An Honest Book Review of Brandon Peele’s Bison Medicine
With Brandon Peele’s, Bison Medicine, he has done what no White American Man has done before–considered an American future that starts with all of us. Notice that I said “starts”. That is because I do not believe that the American experiment has ever really begun. I agree with Dr. Vincent Harding who said, “I am a citizen of a country that does not yet exist.” With this work, Brandon is inviting us to start creating that country.
I am fortunate in that I had the opportunity to be a part of the community that contributed to this book’s unfolding. Brandon didn’t just sit in a room like some mad scientist creating a solitary vision of what he thought this country should look like. He included other people who are here on this land mass trying to make it a home. This book is very literally an inclusive community in book form. The book was born of a process of studying, learning, doing inner work, reflecting, having conversations, and being in wonder–everything that you would want in a founding document for a country which is home for a People who also do not yet exist.
Whenever I watch the news and I hear some politician saying what “The American People” want, I know that this person does not have a clue what they are talking about because there is no American People. There are Peoples living on this land mass that was mistakenly called America being named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who realized that the lands connected to the place Christopher Columbus bumped into were a separate continent from Asia and not part of India as he initially believed. It was a German mapmaker, Martin Waldseemüller, who—not knowing what to call the the territory—stuck Vespucci’s first name on it. And just like this land that was “discovered” by mistake and named by mistake, American wannabes have been constantly making relational mistakes throughout history while different Peoples get caught in the crosshairs. What Brandon’s book offers is a treatise on considering what this place could be if we learned from our mistakes. And this is why I titled this review, “The Best American White Man Ever, Maybe the First”.
Now, because I think it may serve one or two of you if I qualify this statement, let me share the inspiration for the title.
When I was younger, I used to take some cash and donate it directly to homeless people if they would tell me a story. A story that a man told me one morning while I was walking on the waterfront in my hometown, was how he came to be homeless. His story was simple and direct and was summed up in these words, “I tried to be a Black Man in America.” When I asked him what he meant by this, he explained that America is not a real place.
As Joe Biden actually said a time or two, “America is an idea”—an idea that gets expressed in a place. What this man said essentially was that, because being a fully realized Black man with a singular consciousness was never part of the idea of America, the same people who killed Malcolm, Martin, and Medgar destroyed him because he was on target to be the first self-realized Black man of singular consciousness born here. He went on to say that Medgar Evers almost made it. But of course, he was killed too soon. And when I asked about Malcolm and Martin, he said they got close but were also pruned. And he added that while they may have made it to being fully formed self realized Black Men of singular consciousness had they not been killed, they had more work to do because Malcolm hadn’t finished metabolizing his rage and Martin hadn’t finished metabolizing his hope. And both are a detriment to self realization and singular consciousness.
I said all that to say that, just as there may not yet have been a self realized Black man of singular consciousness born in America, I doubt that there has been a self realized White man of singular consciousness born in America either. But, I think Brandon Peele is the best candidate so far. To get a sense of why I am saying this, you would have to read this book as well as Purpose.Work.Nation.. But, even then, you would have to come to these works willing to go to the dark places. Because, at the end of the day, TRUTH IS UNCOMPROMISING. It does not care about your feelings, your agendas, or your egoic constructs that you try to maintain at all costs. In order to face TRUTH, you have to be willing to have every lie that you justify utterly annihilated—made to nothing—and then trust that the very same TRUTH that annihilated your illusions will put you back together again. I don’t know anyone who has been willing to do that. But, to write what Brandon has written, he has to have gotten pretty damn close.
The American idea that Brandon is inviting us to consider has the superordinate quality born of the awareness that if an American People will ever exist, it will have to be a “People of Peoples (My words, not his.)” But, you can tell that Brandon is aware of this because he acknowledges the myths, symbols, and identity forming narratives that have prevented us us from getting there. And he is doing so from the social position where—in theory at least—he would have to give something up. No one does this unless, they have come in contact with something greater.
Buckminster Fuller said,
“People never leave a sinking ship until they see the lights of another ship approaching.”
The old idea of America is a sinking ship that far too many of us are afraid to leave. The conversation that Brandon has started with Bison Medicine is an indication that the lights of other ships are approaching. The question you will have to ask yourself is will you drown with this old idea as so many people have committed to do or will you abandon ship and swim toward the lights?
Note: If you have a hard time with what I wrote, let me remind you that I use words to point to what words can’t express. And if you’re questioning whether you should even be here, please read Dear Person, Who I Am Not Talking To. It would be great if you vibe with this space and get something out what I am creating. But, I get it if this isn’t your jam.
Want to meet up? I am hosting a Zoom call, tomorrow February 19, 2025 at 2PM MT. I would love to see you there.
Also Check Out History is Not a Competition
See below for one of the conversations that Brandon and I had as part of the creation of this book.
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