Why has it become fashionable for spokespeople on the Right to sneer at the word ‘Kumbaya’ with contempt? Someone started that a few years ago (likely one of the AM radio mouths) and the thoughtless all line up behind them and do the same. It seems to function as a kind of password for demonstrating political masculinity. It’s a way to say, “Let’s get real—none of this lovey-soft stuff.” It justifies the will to estrange and bomb. It is used to support rejection of immigrants, drastic deportation, punitive justice, increased military spending. The word dates to slavery in the Americas, and is a Creole take on the phrase, ‘come by you’, and was popularized in the 1920’s among white collectors of folk songs.
On the face, ‘come by you’ is a most welcoming invitation. It could be the motto for the Statue of Liberty, a subtitle for Emma Lazarus’s sonnet. Yet, its rejection is in keeping with the fearful and uninviting attitude that is infecting our culture. And, dare we say it, is there not a note of racism in this? Why has this prayer of black dialect become shorthand for weakness? I don’t see them taking similar phrases from the Bible? Why not spit on ‘amen’, or ‘alleluia’, or ‘God is Love’, or ‘hear our prayer,’ or ‘we need Thee, O Lord’? After all, don’t these mean the same as ‘come by you’? Why not ridicule anyone who uses those phrases, as well? Are they not the essence of ‘soft’? Why not, except that those words still ring in white churches.
Ring, but I don’t know if they are heard. I can think of a few more that should be heard. “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.” Or, “when I was hungry, you gave me to eat, when I was thirsty you gave me to drink, when I was naked you gave me your cloak.” Very Kumbaya.
To estrange and bomb (whether verbally, psychically, or physically) does not take courage. It is the failure to ‘come by.’ It is bolting or bailing. To not ‘come by’ is a failure of courage, a retreat. It is, in fact, running away from the true battle. It is much harder, but far worthier, to engage and not estrange, to understand, to elicit cooperation, to negotiate. To Love.