{"id":119,"date":"2019-10-11T11:48:40","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T15:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/?page_id=119"},"modified":"2019-10-11T11:48:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T15:48:40","slug":"nathan-phuong-100-cotton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/nathan-phuong-100-cotton\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Phuong, “100% Cotton”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Inspired by Nathaniel Rich\u2019s February 8, 2017 New York Times Magazine article \u201cThe Preacher and the Sheriff\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

his name was Victor White, black<\/p>\n

whose great-grandmother watched fluffy white<\/p>\n

pods float by as she ached cotton<\/p>\n

from the sweaty soil of a white man\u2019s plantation. he<\/p>\n

lived in New Iberia, Louisiana, a town where<\/p>\n

‘pepper’ was ground spheres of black peppercorn adding heat<\/p>\n

to spiced crawfish gumbo, was a black man<\/p>\n

peppered with gunshot wounds and clubbed to death.<\/p>\n

the rusted railroad tracks to the north —<\/p>\n

bisecting this little town with its long history of bigotry —<\/p>\n

might as easily have been prison bars pressed flat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

his name was Victor White, but everyone called him<\/p>\n

Little Vic. as a child,<\/p>\n

he would get into trouble<\/p>\n

when his brothers misbehaved, a constant<\/p>\n

scapegoat.<\/p>\n

but he stayed in New Iberia and his<\/p>\n

newborn daughter was his little vic-<\/p>\n

tory against the black-blood blooms<\/p>\n

marring prison cell walls, the tear<\/p>\n

gas ghosting over Brown Sugar Festivals,<\/p>\n

the discrimination in all respects — without respect.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

since his arrest at the railroad crossing,<\/p>\n

Little Vic has had his hands cuffed<\/p>\n

behind him, wrists locked together<\/p>\n

between dual loops of steel. he sits in<\/p>\n

the back row of the police cruiser,<\/p>\n

the mesh divider between him<\/p>\n

and the two police officers in front<\/p>\n

rattling with the links of his handcuffs. the black-and-white<\/p>\n

guzzles off in the garage of the local patrol<\/p>\n

center. the driver slaps his hands on the steering<\/p>\n

wheel and curses under his breath.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Little Vic nervously shifts in his seat<\/p>\n

and watches the policemen slide out of the car,<\/p>\n

their gun holsters flipped casually open\u2026<\/p>\n

the police account is soon released:<\/p>\n

\u2018Victor White committed suicide\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

there were no surveillance cameras in the parking lot where Victor White died. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026using a concealed firearm that had slipped past a police pat-down\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

the camera installed in the police cruiser had been turned off. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018\u2026Mr. White fired a .25-caliber pistol, sending a bullet through his back\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

autopsy of the corpse revealed that Little Vic had been shot through the side. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in the morgue, Little Vic lies —<\/p>\n

another victim of an unseeing white<\/p>\n

oblivion. the detectives only permit the viewing of his face.<\/p>\n

his parents know him last<\/p>\n

as shattered black-<\/p>\n

and-blue cheekbones, a crushed eye but never<\/p>\n

a crushed \u2018I,\u2019<\/p>\n

dusky death daring past the creases<\/p>\n

of the morgue\u2019s bleached white sheet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And there stands Victor White Sr. he is Little<\/p>\n

Vic\u2019s father, the Reverend<\/p>\n

revered to no end<\/p>\n

by his congregation, who pulls together<\/p>\n

a petition to bring change to a corrupt police department.<\/p>\n

he gathers signatures to ensure that Little<\/p>\n

Vic won\u2019t be just a footnote in a police report, so that other<\/p>\n

black parents won\u2019t have to sort<\/p>\n

through glossed public announcements looking<\/p>\n

for answers to their worst nightmares.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the Reverend wears a simple white shirt with<\/p>\n

Little Vic\u2019s profile splayed over its front. the shirt is<\/p>\n

a sweat-soaked memorial to Little Vic<\/p>\n

and it is of the most pure<\/p>\n

cotton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inspired by Nathaniel Rich\u2019s February 8, 2017 New York Times Magazine article \u201cThe Preacher and the Sheriff\u201d his name was Victor White, black whose great-grandmother watched fluffy white pods float by as she ached cotton from the sweaty soil of a white man\u2019s plantation. he lived in New Iberia, Louisiana, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9195514,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9195514"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/butlerbridgeprogram\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}