Toni Morrison (1931 - 2019) In 2019 the living earth lost a giant. Toni Morrison died . The week she died I had just watched the new documentary about her life The Pieces I Am (2019). It is an artful, art-filled documentary, complemented by artist works, from Mickalene Thomas to Hank Willis Thomas to Jacob Lawrence. Mickalene Thomas did the opening credits. Please check it out. In the film, at one point, Morrison starts to talk about the use of the idiom of the “American Melting Pot.” Morrison makes a gesture with her hands as if to caress the vessel, adding that “Black people are the pot.” Well, at least that's the way I remembered it right after the film. Morrison further amplifies and qualifies the idea, adding that it is how everyone else relates to African-Americans by which being American is truly defined. It felt like a light going on; not unlike the first time I heard that the melting pot metaphor itself is in fact a concept used to suppress labor: namely, if you do