Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

[Introduction: Tis’ the season of gratitude and festive feelings. The Christmas tree went up and our cat, Hope, is frustrated. She loves to launch herself onto the tree, balance in mid-air, and bring the tree tumbling down on the coffee table. My wife has wised up to the ways of Hope. A most practical woman, my wife has jury rigged a foundation consisting of cat litter bags around the base of the tree. Thus, far the tree remains standing. I chose well when I married, as my cousin and best man Bruce toasted back in 1991.

I chose well.

My fondest memories of Christmas are banal and unique. When I call up Christmas memory in my memory banks, the first memory I have would be of paper bags filled with walnuts, oranges and hard candies prepared by my Great Aunts Betty and Martha. We would attend Christmas Eve service up the hill at church. My sister and I suffered through a long-winded sermon from the pastor. The best part was when Aunts Betty and Martha would give us kids the paper bags filled with goodies for under the Christmas tree. My second memory is of receiving a red wagon for Christmas. I loved that red wagon! It was my best Christmas present ever. I have a theory. The less bounty received from Santa on Christmas morning, the more meaningful the few presents like a red wagon.]

As we approach the end of the year, I want to review 12 essays from the year 2024. These essays were best received by you, my readers. I wonder why? I offer my speculations as I am all about curiosity, human dignity, creative expression, the individual, and the human condition.

January 19, 2024 — 52% of Black Doctors are Nigerian Immigrants

Are Nigerian immigrants the Jewish Americans of the Black Community? And, no, the actual percentage is not 52%. 77% of Black doctors are reputed to be Nigerian immigrants. What gives, black descendants of American slavery? You’ve got to compete. Must ace Organic Chemistry. I remember pre-med black students washing out in Organic Chemistry at the University of Virginia. So many dashed dreams of medical school on the Grounds. People don’t want to talk about it but I will write about it. How does 1.69% of black people (immigrants moreover) dominate medicine in my native land? On this Christmas Eve, I am observing what I see. I don’t have answers.

I think readers appreciated this essay. It came from a genuine place. I am not an Igbo immigrant but I understand the continual striving and talent of Igbo people over generations. Igbo blood runs in my DNA.

February 10, 2024 — Pioneer Black Lawyers Season 4 Episode 10

I think readers liked the story of pioneer black lawyer John D. Webster (1841-1887) because he could not be fit into a simple box. In a time of raw racism, Webster did it his way. He lived the life of a non-conformer. In the nuance and complexity of his life we all saw the essence of humanity. To quote from the essay, “I present today an enigma, a pioneer lawyer whom I cannot figure out, who repels the very notion of a racial box. Read not about a caricature. Inhale no more stereotypes. Relax and consider the life of one John D. Webster (1841 - 1887).”

You are weary of the same old Blacks are Oppressed Nothing Else Matters song and dance. This essay spoke to your hunger for something more. Webster passed during Christmas time. Those who knew Webster paid their respects. A very large procession followed his body to his grave. “It was his fate to live life, to know victory and defeat, and to pass away remembered by those whom he touched in life.”

March 30, 2024 — The Dartmouth Scar Experiment

I have lived a good life, if not a blessed life. I don’t dwell on setbacks or horrors when I review my memories. Life blessed me for which I am grateful. In these times of dogma and slogan words, some might perceive me as fringe. I plunged deep into my repressed memories to retrieve a racial scar. I suspect readers were touched by my vulnerability.

This essay was not hard to write. It was hard to hit the “send” button. I released my racial scar into the universe and you, dear readers, accepted me, scar and all. I thank you.

April 20, 2024 — The Burbank Happening and Other Signs of Intelligent Life.

I was at my wit’s end. My idea well was bone dry. I reached out to Jen for thoughts and she came up short on me. In desperation, I just wrote life over the previous 24 hours. A simple thing. This essay is my most popular ever. Why?

Life is like water and we are fish. We allow dogma and slogan words to perceive the universe. Theories, however, are not reality. I don’t know, man. I see the world and I write it up. Don’t be afraid of what you see.

May 25, 2024 — My Niece Deserves Better

I was mad when I wrote this essay. How dare medical school administrators and bureaucrats touch a hair on the medical school dreams of my niece! I did not stop, take a breath and count to ten. I wrote sizzling frustration. Too many people are walking around with sub-par medical school training and we are supposed to be silent. Don’t question a black in public.

Rubbish! I live to question. Readers responded well.

June 21, 2024 — Who Are My People?

The popularity of this essay surprised me. Maybe, readers are so accustomed to racial silo consciousness that a writer who lives in a different world intrigues, comes across as novel. Sometimes, I feel black writers are supposed to claim all black people as their people. How odd and strange. What do I have in common with George Floyd? Huey Newton? Malcom X? An inner-city denizen? Even Nikki Giovanni for me is like a Venn Diagram. I see parts of me but not other parts of me. Love the Afro but not the ideology.

Black poor people are not my people. Family, Classmates, Non-Conformers, Creatives, the Black Harvard Law School crowd — those are my people. Other people may feel differently. Maybe, readers liked how open I was about me.

July 23, 2024 — The Crystal Ball of Reparations

Reparations for American slavery is the second worst idea in history. The worst idea was slavery itself. In what sane world would we redistribute wealth from poor white hillbillies in West Virginia to Black Old Money inheritors? How is it rational for descendants of free black slave owners to feed at the trough of reparations for slavery? It doesn’t make sense.

We have seen this movie before. Redistribution of wealth doesn’t benefit the grandchildren. I suspect readers liked my creative research and association (as well as the hilarious segment by Dave Chappell/smile).

August 15, 2024 — Race Is Beginning to Bore Me

I have a dirty little secret. Come closer and I will tell you. Closer. Come closer.

Everyone is bored with race. Jen is bored with race. Other prominent writers I know of are bored with race. Like how many ways can we write about race? I am always on the razor’s edge of pulling the plug on this essay series. It is the ultimate irony that someone who doesn’t care for race consciousness is writing about race. What a world we live in!

September 30, 2024 — Pioneer Black Lawyers in California

The success of this essay surprised me. I was so disgusted with California’s apology for slavery. There is so much rich black history in the Golden State. In fact, free blacks before and after the Civil War sought the American Dream in California. Normally, I save my pioneer black lawyer series for Black History Month but I was overcome with an impulse to show the rest of the black story in California.

I hope this essay was widely viewed due to the inspiring lives lived by the three profiled pioneer black lawyers. I fear some readers may have been drawn to racial horror and the bitter end of California’s first black lawyer. I may never know the answer.

October 19, 2024 — The Beautiful Future of Transracialism

The future is beautiful. The future is transracial. Cis racials and mono racials are like the horse and buggy. By the year 2100, it will be odd to be mono racial. Just this morning, I was talking with my son’s girlfriend. She is half Puerto Rican and half….heck if I know. And that is a beautiful thing.

More power to ambiguous people! Readers saw into my vision of a better time and they felt heartened.

November 29, 2024 — The Vice-President is a Drunk

I have never been so embarrassed for our country. On the most important day of his life, the Vice-President was roaring drunk. My Lord! We did not dodge this bullet. Thanks for nothing, John Wilkes Booth.

December 12, 2024 — People Love Oppressed Blacks

I loved this essay! It is one of my personal favorites. Novelist Dara Horn has this brilliant idea people love dead Jews. This love haunts the Jewish present. I immediately perceived that one could swap out the word “dead” for “oppressed” and “Jews” for “Blacks.” The public discourse makes more sense to me as we overlay Horn’s frame work onto American Blackness.

My readers must agree. I urge writers, scholars and intellectuals to explore this idea. Write a black counterpart to Horn’s People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. That would be a great start. Otherwise, absent new original and novel ideas, race will continue to bore all of us.

Conclusion: I have enjoyed this year of writing. Together, we have explored the human condition nearly every day. Your comments and feedback have been treasured and appreciated. You all have seen life through me. No dogma. No slogan words. Just a small-town kid who found himself in San Diego near the end of life. I have grown as a writer while remaining true to my values in life — human dignity, creative expression, the individual.

I hope we all have grown together over the year.

All I ask of you is the following. Have a Merry Christmas! May A Happy Hanukkah be Yours! And if the year 2025 brings into the world more reality, love and peace, then our faith in the coming of a better time will be affirmed. Beyond disharmony lies the blessings of harmony.

Good morning!