The Anatomy of an Optimist

Hill Harper has a far-reaching vision for his fellow man.

By Sobukwe Odinga

Hill Harper has a swagger that’s hard to pin down. As he approaches the doors of the Pacific Palms resort in LA, his stride is measured but fluid, laced with an old-school austerity and traces of the hip-hop generation’s slick politick.

...Harper’s rarely a leading man, but he’s developed a reputation as a dedicated craftsman who’s talented enough to seize the spotlight, though not yet in its glare. He may be awaiting his turn, but he’s not waiting idly. In April of 2006 he published Letters to a Young Brother MAnifest Your Destiny, a book framed around revealing personal correspondence between Harper and an underprivileged young Black man—a composite character based on the hundreds of young men who’ve come to him for advice—searching for a path to a principled and rewarding life. Letters to the young man from Harvard Law professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., rapper Nas, producer Jerry Brukheimer and a number of other pioneers are also interspersed throughout the text, which climbed to number 10 on the New York Times Hardcover Advice

Best Sellers list. The book was lauded as an overdue intervention within ts genre and served as a clarion call for the mentorship and scholarship initiatives of Harper’s Manifest Your Destiny foundation.

...If there was one thing Harper didn’t experience growing up, it was a shortage of engaged role models. His maternal grandfather, Harold E. Hill, was a successful pharmacist during the hey-day of segregation in Seneca, South Carolina. His paternal grandfather and four great-uncles overcame the twisted logic of Jim Crow to all become doctors and together open one of the few medical centers where African Americans received top flight healthcare in Depression-era Fort Madison, Iowa. Harper’s father also became a doctor, while his mother holds the distinction of being one of the nation’s first African-American female anesthesiologists. Not a bad bloodline, for an actor who earns his keep playing a gifted surgeon turned pensive crime scene investigator. But more importantly it’s a pedigree that points directly to the themes of academic excellence and community service that animate Letters To a Young Brother from cover to cover. “The response to the book has been absolutely amazing,” Harper continues. “They didn’t want to do a book about and for young brothers, especially not a high-gloss, hardcover book,” he chides, referring to the bevy of publishers who doubted the commercial viability of a text targeted at young Black men. “But now that this book has done so well it’s proven that there’s a market for books like this. It’s going to open doors for other authors who haven’t been able to get published. I personally know two authors who have gotten deals based on the success of this book. Terry McMillan told me that 30 years ago publishers told her there was no market for Black women’s fiction. As we now know it’s one of the best-selling categories.” Harper is happy about the book’s impact, but he admits that the decision to put it on the market wasn’t a blind leap of faith by Gotham Books. “I’m under no illusions. The reason this book got published is because I’m on a top-10 tv show and have the educational background to give it some validity.” By educational background he means a bachelors from Brown University, a j.d. from Harvard Law and a masters in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “But it doesn’t take a Harvard degree to realize that there are no books written for young Black men” he says with a shrug. “And now that my book is out there they’re supporting it and loving it.”

...I refer to a passage in Letters in which he discusses his parents divorce as a catalyst for his “struggle with male-female relationships never going past a certain point of intimacy.” Given his clean-cut persona and perpetual baby-face (a young 40, by most standards) finding a date is not the problem. Posted under the clips of his performances on YouTube, one can read in lascivious detail exactly what some of Harper’s fans would do to him if presented the opportunity. “For me it’s about looking at my past to make sure that it’s not negatively impacting my future,” he says, sizing up his efforts to overcome the emotional impact of his parents’ split. “But, that has to do with all aspects of our lives. Even as a people we need to look back on our history in this country. The legacy of slavery and 400 years of free labor still affects us to this day. It manifests itself in many different ways, but it doesn’t have to. The question is: What can we, as African-American people, do to counteract it?”

I take him back to his days at Harvard Law and memories of one of his classmates: a young Barack Obama. Though he agrees to refer to Barack by his first name for the purposes of our discussion, he suggests that we all keep in mind that Obama should really be referred to as The Honorable Senator from the State of Illinois. “Barack, or Senator Obama,” he stumbles, “is a great guy. We played a lot of basketball together. He pulled his socks up a little high and his shorts were a little small, but he’s from that time. While some people were channeling Michael Jordan, he was channeling Julius Irving. But he’s a good ball player—he can jump, he can shoot.” Harper chuckles, then seems to dig deep to sum up his feelings about the presidential hopeful. “All around, he was committed from the very beginning to helping change people’s lives and that’s why he’s doing so well in public service and public office.”

It’s time for Harper to take to the course so we trek down to the Pacific Palms’ rotunda. Because of his schedule he doesn’t make it onto the links more than a handful of times each year, but he’s confident in his abilities. As a boy his father insisted that he take lessons to learn the fundamentals of the game and that early guidance has carried him through many a celebrity tourney with his pride intact. As we exit the elevator, almost in anticipation of the taping, Harper’s swagger returns, more pronounced than before. That old school, new school, straight-laced, street-wise gait that marks him as an anomaly in a world of one-dimensional actors and activists. It makes me consider for the first time that Harper’s quest to extract the best from himself and others, on screen and off, may be a little bit lonelier than he lets on. But as we stroll out of the Pacific Palms lobby his eyes are firmly glued to the little community of nondescript houses hovering along the horizon just beyond the resort’s sprawling plot. A broad, knowing smile stretches across his face. And in that moment, no matter who else is tuned into his vision, I can’t help but smile along with him.