- Hi, everybody, first up tonight on the news
antenna celebration of life for a Maryland rapper is
stirring up some controversy. - My son loves to have fun. He was the life of the party. So that's why I sent him home
that way, having a party. - I also don't think it's sanitary to have in a club with full of people. - No, it was not in a casket, girl. No, ma'am, it was not. It was definitely posted up. - If you're not on social media and if you are not on social media, stay right where you are. Do not come here.
(eerie music) There is nothing for you here. (clears throat) If you're
not on social media, you might have missed
the controversial funeral held for the rapper Goonew
on April 3rd of this year. Several news programs suggested that it was Goonew's memorial that led to controversy and gosh, to be a pedantic here. By definition, a memorial
is the celebration after the dead body has already
been buried or cremated. This was not a memorial
because Goonew's body was there at the nightclub, standing up on stage. Once videos and pictures started to appear on
Instagram and Twitter, the response as maybe
possible for you to imagine was swift and sanctimonious. "People don't really fear God anymore." "That Goonew (beep) just set
us back at least 35 years." "To be honest, Goonew deserved
way better, in my opinion." All the outrage and
ensuing media attention caused Bliss Nightclub in Washington D.C, where what they called
Goonew's "Final Show" was held, to release a public statement. "Bliss was contacted
by a local funeral home to rent out our venue for
Goonew's home-going celebration. Bliss was never made aware
of what would transpire. We sincerely apologize to all those who may be upset or offended." Is the nightclub really claiming they were never made aware of the corpse coming to their establishment? On this aspect, I have many questions. But that's not the focus here today. We're going to look at Goonew himself, and what his family
wanted for his funeral. We're going to look at the rise of what's called extreme embalming, and its cross cultural ability
to both appeal and horrify. And finally, we'll look at
the fact that Goonew was Black and that means the display
of his body in this way is going to mean different
things culturally and socially which may have contributed
to the public reaction. We went to Charles Village
neighborhood in Baltimore to speak again to Dr. Kami Fletcher, associate professor of American
and African American History and president of The Collective
for Radical Death Studies. Before we even started, she
wanted to keep our focus on the fact that this was a
young man who died tragically. - I'd really like to
express my condolences to the Morrow family, to the mother, the sister, to everyone, all the kin, both blood and bond, to
everyone in the D.C. community, because I know Goonew really
left a hole in that community, everyone in Prince George's county, you really have my
condolences, I'm so sorry. - [Caitlin] This is Markelle
Morrow, also known as Goonew. - I'm a known person. I'm not just a rapper but I live a regular life just like you. - He was from District Heights, Maryland and began rapping in 2017. He gained notice for his
charisma and "low-tone flow" that was described as
"whispering," "enchanted," "eerie," and most notably, off the beat. ♪ Whip in that kitchen at night ♪ ♪ It's his baby mother but
she sneak in at night ♪ ♪ Catch me a flight, I
had to pour the lean ♪ - Angela Byrd, founder of
a hip hop think tank, cool, said "When Goonew came out, everybody was asking why he
was rapping offbeat like that, but it made him legendary." Goonew was young, only 24, but he was prolific and original. But his career came to an abrupt end on the evening of Friday,
March 18 in District Heights. Police were called to the
scene at around 5:40 PM where they found Goonew in a parking lot with a gunshot wound
after an apparent robbery. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 PM. Goonew's family decided to
make his funeral a celebration, an event. They worked with Dunn & Sons
Funeral Home in Washington D.C. to arrange a homegoing
event for Markelle Morrow. For those people who are from a culture where a funeral is a very
somber, weeping affair, where does the jubilation
in a home-going come from? - Yeah, it's the celebration of life, is taking the time to say you mattered. We miss you. You mattered. We love you. You mattered. You will be missed. You've gotta take the time to do that. And only for a group of people who are continuously marginalized know that we have to take the time to do that. - So what mattered to Markelle Morrow? This is what his sister Ariana said. - My brother didn't go to church. So that would be unlikely and
very fake and phony for us to go and put my brother in a casket- - In a suit. - And listening to gospel music in a suit. He clearly, my brother told me he
didn't wanna be in no suit. - So his funeral wasn't in a
church and wasn't in a suit. The funeral home embalmed Morrow's body, like really embalmed it,
more on that in a second, and booked a nightclub for the event. When that first club backed out, Bliss Nightclub was quickly booked instead on the evening of April 3rd. Morrow's body was brought to Bliss where it was positioned
standing onstage in jeans, an Amiri sweatshirt,
and a crown on his head as people performed music
and danced around him. Admission was $40, I assume to cover the cost of the event, although the price would
prove to be controversial, with accusations of "charging
to see a dead body." The club was filled with
lights, and smoke, and energy. Much of the discourse would insist there was no way Morrow's
mother wanted this for her son. But they would be wrong, it's exactly what she wanted, and as next of kin she
had all the power here. Said Patrice Morrow, "They have no idea. I'm pleased with how I sent my son away. I wish people would just
let me grieve in peace." Added Morrow's sister, Patrice Vincent. - It's very disrespectful.
It's very insensitive. If you do not like it, don't speak on it. - Don't speak on it.
- Don't speak on it. It's how we, let us grieve
how we wanna grieve. - If you're new to this channel or the concept of death positivity, even though I have my own specific ideas about where I'd like to
see the funeral industry go in the future, I am essentially not a
political libertarian, but a corpse libertarian. Meaning that if a family and a community makes a choice for a dead body that brings them comfort and healing it's not for the government
or laws or even social media to determine whether that choice is disrespectful or undignified. But to be clear, if you were one of those
people on social media, I don't wanna shame you either. Most people on social
media in the hours and days following the service didn't
necessarily have the context to process what they were seeing. It's definitely jarring
to be scrolling Instagram and it's like sneakers, your
childhood best friend's dog, an ad for a sparkling CBD
mocktail, and a (stutters) is that a dead body? That's a dead body. What was your first thought
when you heard about Goonew? - I wasn't surprised, but I know why people
are surprised, right? You know, during the civil war, that's how you advertised as a mortician. Look at my work, right? This is how well I can preserve the body that this person can stand. They look like themselves. But you know, I think that that home-going celebration was exactly a representation of his life. He was a rapper, his final performance is
gonna be on that stage. And so I got it. You know, I get what they
were really trying to do. And there was something
that the mother said I think that's really telling. You know, she says, "You're not gonna look down on my son." And she meant that, we looked
up to him on the stage, just like, you know, he always, we always did when he was performing. - Why do you think it
was so controversial? - Because you have a
corpse in a nightclub. (light upbeat music) - Let's talk about where the idea for Goonew's service likely came from. - You know, standing up, we did say we wanted
him propped up some way, because we did see other services that it was done that way. So we liked it, and that's what we wanted. - It's time for a funeral
industry trend report. The least sexy of the trend reports. In the last 10 to 15 years, there's been a strong move away from the 20th century
funeral model of embalming, casket, church, cemetery. Embalming, casket, church, cemetery. You heard the Morrow family say, Markelle didn't go to church,
he didn't wear a suit. Funerals of the future can be very roughly split into two camps. One camp is the "let's make
funerals more family involved, much less expensive, and greener" camp which is where my advocacy is focused. She said, extremely smugly. I'm smug, what can I say? Smug-arella. Then there's the personalization camp. That's the theory that what
people are really missing are funerals and memorials that reflect the very unique interests
of the person who has died. That's why you see
memorials at theme parks and urns shaped like golf
clubs and opportunities to turn mom into a diamond. My theory is that the
rise of extreme embalming, meaning posing a body
sitting or standing up, with no casket to be seen, is coming from that
personalization impulse. Bodies have been
positioned on a motorcycle, as a boxer in a boxing
ring, driving a taxi, playing NBA2k in Kyrie Irving
jersey and Kyrie socks. Have we ever determined
if Kyrie knows about this? We've personalized urns and caskets and memorials and headstones, and it's time we personalized
the corpse itself. Give the wake some personality. Full disclosure, people
in the green funeral camp have a somewhat complicated
relationship with embalming, the chemical preservation of the body, what allows these bodies to
be standing up and posed. Here's where I land on this,
if you're going to embalm, heck, you might as well have
the body doing something fun. By its very nature, such an endeavor requires a large amount of family involvement and
collaboration and planning, and that intensity of
involvement is grief work. One place we've begun seeing
this trend is in New Orleans, perhaps most famously with
Miriam Burbank in 2014. Miriam was posed with her beloved New Orleans Saints football memorabilia, a menthol cigarette, a beer, and a scotch. A disco ball was turning and people said it was more
like a party than a funeral. Earlier that same year,
you had Billy Standley riding his custom 1967 Harley
Davidson Electra Glide cruiser into eternity. Standley had a team of five embalmers working to make this a reality. He was even buried in
that massive glass casket. "He was a quirky man," his daughter said. Of course, the idea a the corpse sitting or standing postmortem
is certainly not new. In Sagada, in the Philippines, they are perhaps most known
for their hanging coffins. But for centuries the indigenous people have honored their dead
by sitting them upright. The dead body is wrapped and
seated in a "death chair" and then smoked with a fire to preserve it for the few days that it
sits amongst the living. There is storytelling, song, talking directly to the dead and even offering food
and drink to the dead. But the type of extreme
embalming we're seeing now with the personalized tableau reflecting the person that
people can come visit? That arguably had its debut in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2008, where it gained popularity and attention as "el muerto para'o." People point to Angel Luis
Pantojas who, in 2008, was embalmed and positioned standing up in his mother's living
room, wearing a Yankees hat. As a child, Pantojas had seen
his father's body in a casket and did not want that to be him someday. At this point, I know what
you're asking, how is this done? No, it's not taxidermy. I spoke with Monica Torres, our resident specialist
restorative artist and embalmer. This is a real Ask a Mortician
cinematic universe episode. The embalmers in New Orleans and San Juan who do these services are often quite secretive
about their techniques but Monica suspects they are
using waterless embalming to get bodies into those positions. By waterless embalming, we mean, skip all the water usually
mixed into the embalming tank, do not pass go, to straight high index
formaldehyde embalming fluid. - Higher strength of fluid is definitely recommended and needed. - Which means more formaldehyde. - More formaldehyde. - Cranked up formaldehyde.
- Yes. - Monica has immense respect
for what the embalmers are able to accomplish and sees the high level of skill involved to keep the face and hands looking anything close
to realistic and supple. She also notes that many of the embalmers leading this innovation are women, and that she herself would
be honored to be asked to attempt such an embalming. Someone has to let Monica
do this. I will sponsor it. I'll sponsor the whole thing. You have to really want it though. It can't be just because you need someone to pay for your funeral because we have such non-existent help for lower income people in the
American death care system. That's a whole other video. (light upbeat music) Goonew was far from the
first person to be embalmed and displayed in this way. So why was his death in
particular so controversial? Buckle up, this is like a 14 part answer. To start, I suspect that
part of the discomfort came from the interactive element. I wanna point this out because it's actually a
conceptual leap forward and an extremely interesting one. The funeral home and the Morrow family were doing some kind of
visionary stuff here. Goonew wasn't placed in
a personalized tableau carefully managed at the funeral home. In most extreme embalmings we've seen, Goonew would've been at the funeral home in a nightclub like atmosphere. That was more of a visual representation of his career as a rapper. Like here's the corpse,
here's some turntables, here's a microphone
stand, but it's not real. Like a taxidermy display where you know you're not really at the
watering hole, it's an illusion, but Goonew's body wasn't in
this kind of fake tableau. He was at the actual club with actual music and performances. - In our 21st century, you do not see a corpse in a nightclub and people are partying, popping bottles. I saw the whole sparklers, right? The bottle girls, the whole thing. - I thought this commentary
channel on YouTube made a great point. - [Narrator] It was a
gesture I could understand in a lot of ways, for one, for a rapper to be robbed and taken out in his own neighborhood, that was a level of disrespect that I'm sure he didn't appreciate. So for his family to have
him standing on stage and getting love from the crowd, in a way it was like a FU to the killers as if to say Goonew still gets more love and respect than those that took him out. It's like having the last word. - So yes, there was
something unique about it, a jump forward. But it's also noticeable how those jumps, these leaps in death care are treated depending who the dead body is. For example, remember Billy Standley, who rode his 1967 Harley
Davidson into eternity? He worked on the idea for years, and his desire to do it was treated as hopelessly homespun and quirky. Ol' Billy's last ride. "He gave it a lot of thought,"
said his funeral director. "He was a unique man, a man who spoke his mind and did things whether people liked it or not." That acceptance and attitude about Stanley's wishes is wonderful. But that kind of bold agency is not really the
treatment Goonew is getting in the press or social media. - Because of whiteness, you can do something quirky or weird and still not be seen as dangerous. You know, it's as simple as
that, you can move in next door, you can get the bank loan, you
can go to the school, right? You can still assimilate and just have this kind
of thing that you know, you do, or you did, right. You know, Black folks have been grouped. And if, you know, the Morrows they had that funeral in that way, I might as well have had
that funeral in that way. And it's looked down upon. So there's a hyper policing that Black folks do to each other. No, no, no, no, no. We can't step out to
Black folks that agree and say, yes is disrespectful. You know, this is not a
proper way to do a funeral, to bury somebody. They're thinking about what
the mainstream White society will think of them. - Dr. Fletcher wanted to make this point that some of the reaction may be based in fear of the judgment
coming in from White society, fear that this type of funeral will somehow reinforce
negative, dangerous stereotypes already held against the Black community. - Consumerism. People are looking at this and they're saying this
costs a lot of money, right? And should they be
spending this on the money? Can they afford this? If you believe that most
Black folks in this country are on welfare and they're taking from the
government, food stamps, on housing, right? They're taking, taking
from the government, they're not self-sustaining,
they don't support themselves. They don't have a job,
they don't want a job. Why are they spending what looks like thousands
of dollars on this funeral? They can't afford it. - Let's talk about Abraham Lincoln. This will all come together,
just gimme a second. One could argue that embalming as a concept had its big debut with what we've now call
an extreme embalming. President Lincoln was an
early adopter of embalming. When his 11-year-old son Willie died, they had him embalmed
and after Lincoln himself was shot to death in 1865,
he was embalmed as well. Lincoln's body boarded a funeral train that would backtrack Lincoln's path from Illinois to Washington. His body inside a casket
with his face revealed would visit 180 cities and
travel over 1600 miles. For the first few cities, Lincoln's body was fine,
described as natural, but after a 23-hour viewing in Manhattan, Lincoln's body wasn't looking so lifelike and natural anymore. The New York Evening Post
called it "A ghastly shadow." Despite reports of his waxen
and discolored appearance, mourners still came out in droves, even at the tail end of his journey with his body in a state of decay, people expressed relief at seeing the man they had made an integral and
personal part of their lives. I thought it might be too wild to compare Goonew and Abraham Lincoln, but after I wrote this, I found out the Washington
Post had already done it. So I feel like the
discourse around this stuff has really come a long
way in recent years. It's heartwarming for me, at least. Both men were murdered,
both given intense, extreme embalming treatments
and taken out in the world to be celebrated and greeted
by fans one final time. From that perspective, what happened with Goonew's
body is downright American, but we know it's not that simple. As we've said, we can't ignore the fact
that Goonew was Black and postmortem display of the Black body in the United States hasn't always been just like Lincoln, wee! - Millions of people knew of him and millions came to see him. An unknown corpse that was put on public
display in June of 1929 and wasn't buried until 1964. He was called Eugene. Tonight, the conclusion to this most, most, most unusual story. - On June 13th, 1929, the body of a Black man was found in a ditch in Sabina, Ohio. Nobody knew him. He had no identification
and all he had on him was a dollar and 40 cents, and a piece of paper with an
address in Cincinnati on it. Eugene, as they called him, was kept at the Littleton Funeral Home, a White-owned funeral home,
where he was embalmed, given a suit, and kept for 30 days to see if the next of kin
would come to claim him. After nobody claimed Eugene, the Littleton family decided
to keep his body in state in the shed outback
behind the funeral home for the next 35 years. Eugene became a tourist attraction. He would travel to the
local pumpkin shows. - When you came to town, you
went around to see Eugene. - He was also the star of local pranks. It was tradition for the
students to steal his body and stash him in the high school
or sitting in a restaurant. Eugene's body was stolen
for a final time in 1958 and taken all the way to a park bench on the campus of Ohio State University, before people finally started
to question the wholesome fun of having Eugene on display. The man they called Eugene
was finally buried in 1964. Some of the particular
outrage and discomfort with Goonew's funeral may be the precedent for display of the Black dead that's more Eugene than Abraham Lincoln. It might be we are much more sensitive about any whiff of desecration
around the Black body because Black bodies, alive or dead, have not always been treated well. Goonew's situation is closer to Lincoln's, but to some, display of his
body feels more like a Eugene and those associations
don't go away overnight. - The spectacle, right? Like that's what you're talking about, the spectacle of the Black
body at the hands of Whites, lynching, government experimentation, look at Sarah Bartman's
body, medical science, right? Daina Ramey Berry has that wonderful book, "The Price for Their Pound of Flesh," just talking about
enslaved people's cadavers being used, right? But that's not what this is. This is not White folks
taking ownership in death. It took a lot of time to
do what that embalmer did, To do what that Black, and I know it was a Black funeral home. And to do what that Black funeral home did that took a lot of
time, that's number one. And that shows care, that shows concern. And you listen, and you
looked at the family. - This is a story about agency. Who gets to step out
of the death care norm and have it celebrated and who
gets dragged on social media and pulled back into line? Something both Dr. Fletcher
and I are both impressed with is the way Markelle Morrow's family have refused to apologize
for their choices. Instead, essentially,
you can witness this, you can even comment, but we won't be accepting your insistence that what we did with our son
is disrespectful or wrong. - There's a scholar out
of Brown, Renee Ater that took to Instagram black squares with white lettering, name,
birth date, death date, and it makes you pause. - [Caitlin] You mentioned the pause. Goonew made us pause. - [Dr. Fletcher] Yeah. - You know, and even if we, even if someone doesn't understand it, if they're like, oh, it's a body like, which is a lot of American culture, like it or not, it made us pause. - You're gonna watch that whole video. And you talking about the pause, there are some videos,
you know, you're oh, okay, I saw 10 seconds of it, and I'm steady scrolling. The one that I definitely
saw to completion, it starts at his feet and it
just scans all the way up, and then it scans the crowd. You centered him in a way that he may not have
been centered in life. And I think the mother was right. You know, her son was a
king and we hailed him and we looked at him in that way. (light music) - Since we spoke last, Black
death has been more public and displayed across
national media than ever. Do you think there is some element of that that is protest and that
is positive in some way? - Oh yeah, absolutely. I think all of it. Let's start with the T-shirts right? So these rest in piece, these RIP T-shirts are in your face. They're letting you know, I'm in mourning. White society is quick to
say, we're post-racial, they're quick to say it's
over, racism, we did it. We washed our hands of it. If you're gonna keep killing
Black folks by White supremacy, you're gonna see these
rituals that you're seeing. 'Cause we we've gotta do
'em if we're gonna go on and it's in a protest agency way. This was a person, this was not some thug. This stereotyped person
that did not matter. No, this person left a hole
in my family, in my community. And we saw that with George Floyd, that this was not a
nationally recognized person, but he was so important to his
family and in his community. And they would not let that go. They took to the streets,
they would not stop, and we've seen a lot of change because of their sacrifice,
people really sacrificed.
