#I think I did good with Effa

[princessserenity14]

[medea10]

My Review of Ascendance of a Bookworm

Okay, time to hit up another isekai. After watching a heart-wrenching anime like 86, I need something light-hearted to watch. No…I’m not reviewing 86. Sorry. Okay, let’s get to it!

This is Myne. But not really! You see, Myne was once a librarian named Urano Motosu with a love for reading books. But an earthquake struck and she was crushed by a mountain of books. With her last breath, she wished she could be reincarnated again and read more books with her new life. Now she is reborn in a frail five-year old named Myne. Myne is in a new world, new time, and with a new family. Only thing is, she cannot obtain a single book. Books are hard to come by, especially if you aren’t a noble. And in Myne’s case, she’s at peasant level. Even materials for writing are hard to obtain.

Before one can walk, one must crawl. Myne will go through a lot in order to preserve stories on the printed page. Will this bookworm survive without reading?

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: This one strictly belonged to Crunchyroll and the dub was filled with a lot of people I don’t think I ever heard from before this. So, hearing many of these folks is kinda a new experience for me since I decided to watch the entire thing dubbed. My experience with it was okay until I hit season three. I felt a little thrown off with the pronunciation of one of the characters. Myne’s mother Effa. We clearly hear her name being pronounced as “Eva” in the first 2 seasons. Now all of a sudden, they’re changing her name’s pronunciation. Okay, sure. Why not?! Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Myne is played by Yuka Iguchi (known for Crusch on Re:Zero, Tsukihi on Monogatari, Mine on Fruits Basket 2019, Mea on To Love Ru, Yuu on Sakura Trick, and Index on Railgun/Index)

*Lutz is played by Mutsumi Tamura (known for Kobayashi on Miss Kobayashi, Kanamori on Eizouken, Ermes on Jojo’s Pt. 6, Young Jintan on Anohana, and Young Ali Baba on Magi)

*Ferdinand is played by Show Hayami (known for Juan on Pokemon AG, Aizen on Bleach, Wolfwood on Trigun, Azami on Food Wars, Gakuhou on Assassination Classroom, and Ichiya on Fairy Tail)

ENGLISH CAST: *Myne is played by Reba Buhr (known for Nikaido on Dorohedoro, Cattleya on Violet Evergarden, Aoi on Demon Slayer, and LLENN on SAO: GGO)

*Lutz is played by Jeannie Tirado (known for Norman on The Promised Neverland, Riko on Love Live Sunshine, Fana on Black Clover, Kanae on Tokyo Ghoul :re, and Zera on Fairy Tail)

*Ferdinand is played by Armen Taylor

DISLIKED CHARACTER: I think it goes without saying that I hate that high priest with a holy passion. After his unsavory debut in the first season, I wished he could have died from his injuries when Myne’s mana went haywire. Sadly, he’s still around. And whenever he shows up, nothing good can come from it. He’s the reason why Myne wound up with disrespectful retainers when she started her apprenticeship at the church. I know the high priest is the go-to punching bag for most people. I am inclined to agree. It’s mostly a bias I have against certain individuals that claim to be a servant to the lord and do shady-ass shit. Yeah, he’s right up there with the Catholic Church, Mike Pence, and Judge Claude Frollo. He’s that bad!

I would have let certain things slide in season two like giving Myne unruly retainers or petty vandalism in the library. But then season three happened and there’s just no forgiveness for what this fat fuck did. I’m just happy he’s finally going to get some much-needed comeuppance.

SHIPPING: Myne x Lutz.

*sigh* I know it’ll never happen for many, many spoilery reasons. And I know it wasn’t canon or official or anything like that. I just want to enjoy their moments in season one and somehow ignore what happens at the end of season three.

AN ANNOYANCE: At the end of each episode, there’s like a chibi/4-panel style short that airs. I wouldn’t call it a preview for the next episode as there is never any mention of what happens next. It’s just random fluff. That doesn’t bother me all that much. Yes, I realize the first season had Ferdinand shown in those moments and we were never properly introduced to this character until like 10 episodes in. What bothered me the most came during the third season. There was one of these segments where Gunther and Myne were talking and he brings up that Myne’s mother had several miscarriages prior to having Tuuli and Myne. Okay, I feel like this sort of thing could have been said during the episode and not put in the passing fancy with the end of the episode LOL fluff. That’s my take on that matter.

END OF SEASON ONE: Throughout this season, Myne has been creating certain items and catching the eye of several key people. Semi-nobles like Frieda and her family have caught wind of Myne’s hair accessories. And a gentleman by the name of Mr. Benno decides to give Myne a chance with items she creates (for the right price). Unfortunately, there’s only so much Myne can do in so much time. Myne has been sick from day one and when really sick, she’ll spend days or even weeks in bed. Mr. Benno seems to think that she has mana (that is only reserved for nobles) and it’s eating her from the inside until she dies. It’s called “the devouring”. Meanwhile, Lutz has been becoming suspicious of Myne. It’s been bugging him for quite a while, but he finally confronted her. Without letting him know about her past life, she does reveal to him that she’s not really Myne and was only Myne for over a year now. Thankfully, Lutz accepted this fact and continues to help Myne pursue her dream and current ambitions.

Myne has been revolutionizing the world she’s living in with products she was able to easily make like hair shampoo, cute hair accessories, and even sweet treats. She did sell those invention ideas, but was able to keep some for her own. On top of which, she’s inching closer and closer to getting her paper goods to be successful. It’s just that her sickness (the devouring) is getting worse and worse. Her friend Frieda was able to suppress one of her attacks one night with the use of a magical item. It’s temporary, but it helped prevent something tragic from happening this time. There’s no guarantee for next time though.

With the way things are, Myne only has one year at most to live. It was a lucky break that Myne was able to get an item because her friend is semi-royal. Unfortunately, all Frieda gets are knock-offs because she isn’t really a noble. But that can all change once her coming of age ceremony comes and becomes a concubine for a noble. Myne’s coming of age ceremony is coming up and being married off to a noble might be her one solution to surviving the devouring. For now, Myne just wants to stay with her parents and if there’s time, set up her paper-making studio with Lutz and Mr. Benno.

The day finally came for Myne to have her coming of age ceremony. At the church, Myne got intrigued by all of the ancient books, scrolls, etc. We also meet Ferdinand outside of the preview setting. He is the head priest of this church. Myne was ready to jump ship and join the church just because they had many books. Let’s just say nearly everyone in Myne’s inner circle objected to that tenfold. Her employer Mr. Benno hates to lose Myne to anyone, especially to the church. And Myne’s parents worry that being in the church can be detrimental to her health since she couldn’t live at home anymore and won’t get a steady income since only nobles in blue robes obtain that and everyone else is just a gray orphan.

Things get a little more complicated when the church learned of Myne’s devouring disease and wanted her even more. Myne is full of overflowing mana and this is something the church wants. This could work to Myne’s advantage if she gets the church to agree to her own terms. Mr. Benno told her to prioritize letting her continue with her studio works, live with her parents, and help with her health. Meeting the high priest of the church went really bad. He didn’t like the fact that Myne’s parents were not of nobility and threatened to take Myne from them by force. This led to Myne’s father beating up church guards. And then Myne went demon-possessed on them all!

Throughout this season, there were moments when Myne’s eyes would go rainbow and has this anger aura surrounding her. This would usually occur when she would get really upset or angry, like in the early episodes and she would try to make clay tablets and they got destroyed. This of course is because of the devouring. Her mana is overflowing and controlling her body. This time, this power affected the high priest by almost killing him. Ferdinand helped calm Myne down and de-escalated the situation that just went down. He agreed to all of Myne’s terms and agreements. In return, Myne will become an apprentice priestess at the cathedral. She will dawn the blue robes meant only for nobles and when she’s not doing that, she will continue to help Mr. Benno. And best of all, she could stay with her family.

Ferdinand will be there quite a bit to keep Myne in check at every moment. Especially, when she gets angry and her mana goes berserk. Because if she harms any higher-up like when she attacked the high priest, dire consequences will be passed down to Myne. But that’ll be a matter for another section of this review.

SIDE STORY: There were two short stories that were aired a month before the second season’s debut. One story was revolved around one of Ferdinand’s men from the church to spy and learn about Myne from the townspeople. The other was Myne, her sister Tulli and mother Eva visiting the fabric maker Corinna.

SEASON TWO: Myne is officially an apprentice priestess. Unfortunately, things in the church might serve to be difficult for her. The high priest has it out for her and is willing to make her life a living hell. This includes giving her retainers (Delia and Gil) that give her nothing but grief. Not just him, but everyone (excluding Ferdinand) hating on Myne because she’s not a noble, but is wearing noble clothing. Let’s just say they’re not fond that a little girl like her got to surpass many of them.

On the positive, part of her job is to read over the royal scripture. A book is a book, I guess. At least Myne made it to a point where she got her hands on the printed word, no matter what it is. Myne does get the idea to make children books during this season. Because her mother is going to have a baby in the coming months, Myne wanted to make children books with the paper goods she’s been making.

END OF SEASON TWO: Myne has to step up her game at the church to prove that she is truly worthy to wear the blue robes despite being a peasant. For starters, she has to prepare for some upcoming events that’ll require her attendance and assistance. Unfortunately, that means Myne will have to stay at the church during the duration of the winter season. That does cause a bit of a hiccup as Myne’s father is fully against it and Myne kinda wanted to stay at home a little more to help out her pregnant mother.

Myne ends up assisting Ferdinand with a mission against some out of control trombe. As demonstrated in earlier episodes, trombe can be dangerous if not controlled and cut down. Such a dangerous entity, but useful in Myne’s mission to making paper goods. This trombe however caused more trouble than normal for Myne. This time it wasn’t her fault in a sense. One of the guards Ferdinand assigned to keep Myne safe was a real shit-head and put Myne’s life in danger and lied about it. This guy put the fact that Myne’s a peasant over Ferdinand’s order. Yeah, he’s in trouble. And then Myne showed him up with the amount of mana she possesses for someone like her. After all of that, we kind of get this scene that I wondered about since I started this series.

This scene was the very first scene from the first episode of the series. Myne with something on her head and Ferdinand going to find out things once and for all. And that’s exactly it, they’re linking minds with magical items so that Ferdinand can lay his worries and fears about Myne to rest. Ferdinand got a first-hand look at what a library looks like in modern-day Japan. Myne got to see her old adult self before she died. And also, Myne almost had a breakdown after seeing her mother and wanting to say goodbye but never got the chance. That scene was pretty rough to watch, along with her hugging Ferdinand. That’s why Myne decides now to say how thankful she is for this family. Gunther, Eva, and Tuuli aren’t the family she knew back before Myne came to this world, but she’s happy for them.

Oh, and we get a scene of Ferdinand and Karstedt discussing Myne and planning to have her be adopted by a noble. Okay, that’ll be a story for season three.

SEASON THREE: Things take a bit of a violent turn in the first episode. In the previous season, Myne was seen asking about alternate inks for the book she wanted to make. The ink guild saw the book and got serious. They came to Benno’s shop and were very scary. And then, these ruffians assaulted Lutz in the street. It is now best that Myne have her winter stay at the church happen now. Meanwhile, it looks as though one of her own retainers can’t be trusted…AGAIN! It’s Delia. Of course, it’s Delia. Gil’s on Team Myne and its going to stay that way. Delia on the other hand is an informant for the high priest.

Myne’s life is about to get a little worrisome. Ferdinand told her that he thinks that Karstedt should adopt her and it was met with harsh rejection from Myne. Ferdinand decided it is best that at age 10 she be adopted by a noble. And at that age if she isn’t under the care of a noble, she will be at risk due to her amount of mana and everything she’s done up to this point.

ENDING: This season we’ve seen the good and the bad. I’ll start with the good. The book that Myne came up with was finally done. She had a lot of help from her retainers, the children from the orphanage, and other allies in the church. Myne was able to spend some quality time with her family as this may be the last years she can be with them. Along with that, the birth of her baby brother Kamil was worth celebrating. But then we delve into the seriousness here when an orphaned baby comes to the church and has the devouring disease like Myne, things take quite the turn for the worst. The high priest is at it again really causing trouble for Myne and just being an all-around fat dick. The high priest invited a noble man to take the baby and use him as a servant. Then, force Myne into a contract.

This plan led to Myne almost being kidnapped, Tulli almost being killed, Delia being deceived, Gunther and Fran injured, and an all-around magic showdown at the church. Myne went into berserk mode when her friends and father were injured by the high priest and this dick-head noble that wants to use Myne’s mana for his selfish wants. It wasn’t until Ferdinand came in the room that things settled. Unfortunately, Myne assaulted the high priest and a noble. They overlooked that crime at the end of season one when her mana caused her to go berserk. This time, Myne, Gunther, Fran, and the rest were to receive punishment for this. But a twist arose.

During this season, Myne met a man named Sylvester. He’s a bit eccentric and can be a bit of a headache. But he gave Myne a charm to form a blood seal if she were to come into trouble. What she didn’t know was that this blood seal was to form a contract with Sylvester. This means instead of being adopted by Karstedt in two years, Myne is to be adopted by Sylvester right now. If this happens, Myne and everyone else will avoid punishment because her status as Sylvester’s daughter will surpass that of the high priest and dick-head noble. Myne agrees. Add to the surprises, Sylvester is the lord of the land, the nephew to the high priest, and half-brother to Ferdinand. Sylvester laid down some much-needed punishment here as that shady noble was to be incarcerated and the high priest got the death sentence for harming Myne.

Sylvester made it official, but with some unfortunate terms. Myne is to be adopted by Sylvester. She will be a noble officially. However, she is to give up her name and her family. She will no longer be known as Myne and the commoner known as Myne will be legally dead. She may never again be with her father, mother, sister, and brother again. If they were to see Myne, they must treat her like a noble and not like a part of the family. Myne’s company and work will continue as paper goods and books are necessary. Myne will now and forever be known as Rozemyne. Rozemyne swears that she will protect those she loves and gives them a special blessing before bidding them goodbye.

This is the end of Myne’s tale as you see with her tombstone. But Rozemyne’s story is just beginning.

We just don’t know because nothing has been green-lit as of yet. But we got a “To Be Continued” at the end. That’s hopeful!

Oh, I loved this anime. I think this was one of my favorite Isekais to come as of recent. Probably up there with Mushoku Tensei and Re:Zero.

I’m going to go off a bit on something I was pondering about for a long time and how I feel about it. This mostly has to do with the story itself and not the anime at all. During season two, I got curious and read some spoilers. Once I finished season two, I really got upset that Myne was to be adopted by nobles and have all communication from her family cut off. The reason behind me being so upset is because at the end of season two, we got that sad scene where Myne is back in her modern world in her original body and her wanting to say something to her mother before she dies. So, learning about Myne’s separation from Gunther and Effa made me really upset. Myne was distraught remembering her mother in the previous life and swore to always say that she loved Effa. But now that I sat through season three, am I still upset by the circumstances? Hell yeah. But I understand that there really was no happy outcome where all parties could be satisfied. Myne was still going to be adopted whether now or in two years like originally planned.

Never mind me prattling on about this crap about adoption. This has been a fun watch and an educational one too. Isekais can get creative with new languages, items, and customs. I always enjoy learning about new worlds in anime. But not just that, I learn something new when Myne brings up something invented in her original world. We learn something new every day. By the looks of things, the light novel is still in publication, so I expect to see more content with Rozemyne and her continuing ambitions surrounding the printed word. Anyways, full recommendation from me!

If you would like to watch Ascendance of a Bookworm, Crunchyroll has every episode (along with the side stories and recaps) available to stream.

Man, I hate to think what I’m going to watch next. The anime following this one must be fucking bullshit.

It is.

*gasps* FINALLY! I GET TO WATCH IT!!!

*This stupidity aside, Medea is really enjoying Carole and Tuesday*

[writeanapocalae]

Breaking Down Hell Part 27

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26

The book was made completely out of gold, the pages thin enough gold leaf that they would crumble under the wrong touch. Maxia stared at the page that it was on, trying to read through all of the names. It was, thankfully, in order of date, so that made it easy to find the most recent souls that had been brought to Hell. Every name was written in almost incomprehensibly small letters, made of thin red ink. Maxia could read them, if he got close enough, but even then he had to squint.

Ralucad’s hands were softer than Maxia’s, more experienced at handling delicate things. He had a good many books in his shop and glass and eggshells that had been hollowed out and turned into art. He was able to touch the gold pages without issue, wiping his hands on a white patch of his shirt to remove any oils that may have been on them before touching.

He went right to the end of the book, where names were being added, bleeding into existence right there on the page. It was quick though unsurprisingly so, one every second then a little burst and then nothing for a moment before going back to one or two a second. Timely had been gone a few hours, it would take a while to find them.

When Ralucad had backtracked enough to find them it was with a quick “Aha!” He pointed the name out and Maxia came closer, looking around his side as he was too short to look over his shoulder.

Timely 15:46 PST June 19th, 2021 V

At first it was elation that Maxia felt, looking at the little bit of information that they had but then there was a V and Maxia whispered a curse under his breath.

“What’s the problem?” Ralucad asked, noticing immediately.

“The fifth circle of Hell is Anger. It is the home of The River Styx, it is a constant war zone. If Timely is there they may not remember us enough to come with us, may not remember anything, and if they do they may be too possessed by rage to do anything about it.”

“Does it affect the living as much as the dead?”

Maxia had to think on that. As far as he knew only a few living souls had ever made it into Hell and most of them never left again. While there were tales of their journies there were very few facts to follow them.

“I don’t know. I would assume so, however.” He wanted to go, to get down to the fifth ring of Hell quickly, find Timely and see for himself what the outcome of their time in Hell had done to them.

Ralucad wasn’t moving though, even though he only had a specific window of time in which he could be in Hell. He was still flipping through the book, going backwards through it.

“What are you looking for now?”

“Illidan went missing twenty years ago,” Ralucad explained. “Effa told us that the sword was possessed with a woman’s soul. This would be the best chance to get an idea where it is.”

That was a good point, after all, and Maxia moved close to him once more, taking a look down at the book. Ralucad was flipping through the pages at a high speed, almost skipping the need to be careful with them. But then he stopped, a few milligrams of rough edged pages from the end. His eyes were quick and a bit too red as he looked them over, running down the lines of information in far too small a font.

He pointed at the name when he found it and Maxia did his best to ignore the slight tremor in his hand.

Illidan Fastrass 9:27 CT August 15th, 1991 IV

“Greed.” Maxia breathed out, “What would she be doing there?”

“She is a sword,” Ralucad pointed out, “So I doubt it has much to do with her choice in the matter.” He closed the book, set it back in its place. “Either way, how do we get to the fourth level of Hell? Not to mention the fifth?”

Maxia looked back to the door. He knew the way. He knew how to do this. But that was all just theory. He hadn’t actually been in Hell before. He hadn’t seen any of the routes that his father had told him about. He wasn’t really looking for them either. Now though, he had no idea how to find them.

“Perhaps our guide can tell us how?”

Ralucad shook his head, some of his red hair falling out of the twist. “I don’t like that thing.”

“Understandable. I think it hates you.”

“It’s allowed to hate me. It has no reason not to.”

@writinginslowmotion​ @mirror-of-too-many-books

[junker-town]

Effa Manley’s hidden life

The only woman in the National Baseball Hall of Fame had a fascinating — and confusing — past

She was sure and confident in everything she did. She was tall, smart, and intimidating, a shrewd businesswoman unafraid to speak her mind. For years I’d recognized Effa Manley for many things: her civil rights work, co-owning and managing a Negro League baseball team, her stint as Negro National League treasurer, her role in Larry Doby integrating Major League Baseball’s American League, and being the first African-American woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

But for everything Manley was, there is one thing she really wasn’t: Black.

“Everything in my life has been Black,” Manley told sportswriter Henry Hecht of the New York Post in 1975. For many years, that’s seemed like the last word on the matter. While I knew Manley was not the first woman to own a team — a distinction actually held by Olivia Taylor, who became the owner of the Indianapolis ABC Clowns after her husband C.I. Taylor died 1922 — I had always assumed she was African American. Her race, however, has been a source of quiet controversy for years, one of which I was unaware. It wasn’t until I started researching more into her life I found out perhaps Manley wasn’t exactly who she seemed.

In the 1940 census, Manley is listed as 40 years old, female, and Negro. But her background is complex. Born March 27, 1897, in Philadelphia, to an interracial family, Manley believed her mother’s husband, an African-American man, was her father. It was when she was a teenager her mother Bertha Ford Brooks felt compelled to tell her the truth of her illegitimate parentage. Brooks revealed to her daughter that she had had an affair with an employer, John Marcus Bishop, and she was the result. Brooks told her on multiple occasions that she was white. Despite this information, for much of her life, Manley lived as a Black woman, and was known as such by the Black community. Throughout her life and career, people who met her assumed she was African American. Her Black identity was part of her legacy; finding evidence that hinted otherwise was shocking.

At 19, she married George A. Bush, an African-American man who worked as a chauffeur, and settled in Harlem. There, she lived as Black, but when she left the “Black Mecca,” she used her lighter complexion to get jobs. She would take the subway downtown as a white woman, and return to Harlem as a Black one.

After divorcing Bush, she married Abraham “Abe” Manley. She marked herself “colored” on their marriage license and changed her birth year from 1897 to 1900. (This new birth year would also appear on her tombstone.) A year after their marriage, the Negro National League owners awarded Abe a franchise, the Newark Eagles. She and Abe co-owned the team, but management was left to her. The Eagles had six eventual Hall of Famers on its roster: Larry Doby, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Monte Irvin, Biz Mackey, and Willie Wells. Effa Manley’s contributions to their team are where she forged her place in baseball history.

The importance of this place was recognized formally during Black History Month in 2006. The National Baseball Hall of Fame held a press conference to announce Manley would become its first woman inductee. Created to study Black baseball pre-1960, the Special Committee on Negro Leagues elected Manley to the Hall for her work as a baseball executive, managing and co-owning the Newark Eagles from 1935-1948. It was at this press conference that Jane Forbes Clark, a member of the hall’s board of trustees, referred to Manley as Black. Larry Lester, chairman of the Society for Baseball Research’s Negro League committee, immediately set the record straight; Manley was not, in fact, Black.

I can only imagine what it was like to be in the room when Lester dropped that bombshell. “There was a look of awe and surprise when I called Effa Manley the ‘Blackest white woman in Negro League baseball.’ Racial identity is mostly about visual perception,” Lester recalled to me in an email. I probed for more, but Lester didn’t have anything else to add, instead suggesting I check out her biographies. So I kept digging. Her life didn’t get any less paradoxical.

One of the things about Manley I’ve always admired was her long and vigorous fight against racial discrimination. She was the person who initially launched the historic “Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work” Harlem jobs campaign. In February 1934, she brought together a small group of progressive African-American women to see what they could do about the inability of Black people to get jobs, especially clerical, along 125th Street. Manley continued to be involved in civil rights work in her community. She raised funds for the victims of flooding in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, was treasurer of the New Jersey National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), hosted an anti-lynching campaign at Ruppert Stadium, where the ushers wore sashes that read “Stop Lynching.” During World War II, Manley supported the war effort through her work as a local warden for the Newark Defense Council and by purchasing bonds offered by the Colored Women’s Division of the Jersey City War Savings Committee. She also became secretary and treasurer of the Women’s Volunteer War Service Committee. Manley’s efforts to fight against racial discrimination made her relationship to race even more complicated.

Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images

Her activism and passion could be felt in her staunch defense of the league. When Jackie Robinson took to the Black press to voice his frustrations about the League’s disorganization and ethical lapses — “Negro baseball needs a housecleaning from top to bottom” — she shot back, calling the legend “ungrateful and more likely stupid” in a rebuttal published in Our World magazine.

“I do not think it’s fair for a half-baked statement to come from irresponsible members of our race and have it stand unchallenged. I think an apology is due the race that nurtured him — yes, the team and league which developed him,” she wrote.

Manley felt Robinson had betrayed the Negro league, and thus responded in kind. She deeply believed in the purpose of the league; that one of its own sons had publicly attacked it stung.

Manley’s feud with Robinson shows how race can frame history. If Manley was a white woman passing as Black, as modern baseball historians claim, her criticism of Robinson strikes an entirely different chord. The sheer audacity is unimaginable. There is a difference in believing you are socially Black and believing you have the right to speak about Robinson as if you are a Black woman. In that same year, she was featured in an Ebony magazine article as one of 15 Black women discussing “How to Stay Young After 40.” She never corrected this. Though she’d made her home in the gray area of racial identity, her rebuttal to Robinson and the Ebony article lead me to believe perhaps she thrived in the acceptance of appearing Black.

Through her marriage, team ownership, and civil rights activism, Manley firmly planted herself into the Black community. She performed Blackness, for the most part, on a day-to-day basis. However, whenever it was helpful, she would present herself as a white woman. Her niece, Connie Brooks, once said Manley “was white when she wanted to be and Black when she wanted to be.” While traveling, Abe pretended to be her chauffeur in order for them to find accommodations in a white hotel when no Black hotel was available.

In both her community and baseball-related roles, Manley seemed to have had the best interests of Black people in mind. Some might say her civic work was just the mark of a good ally. Is it possible that as she got older, Manley realized she might be “found out” and started to share her true genealogy? As I dug into her past, the many books and essays on Manley continued to sort of unravel the person I had heard of publicly.

I’ve mulled over the possible reasons she performed race for so many years. At the time in which Manley was married to Abe, interracial marriages were illegal. It was unsafe for them to be publicly married. What could’ve happened to Abe had it been known his wife was white? If Manley was in fact not Black, perhaps pretending to be was a deliberate act to keep her husband(s) from harm. When I view it from that perspective, the idea of her giving up white womanhood as a means of protection seems like a potentially radical act.

On Oct. 19, 1977, just three and a half years before her death, Manley finally addressed the confusion in an interview with A.B. Chandler for the University of Kentucky’s Oral History Project. It was then, without prompting by the interviewer, Manley explained her background in her own words. It seemed to me as if she felt she needed to explain why a white woman was so involved in a Black baseball league. Perhaps she assumed it was a question in the back of people’s minds. She knew people made the assumption of her race not simply based on how she looked, but with whom she associated. She offered up an explanation of her background that baffled me upon first listen. The woman I had believed for nearly my entire life was Black was telling someone she wasn’t. I listened to her words multiple times just to make sure I was hearing her correctly.

So I am really white, but I have come up as a Negro due to the fact that all my brothers and sisters were Negroes. I remember once — funniest thing how I remember it. When I was very young, in the first grade, the principal sent for me. At that time Negroes and whites just weren’t supposed to mix. You’re talking about — that was, [inaudible], well, it’s about 70 years ago. I’m 77 now. And she sent for me to ask me why I was always with these colored children. And when I went back home and told — I didn’t know what to say to her, I went back and told Mother. I’ve always felt how stupidly Mother reacted. I feel she should have made some effort to talk to the principal or something, explain things. But Mother said to me, ‘You go back and tell her you’re just as white as she is.’ Well, that was ridiculous. But I’m saying — telling you this to say I have come up in this entirely Negro atmosphere.

... I’ve often wondered what it would be like associating with white people ... and since Abe died I’ve married twice; again, both of them Negroes. It does seem funny that at some time I wouldn’t have gotten involved with some white per- man, you know. But in my long and unusual life history, and even being involved in the baseball and everything, I never — there was never any Caucasian. Of course, now, many occasions in my life I’ve always gone and traveled as white. I didn’t think about going visiting or going to any strange city or hotel anything or, you know, I’ve always — which I am white. My Mother’s father was Indian, so I do have a little bit of — Mother’s mother was a German woman and her father was an Indian, so my skin is kind of olive ... So I’m only telling you that because I know that even you must have been thinking that all this conversation, I’m always talking about the Negroes, and I guess you figured, ‘What’s this white woman doing so concerned about the Negro?’ So that’s what’s happened. I’ve just come up entirely in this Negro atmosphere.’

Manley’s status as a white woman wasn’t hidden; it was forgotten. It got lost in many years of assumptions based on the people with whom she was mostly affiliated. As a Black woman who often struggles with issues regarding race in general, but more specifically in baseball, this really got under my skin. We’ve seen movies and heard of stories of lighter-skinned Black people passing as white for a number of reasons, the main one being safety and insulation from racism, but, with the exception of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman passing as Black is pretty much unheard of in popular culture.

Regardless of her intent in creating the ambiguity around her race, Manley stands as an example of how messy our thinking about race can be. If Manley’s mother had not told her the truth of her birth, Manley may not have ever known she was white. Why would she, if she knew the circumstances of her birth, continue to hide it? Does social and self-identification supersede the biological? Perhaps Manley’s familial and emotional ties to the Black community are the reason why she maintained that she was Black for so many years. Her entire reality was just that. Despite that, she always had an out and her “Black experience” was performative and inauthentic.

But there’s yet another wrinkle in the Manley I thought I knew. Some historians suggest her mother was biracial or Black, which would mean Manley may actually have been mixed. Her descendants argue Manley was a Black woman who occasionally passed for white. In the October 2006 issue of Essence magazine, Connie Brooks, Manley’s niece, was quoted as saying, “Effa Manley was not white. I don’t understand reporters saying that she just liked Black people, what kind of ignorance is that?” She went on to say her aunt was of African American, Native American, and German descent. “I’m happy she’s been acknowledged, but it’s important that people know the truth. It’s a great achievement for a Black woman to be first.” Brooks was calling her own aunt, whom she was attempting to vehemently defend, a liar: it was Manley herself who told people she was white. It’s possible she enjoyed the confusion caused by her racial ambiguity. Was Manley really a biracial woman who had mastered moving throughout life simply being whatever people perceived her to be and was taking advantage of it?

Dr. Amira Rose Davis, a historian of race, gender, and sports and assistant professor of history and African-American studies at Penn State University, explained, “Effa Manley had a keen awareness of the color line and of how to navigate it. Her slippages in and out of whiteness and Blackness were always strategic. So much so that even posthumously some people, including family members, wondered if her declaration of whiteness was just another final slip, the product of a curious desire to continue to re-frame her story. A woman in baseball is interesting. A white woman in Black baseball? That’s downright compelling. Even on her death certificate you can just make out the B, underneath the word white, as if the Blackness was peeking out from the edges. Ultimately it was the ambiguity that came to define Effa’s racial identity, more than anything else.”

What if Davis is right? Her niece maintained that no white father was ever spoken of within their family. Was Manley Black? Are we all just playing the game she left for us nearly 40 years ago?

If Manley was, in fact, Black, I cannot understand the reasoning she could have had to deny her Blackness in her twilight years. Because she was such a chameleon, it’s easy to project on her. She was an influence on the baseball world at a time when Jim Crow and other forms of active discrimination ran rampant. She was a powerful and significant figure in sports, not because she was a woman, but in addition to being a woman. Manley’s racial background is so confusing my feelings about her are, as well.

I’m not sure if any other women will be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and that the only woman to hold the honor may or may not have been a Black American woman is important. I can’t help but, alongside my admiration, feel a little betrayed that one of the greatest women in professional sports was, perhaps, performing race. Professional baseball has regressed in such a way that many wonder what level of participation from Black Americans we’ll see in the future. A Black woman in Manley’s position, with her contributions, could have been inspirational for the next generation of Black baseball talent both on and off the field. Sure, a white woman in Black baseball is compelling, but a Black woman? That’s poetic.

Nearly 40 years after her death Manley remains one of baseball’s greatest mysteries. Perhaps this really was by design. There aren’t very many personal artifacts for preservation; there’s just her love of baseball and the legacy she left behind with the sport. Her journey began in Philadelphia and, ultimately, ended in Cooperstown. Manley’s tombstone reads “She loved baseball” and that’s all she wanted us to know. She was inspirational and confounding, audacious in every sense of the word. Maybe that’s all she needed to be.

[thornburgrealty]

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