of his life and work, times were different then.” “No, we must not judge Whatshisname by today’s understanding of morality, that’s simply the way things were back in the day.” And yet we still continue to celebrate them and insist upon their importance and mythologize their words and deeds.

Meanwhile, one of the great true heroes of American history — someone who needs no justifying or qualifying — has been all but ignored by pop culture, and hence all but left out of the collective American imagination. Perhaps because what she fought for is a grand cause — the physical and existential battle for autonomy, agency, and basic humanity of African-Americans — that is not yet fully won. Perhaps the fact that everything that Harriet Tubman stood for and continues to symbolize still resonates on so many levels today is — for some, for our cultural gatekeepers — too harsh a reminder that the ugly past is not yet past. (All the more reason to honor her and remember her, you’d think. The inspiration she offers continues to be very necessary.) Continue reading…