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“playing down non-white aspects of one
Posted by wolf on Apr 7, 2006 at 7:40 AM
Wolf is correct to say that “acting white” is a misnomer.
I am white and come from an uneducated, poor background. Even had divorced parents and lived in a mobile home, such a cliche, but that was my life.
I watched and listened to how my family behaved/talked and compared that to teachers and any educated person I met or saw on television. I learned from this, leaned to say “I saw” instead of “I seen,” among other things.
Whether any of us like it or not, you WILL be judged on how you act and speak. Even the poorest households in this country have a television. Whatever your color, you hurt only yourself if you bitch and moan instead of watch and learn.
I’ve acutally decided to “act Asian” in raising my own son. Asians out-perform whites in this country. Does that mean that employers and schools are biased against whites in favor of Asians? Or that Asians are naturally more intelligent than whites? Or is it because even the poorest Asians tend to place such importance on education and performance? Hmmmm….I tend to think they’re on to something good.
And isn’t that what human development is all about? Improving on our family’s history by adopting the best of other cultures? Why would I want to flaunt my redneck ways out of some mis-guided family/cultural pride, and then insist that everyone else appreciate and reward it? Why on earth would I criticize an employer for not hiring me because I refuse to “talk good”?
Posted by oleofritter on Apr 7, 2006 at 9:26 AM
Interesting article.
I don’t know, maybe we’re all Elizabeth Bennets, uncomfortably aware of the messier aspects of our own backgrounds.
“Acting white” here seems more like “acting WASPy”—or maybe just a sort of . . . where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above-average.
Posted by soundcheck on Apr 7, 2006 at 10:54 AM
Very interesting Ms. Chaudhry. Your discussion of acting black, white, where “when it
Posted by theloneous on Apr 7, 2006 at 11:35 AM
She wears her Woman of Color on her sleeve. I’m also a woman of color, and so what. Yeah, we’re all the same. That’s just true.
“The freedom to perform our identity gives us the power to define its meaning.”—To quote Pope, that’s an “unmeaning, miscalled a thought.”
Is this a sideways attempt to justify identity as performance? I say we drop that and confess.
And this passage is just BS:
“At the heart of this individualist perspective on race is the assertion of sameness: We are all racists; we are all human. Difference is an artificial cultural construct that disguises and distorts our true universal essence.
As various critics have pointed out over and over again, this kind of liberal humanism effectively lets white Americans off the hook and denies the need for radical social change.”
The format of quoting academics and “many critics” is either a bad writing habit, or fear of saying things more straightforwardly. I like how critics haven’t just pointed this out frequently, but over and over again.
Radical social change in Lakshmi’s mind would appear to be necessarily waged in “courtrooms, schools, workplaces and in the media.” Wait, that’s where normal efforts at social change are waged. Radical social change, according to many historians who pointed this out over and over and over again, only happens in the streets, usually with weapons.
People squirt clouds of ink for the same reason that squid do.
Posted by grendel on Apr 7, 2006 at 2:36 PM
I think that Wolf and Winterchestnut are on to something here. To some extent everybody acts.
The job interview, the first date, and the first day at school are not the occasions when people are happy to just be themselves. Experience also leads people, or has at least led me, to be change the way I behave in different situations. I have learned that the way I greet someone can make them think that I am akin, or very different, to them. In some cases it leads to real hostility. Do you speak to all of your friends and relations in the same way? or do you find yourself using different vocabularies and skirting issues that are likely to lead to arguments?
I used to work in call centres and can remember that the ‘steady hum’ of our machinery was the shifting of voices and speech patterns and salespeople or customer service people. As the calls progressed they came to sound like their clients. If they abruptly returned to their ‘natural’ intonation and accent it was because the conversation had taken a turn for the worse. You can observe the same behaviour in bars. When people want to get along they mimic each other, when they don’t they don’t. They will also lie, to themselves and to others, to fit in or feel comfortable.
Race, class, age, religion, and sex are pretty important social cleavages and it is when people cross these cleavages that they are most obviously acting but it is not just about race.
I think there is also a premise here that black people who use academic language, for example, are behaving in a way that is false. Have you ever heard an interview with Maya Angelou, dose she conform to the stereotype or is she
Posted by richard123 on Apr 7, 2006 at 8:44 PM
The growing nation-wide effort to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is emblematic of a larger issue: what kind of country is the United States to become.
Yesterday
Posted by brian28 on Apr 7, 2006 at 8:48 PM
oops,
well maybe it makes the point. I was thinking about Maya Angelou’s interveiw with donald swaim http://www.wiredforbooks.org/mayaangelou/
but I just googled another interview , this time with Oprah, and she sound different - of course!
But I do not think she was being someone other than herself in either, just talking to the audience.
Anyway, I was really thinking about a friend who is a Mathematician. When he speaks with his colleagues he has a different accent and vocabulary to that he uses when speaking to his mother. I do not think that this is because he is somehow being false at work ,or at home. I think he is very definately himself wherever he is.
Posted by richard123 on Apr 7, 2006 at 9:06 PM
I’ve followed Black.White. because I did just that. In the late ‘60’s, my college friends and I were messing around with makeup. I tried my darkskinned friend’s foundation; we were astounded at the difference. Carmen suggested I borrow a friend’s afro wig, ahot pink dress I would never wear as my redhaired, paleskinned self, and dark hose. I wore granny glasses but did not otherwise diguise my eyes, nor did I speak differently.
For three evenings, I wore this outfit in public with them. One was very light, redhaired,; one was a bit darker with white features; the third was darkskinned, very African-appearing. They were afraid to appear white in public—I only had did it because I was with them in Santa Fe NM USA.
My other friends never figured it out. I was “Carmen’s cousin from Chicago.” The Black Student Union members invited me to dinner, a few guys even hit on me. One night we knocked on my own door. My mother didn’t recognize me until we dissolved into giggles and ‘fessed up.
We went to Chicago to visit Carmen’s real cousin. Again, I put on wig and makeup. On the way to Chicago from Santa Fe, we were harrassed by a Missouri state trooper who, according to Carol, thought we were hookers; he followed us from Joplin to St Louis, scaring us badly.
In Chicago, however, we were treated well. We attended a Black Panthers party and boy howdy did I get an eye-opener on race and class! I socialized a little but was terrified of being found out. My friends realized that getting caught out would be a Very Bad Thing so we left. The Panthers were fierce and dedicated, looking to survive in a world that hated them; hearing them, I could never be comfortable in my privilege again.
I dressed like that only once more. I wanted to visit a shop in the same Chicago neighborhood, but quickly realized that those streets were not healthy for a white girl. I bought makeup and returned to the shop “incognito.” This time, no one noticed me as I shopped.
Because of my history, Black.White. has been interesting. You’d think race issues would have progressed a teeny bit in 40 years! I like Brian, and feel enormous sympathy for him and Renee regarding their son, who is way too cute for his own good. I want to slap Carmen and Bruno for their impenetrable bastion of white privilege; with Rose, well, she tries and I think she knows she’s a privileged white kid.
In my experience, which comes out of my history, culture and skin color, much race conflict is born of conqueror’s rights and the subjugateds survival. It’s tough to let go of your history—and sometimes dangerous, as the pendulum of tolerance swings back and forth.
In race relations, culture/history play a large part, but we are also identified by our “race,” which doesn’t exist in the biological arena. Brian is lighter than some “white” folks, while Bruno seems darker than some “black” and ‘Hispanic” folks.
But .. . “we know what we know.” You can tell a black person or a white person, can’t you? Just like my own friends knew me . . . .
Posted by KatherineBryce on Apr 10, 2006 at 5:06 PM
I feel that an integral part of the contemporary experience is performative. We should not expect anything that exists on the level of popular culture that comprises our hypermediated world to be anything more “real” in terms of understanding or articulating the systematic forms of racism that are less individualistic. Artists who are more apt at addressing racism are ambiguous and indirect because racism is very complex, with overt and hidden practices. However complexity is not a part of pop culture.
One way to understand these popular trends is to distinguish between racism and prejudice. People can have individual prejudices that are directed at other racial and cultural types but that does not have to be equated with racism. It is mistake to assume that the film “Crash” falls short of addressing “real” issues of racism because I don’t see the film as purporting to address those issues. The film addresses prejudices that cross cultural boundaries. That’s the value the film has to offer.
I enjoyed the film “Crash” because I could appreciate it on the level in which it was presented. Hopefully another film will come out that more directly addresses racism, but also the intersection of class and gender that make oppressive aspects of our society so pernicious.
Posted by Epistrophy on Apr 11, 2006 at 8:42 PM
I began reading this article hoping for a substantive critique of reducing racism to individual interactions (e.g., prejudicial attitudes leading to discriminatory behavior). However, it soon became clear that, rather than offering a structural or institutional analysis of racism, Lakshmi Chaudhry’s level of analysis remains at the individual—the only difference being that she has rightly pointed out that race is a social construction and must therefore be continuously enacted, constructed, and reproduced in various “performances.”
We need to view race as a social construction, but, if we are truly interested in eliminating racism, we must look beyond the level of the individual. A sociological approach would do the trick, but this seems to be ignored by the author, even attributing Erving Goffman’s sociological concept of “covering” to an author who is drawing on his work .
If we truly want to deal with race in a serious, as opposed to superficial, manner, we need to take a serious look at the institutional and structrual aspects that reproduce racial inequality. Chaudhry might start by looking at such classics as Oliver and Shapiro’s “Black Wealth/White Wealth,” Massey and Denton’s “American Apartheid,” and W.J. Wilson’s “The Underclass.”
Posted by bakunin on Apr 12, 2006 at 8:57 AM
I can see where the issue of ‘covering’ or taking on behaviour of the race or social set of power can be a disturbing reality. It happens in the realm of men and women too. Women are now and have been for some time, paying to see male strippers and having ‘bachelorette’ parties and this behaviour is such an obvious attempt for women to appear to be gaining power through behaving like men even though there is such an obvious false nature to it - if one of these guys were to jump off the stage and aggressively pursue the women in the audience, they are most likely to ‘act’ differently than men given their social experiences as women. Similarly though, men are starting to become more body conscious and looks concious….again, this is not a gain for either sex really. I can see how this may lead to us running in circles instead of progressing…however, there are some so-called ‘male’ behaviours that are going to definitely benefit whoever adapts to them as they are simply characteristic of those who succeed - confidence, ascertiveness…in the end, they’re not really ‘male’, they are just characteristics that have been attached to men in comparison to women given our respective historical social behaviour differences.
In the same way, isn’t it possible that some of these ‘white’ characteristics are aspects of behaviour that everyone wants to adapt to in every society (whatever the dominant colour) in order to gain opportunities? I’m sure we have all experienced other cultures during travel and through friendships with others and realize that every cutlure has it’s own higher level of pronouciation and diction of their language which affords them a certain positive distinction. Accents are also going to have some affect in any society. Having said this, there is no doubt that we must re-define what we consider to be a desirable state of existence….our principles based on a united people of different genders, races and experiences through the media etc..
Posted by deepbluesea on Apr 13, 2006 at 11:11 AM
Wolf,
While we are in accord with the ‘melting pot’ philosophy of America, I think we may disagree on the definition of a melting pot. For example, when I cook up a soup, I sautee some onions, carrots and celery in some oil, toss in a can of tomatoes, add the stock and some veggies, et voila. And everything has the flavor of everything else.
To extend the metaphor, your version of a melting pot would have all the ingredients tasting like tomatoes, which would be a sign of a bad chef. In your opinion, all minorities should conform to the dominant culture. Where’s the blending in that? Shouldn’t we adopt aspects of their culture? Aren’t there things to learn from the black experience?
I think that having “a country filled with diverse people with very different cultures and languages,” as you wrote, is like the first twenty minutes of a melting pot. A good soup takes about an hour and a half.
Posted by rocco on Apr 13, 2006 at 11:43 PM
These discussions always fascinate and puzzle me. They puzzle me because I was raised with as little awareness of race as my parents could afford me. To me, differences in skin color carry about the same weight as differences in eye color or hair color among Caucasians: it’s interesting that people come in different varieties, but in our essential nature we’re the same.
No, it’s not just a feel-good cliche (although it’s that, too - admittedly). It’s also a biological FACT.
The way to be your essential self is to be yourself, e.g., without being self conscious beyond a reasonable level of politeness. I know that sounds simplistic to many people, but it’s the truth. Get over it! Be who you are comfortable being, whether that behavior is “race appropriate” or not. The people you are so afraid of (the so-called “white power structure”) will respect you more for it.
Note the careful use of the word “respect”, as opposed to “like” or “love”. If you want love, buy a puppy. If you want respect, be authentically who YOU are, as an INDIVIDUAL.
Those silly, mawkish Hollywood movies do get one thing right: it is up to each individual to make things better. Putting the responsibilty off on a Nameless Mob (“those people…why, if it wasn’t for them…”) encourages passivity in the face of intolerance, and discourages people of good will from positive action (“You’re only being nice to me because you’re a Guilty White Liberal”).
Folks, it really is this simple: you connect to people one a time. You make friends one at a time. You overcome preconceived ideas in individual minds one at a time. If that sounds hopelessly naive to you, then I submit you are hopelessly cynical.
Posted by WingFlanagan on Apr 14, 2006 at 2:59 PM
WingFlanagan,
My only comment on your post:
History has a life of its own, which does indeed affect our individual lives. It’s not so much that your points are naive, but that they do little to address the historical markers that groups of people draw on our timeline of events.
I do agree indeed that people should be judged individually; but cultures are amalgams of these individuals, who share commonalities which often conflict with the commonalities of other groups. The reasons for the arbitrary division of groups (genetics, religion, etc.) are irrelevant in this context.
To remain above the fray, as it were, is a denial of the very real consequences of these factors. To address them is to acknowledge them, and, hopefully, in turn alter them.
Posted by rocco on Apr 14, 2006 at 4:37 PM
I recently saw a 20/20 news program edition where many young African-Americans spoke out against the idea that by virtue of their academic achievement they were “acting white”. It has gotten to such a point that Illinois Senator Barak Obama has weighed in on the side of the students who object strongly to being expected to hue toward a popular stereotype at the expense of their academic success. The students thought it unfair to be ostrocized because they were smart. It is also racist to think of academic ability as white regardless of your race. I was heartened by the students’ objections. I sincerely hope more students join them.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Apr 15, 2006 at 3:57 PM
I for one am with ya, WingFlanagan!
Undermine, erode, challenge, pointedly ignore, laugh at, mock, trivialize, confound, rage against, and otherwise dampen the influence of race-based thinking. “Biological fact”, es verdad! Fuck history. It’s 3/4 mythology and cooked data anyway.
Ya don’t have to like me, but we’re still cousins. We’re in the same bloody lifeboat no matter how you slice it.
Posted by Kuya on Apr 17, 2006 at 11:43 PM
Besides, how the hell do you “act white”? Or “act black”? Does a dark-skinned Punjabi act the same as a dark-skinned Sudanese, though their melanin levels might be similar?
Blah. Delusions within illusions. Time to transcend like a mofo. Pass the mayo.
Posted by Kuya on Apr 17, 2006 at 11:47 PM
WingFlanigan,
I feel you on one level, but you are living in the clouds! Come back down and acknowledge that “passing” happens for a reason. You claim that whites don’t respect people who pass - why do folks of color do it then? Why do you think people have been doing it since the first slave arrived on our soil? Cause it BENEFITS them. I don’t know if you have enough info to be able to criticize people who pass. If that’s the way to get a job, apartment, respect, cooperation etc. then that’s what people are going to do. And you take the blame OFF of injust structures (whites, assimilated people largely being in power and maintaining privelege through racism, exclusion), and off whites themselves (who are sometimes racist or unwilling to go out of their comfort zone to deal with other cultures) for making people pass.
I agree that race is sometimes over stressed - it might not be AS MUCH of an issue if it wasn’t brought up sometimes. But you are waaaay overstating your case. How you look/talk/act matters. And I don’t know about you, but I personally treat people of different races differently. And I admit it. And that’s because I can’t help it - it happens in many unconscious ways and is re-inforced by shitty movies like crash, and by the definition of “white” and “black” culture and stereotypes which pervade our culture. The problem is not that we talk too much about race, but that we still don’t have the courage (and our leaders don’t ask it of us) to look at our OWN issues with race and justice, at our own prejudice, fear etc. I just don’t feel that anyone can claim that they treat people race neutrally.
You also write:
“Be who you are comfortable being, whether that behavior is
Posted by RobbyB on May 28, 2006 at 2:03 AM
Well been and seen all this stuff before…Grew up in a black so-called working middle class 2 parent household with euro-centered values.To say this is a confusing issue is understated…Point-blank amerika don’t give a damn about any of this stuff…The conversation is an issue base off of slavery and the marginalization dehumanizing effects resulting post-extant…know we want to act like there is concern when in reality most folks black or white don’t care…Capitalism is a fascistic unstable form of governance it does not have time too actually deal with these things…Black folks & all people of good-will who truthfully care need to reach down past all the culturally nero-minded muck that represents amerikan social values etc… and come to realize that all culture and knowledge came from afrika ; appreciate these facts and respect the true intellectual value of this point ; authors such as Gerald Massey & Ivan Van Sertima are an excellent place to begin ( a lot of reading but worth every minute / the voluminous work on this subject IS extensive ).you don’t have to start wearing a kufi or change your name ...just get the facts straight…respect yourself and others and stop being so xenophobic…that job alone if started today would take maybe a good generation or so of collective study and revisionist thought….
....Respect….
Posted by Redhorse on May 28, 2006 at 9:02 AM
Calm dowm Kuya…history ain’t that bad a thing…if you don’t know it you are bound to repeat and I know you don’t want that…Mythology is the language / science of the ancient scholars ;don’t blame our collective fore-mothers & fore-fathers because some johnny wannabe think he know somethin and I mean thin as in thinly veiled non-scholarship wants too lie about our collective past ( please check out the work of Prof. Van Sertima , his personal story speaks to that very issue and his professional mission conquers that misconception ).The baby is beautiful it’s the bath water that needs to be thrown out….also excellent RobbyB don’t want to be marginalized or marginalize myself that’s the most damaging aspect of racism when you believe all the negative hype…Respect…
Posted by Redhorse on May 28, 2006 at 9:46 AM
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Reader Comments
“playing down non-white aspects of one
Wolf is correct to say that “acting white” is a misnomer.
I am white and come from an uneducated, poor background. Even had divorced parents and lived in a mobile home, such a cliche, but that was my life.
I watched and listened to how my family behaved/talked and compared that to teachers and any educated person I met or saw on television. I learned from this, leaned to say “I saw” instead of “I seen,” among other things.
Whether any of us like it or not, you WILL be judged on how you act and speak. Even the poorest households in this country have a television. Whatever your color, you hurt only yourself if you bitch and moan instead of watch and learn.
I’ve acutally decided to “act Asian” in raising my own son. Asians out-perform whites in this country. Does that mean that employers and schools are biased against whites in favor of Asians? Or that Asians are naturally more intelligent than whites? Or is it because even the poorest Asians tend to place such importance on education and performance? Hmmmm….I tend to think they’re on to something good.
And isn’t that what human development is all about? Improving on our family’s history by adopting the best of other cultures? Why would I want to flaunt my redneck ways out of some mis-guided family/cultural pride, and then insist that everyone else appreciate and reward it? Why on earth would I criticize an employer for not hiring me because I refuse to “talk good”?
Interesting article.
I don’t know, maybe we’re all Elizabeth Bennets, uncomfortably aware of the messier aspects of our own backgrounds.
“Acting white” here seems more like “acting WASPy”—or maybe just a sort of . . . where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above-average.
Very interesting Ms. Chaudhry. Your discussion of acting black, white, where “when it
She wears her Woman of Color on her sleeve. I’m also a woman of color, and so what. Yeah, we’re all the same. That’s just true.
“The freedom to perform our identity gives us the power to define its meaning.”—To quote Pope, that’s an “unmeaning, miscalled a thought.”
Is this a sideways attempt to justify identity as performance? I say we drop that and confess.
And this passage is just BS:
“At the heart of this individualist perspective on race is the assertion of sameness: We are all racists; we are all human. Difference is an artificial cultural construct that disguises and distorts our true universal essence.
As various critics have pointed out over and over again, this kind of liberal humanism effectively lets white Americans off the hook and denies the need for radical social change.”
The format of quoting academics and “many critics” is either a bad writing habit, or fear of saying things more straightforwardly. I like how critics haven’t just pointed this out frequently, but over and over again.
Radical social change in Lakshmi’s mind would appear to be necessarily waged in “courtrooms, schools, workplaces and in the media.” Wait, that’s where normal efforts at social change are waged. Radical social change, according to many historians who pointed this out over and over and over again, only happens in the streets, usually with weapons.
People squirt clouds of ink for the same reason that squid do.
I think that Wolf and Winterchestnut are on to something here. To some extent everybody acts.
The job interview, the first date, and the first day at school are not the occasions when people are happy to just be themselves. Experience also leads people, or has at least led me, to be change the way I behave in different situations. I have learned that the way I greet someone can make them think that I am akin, or very different, to them. In some cases it leads to real hostility. Do you speak to all of your friends and relations in the same way? or do you find yourself using different vocabularies and skirting issues that are likely to lead to arguments?
I used to work in call centres and can remember that the ‘steady hum’ of our machinery was the shifting of voices and speech patterns and salespeople or customer service people. As the calls progressed they came to sound like their clients. If they abruptly returned to their ‘natural’ intonation and accent it was because the conversation had taken a turn for the worse. You can observe the same behaviour in bars. When people want to get along they mimic each other, when they don’t they don’t. They will also lie, to themselves and to others, to fit in or feel comfortable.
Race, class, age, religion, and sex are pretty important social cleavages and it is when people cross these cleavages that they are most obviously acting but it is not just about race.
I think there is also a premise here that black people who use academic language, for example, are behaving in a way that is false. Have you ever heard an interview with Maya Angelou, dose she conform to the stereotype or is she
The growing nation-wide effort to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney is emblematic of a larger issue: what kind of country is the United States to become.
Yesterday
oops,
well maybe it makes the point. I was thinking about Maya Angelou’s interveiw with donald swaim http://www.wiredforbooks.org/mayaangelou/
but I just googled another interview , this time with Oprah, and she sound different - of course!
But I do not think she was being someone other than herself in either, just talking to the audience.
Anyway, I was really thinking about a friend who is a Mathematician. When he speaks with his colleagues he has a different accent and vocabulary to that he uses when speaking to his mother. I do not think that this is because he is somehow being false at work ,or at home. I think he is very definately himself wherever he is.
I’ve followed Black.White. because I did just that. In the late ‘60’s, my college friends and I were messing around with makeup. I tried my darkskinned friend’s foundation; we were astounded at the difference. Carmen suggested I borrow a friend’s afro wig, ahot pink dress I would never wear as my redhaired, paleskinned self, and dark hose. I wore granny glasses but did not otherwise diguise my eyes, nor did I speak differently.
For three evenings, I wore this outfit in public with them. One was very light, redhaired,; one was a bit darker with white features; the third was darkskinned, very African-appearing. They were afraid to appear white in public—I only had did it because I was with them in Santa Fe NM USA.
My other friends never figured it out. I was “Carmen’s cousin from Chicago.” The Black Student Union members invited me to dinner, a few guys even hit on me. One night we knocked on my own door. My mother didn’t recognize me until we dissolved into giggles and ‘fessed up.
We went to Chicago to visit Carmen’s real cousin. Again, I put on wig and makeup. On the way to Chicago from Santa Fe, we were harrassed by a Missouri state trooper who, according to Carol, thought we were hookers; he followed us from Joplin to St Louis, scaring us badly.
In Chicago, however, we were treated well. We attended a Black Panthers party and boy howdy did I get an eye-opener on race and class! I socialized a little but was terrified of being found out. My friends realized that getting caught out would be a Very Bad Thing so we left. The Panthers were fierce and dedicated, looking to survive in a world that hated them; hearing them, I could never be comfortable in my privilege again.
I dressed like that only once more. I wanted to visit a shop in the same Chicago neighborhood, but quickly realized that those streets were not healthy for a white girl. I bought makeup and returned to the shop “incognito.” This time, no one noticed me as I shopped.
Because of my history, Black.White. has been interesting. You’d think race issues would have progressed a teeny bit in 40 years! I like Brian, and feel enormous sympathy for him and Renee regarding their son, who is way too cute for his own good. I want to slap Carmen and Bruno for their impenetrable bastion of white privilege; with Rose, well, she tries and I think she knows she’s a privileged white kid.
In my experience, which comes out of my history, culture and skin color, much race conflict is born of conqueror’s rights and the subjugateds survival. It’s tough to let go of your history—and sometimes dangerous, as the pendulum of tolerance swings back and forth.
In race relations, culture/history play a large part, but we are also identified by our “race,” which doesn’t exist in the biological arena. Brian is lighter than some “white” folks, while Bruno seems darker than some “black” and ‘Hispanic” folks.
But .. . “we know what we know.” You can tell a black person or a white person, can’t you? Just like my own friends knew me . . . .
I feel that an integral part of the contemporary experience is performative. We should not expect anything that exists on the level of popular culture that comprises our hypermediated world to be anything more “real” in terms of understanding or articulating the systematic forms of racism that are less individualistic. Artists who are more apt at addressing racism are ambiguous and indirect because racism is very complex, with overt and hidden practices. However complexity is not a part of pop culture.
One way to understand these popular trends is to distinguish between racism and prejudice. People can have individual prejudices that are directed at other racial and cultural types but that does not have to be equated with racism. It is mistake to assume that the film “Crash” falls short of addressing “real” issues of racism because I don’t see the film as purporting to address those issues. The film addresses prejudices that cross cultural boundaries. That’s the value the film has to offer.
I enjoyed the film “Crash” because I could appreciate it on the level in which it was presented. Hopefully another film will come out that more directly addresses racism, but also the intersection of class and gender that make oppressive aspects of our society so pernicious.
I began reading this article hoping for a substantive critique of reducing racism to individual interactions (e.g., prejudicial attitudes leading to discriminatory behavior). However, it soon became clear that, rather than offering a structural or institutional analysis of racism, Lakshmi Chaudhry’s level of analysis remains at the individual—the only difference being that she has rightly pointed out that race is a social construction and must therefore be continuously enacted, constructed, and reproduced in various “performances.”
We need to view race as a social construction, but, if we are truly interested in eliminating racism, we must look beyond the level of the individual. A sociological approach would do the trick, but this seems to be ignored by the author, even attributing Erving Goffman’s sociological concept of “covering” to an author who is drawing on his work .
If we truly want to deal with race in a serious, as opposed to superficial, manner, we need to take a serious look at the institutional and structrual aspects that reproduce racial inequality. Chaudhry might start by looking at such classics as Oliver and Shapiro’s “Black Wealth/White Wealth,” Massey and Denton’s “American Apartheid,” and W.J. Wilson’s “The Underclass.”
I can see where the issue of ‘covering’ or taking on behaviour of the race or social set of power can be a disturbing reality. It happens in the realm of men and women too. Women are now and have been for some time, paying to see male strippers and having ‘bachelorette’ parties and this behaviour is such an obvious attempt for women to appear to be gaining power through behaving like men even though there is such an obvious false nature to it - if one of these guys were to jump off the stage and aggressively pursue the women in the audience, they are most likely to ‘act’ differently than men given their social experiences as women. Similarly though, men are starting to become more body conscious and looks concious….again, this is not a gain for either sex really. I can see how this may lead to us running in circles instead of progressing…however, there are some so-called ‘male’ behaviours that are going to definitely benefit whoever adapts to them as they are simply characteristic of those who succeed - confidence, ascertiveness…in the end, they’re not really ‘male’, they are just characteristics that have been attached to men in comparison to women given our respective historical social behaviour differences.
In the same way, isn’t it possible that some of these ‘white’ characteristics are aspects of behaviour that everyone wants to adapt to in every society (whatever the dominant colour) in order to gain opportunities? I’m sure we have all experienced other cultures during travel and through friendships with others and realize that every cutlure has it’s own higher level of pronouciation and diction of their language which affords them a certain positive distinction. Accents are also going to have some affect in any society. Having said this, there is no doubt that we must re-define what we consider to be a desirable state of existence….our principles based on a united people of different genders, races and experiences through the media etc..
Wolf,
While we are in accord with the ‘melting pot’ philosophy of America, I think we may disagree on the definition of a melting pot. For example, when I cook up a soup, I sautee some onions, carrots and celery in some oil, toss in a can of tomatoes, add the stock and some veggies, et voila. And everything has the flavor of everything else.
To extend the metaphor, your version of a melting pot would have all the ingredients tasting like tomatoes, which would be a sign of a bad chef. In your opinion, all minorities should conform to the dominant culture. Where’s the blending in that? Shouldn’t we adopt aspects of their culture? Aren’t there things to learn from the black experience?
I think that having “a country filled with diverse people with very different cultures and languages,” as you wrote, is like the first twenty minutes of a melting pot. A good soup takes about an hour and a half.
These discussions always fascinate and puzzle me. They puzzle me because I was raised with as little awareness of race as my parents could afford me. To me, differences in skin color carry about the same weight as differences in eye color or hair color among Caucasians: it’s interesting that people come in different varieties, but in our essential nature we’re the same.
No, it’s not just a feel-good cliche (although it’s that, too - admittedly). It’s also a biological FACT.
The way to be your essential self is to be yourself, e.g., without being self conscious beyond a reasonable level of politeness. I know that sounds simplistic to many people, but it’s the truth. Get over it! Be who you are comfortable being, whether that behavior is “race appropriate” or not. The people you are so afraid of (the so-called “white power structure”) will respect you more for it.
Note the careful use of the word “respect”, as opposed to “like” or “love”. If you want love, buy a puppy. If you want respect, be authentically who YOU are, as an INDIVIDUAL.
Those silly, mawkish Hollywood movies do get one thing right: it is up to each individual to make things better. Putting the responsibilty off on a Nameless Mob (“those people…why, if it wasn’t for them…”) encourages passivity in the face of intolerance, and discourages people of good will from positive action (“You’re only being nice to me because you’re a Guilty White Liberal”).
Folks, it really is this simple: you connect to people one a time. You make friends one at a time. You overcome preconceived ideas in individual minds one at a time. If that sounds hopelessly naive to you, then I submit you are hopelessly cynical.
WingFlanagan,
My only comment on your post:
History has a life of its own, which does indeed affect our individual lives. It’s not so much that your points are naive, but that they do little to address the historical markers that groups of people draw on our timeline of events.
I do agree indeed that people should be judged individually; but cultures are amalgams of these individuals, who share commonalities which often conflict with the commonalities of other groups. The reasons for the arbitrary division of groups (genetics, religion, etc.) are irrelevant in this context.
To remain above the fray, as it were, is a denial of the very real consequences of these factors. To address them is to acknowledge them, and, hopefully, in turn alter them.
I recently saw a 20/20 news program edition where many young African-Americans spoke out against the idea that by virtue of their academic achievement they were “acting white”. It has gotten to such a point that Illinois Senator Barak Obama has weighed in on the side of the students who object strongly to being expected to hue toward a popular stereotype at the expense of their academic success. The students thought it unfair to be ostrocized because they were smart. It is also racist to think of academic ability as white regardless of your race. I was heartened by the students’ objections. I sincerely hope more students join them.
I for one am with ya, WingFlanagan!
Undermine, erode, challenge, pointedly ignore, laugh at, mock, trivialize, confound, rage against, and otherwise dampen the influence of race-based thinking. “Biological fact”, es verdad! Fuck history. It’s 3/4 mythology and cooked data anyway.
Ya don’t have to like me, but we’re still cousins. We’re in the same bloody lifeboat no matter how you slice it.
Besides, how the hell do you “act white”? Or “act black”? Does a dark-skinned Punjabi act the same as a dark-skinned Sudanese, though their melanin levels might be similar?
Blah. Delusions within illusions. Time to transcend like a mofo. Pass the mayo.
WingFlanigan,
I feel you on one level, but you are living in the clouds! Come back down and acknowledge that “passing” happens for a reason. You claim that whites don’t respect people who pass - why do folks of color do it then? Why do you think people have been doing it since the first slave arrived on our soil? Cause it BENEFITS them. I don’t know if you have enough info to be able to criticize people who pass. If that’s the way to get a job, apartment, respect, cooperation etc. then that’s what people are going to do. And you take the blame OFF of injust structures (whites, assimilated people largely being in power and maintaining privelege through racism, exclusion), and off whites themselves (who are sometimes racist or unwilling to go out of their comfort zone to deal with other cultures) for making people pass.
I agree that race is sometimes over stressed - it might not be AS MUCH of an issue if it wasn’t brought up sometimes. But you are waaaay overstating your case. How you look/talk/act matters. And I don’t know about you, but I personally treat people of different races differently. And I admit it. And that’s because I can’t help it - it happens in many unconscious ways and is re-inforced by shitty movies like crash, and by the definition of “white” and “black” culture and stereotypes which pervade our culture. The problem is not that we talk too much about race, but that we still don’t have the courage (and our leaders don’t ask it of us) to look at our OWN issues with race and justice, at our own prejudice, fear etc. I just don’t feel that anyone can claim that they treat people race neutrally.
You also write:
“Be who you are comfortable being, whether that behavior is
Well been and seen all this stuff before…Grew up in a black so-called working middle class 2 parent household with euro-centered values.To say this is a confusing issue is understated…Point-blank amerika don’t give a damn about any of this stuff…The conversation is an issue base off of slavery and the marginalization dehumanizing effects resulting post-extant…know we want to act like there is concern when in reality most folks black or white don’t care…Capitalism is a fascistic unstable form of governance it does not have time too actually deal with these things…Black folks & all people of good-will who truthfully care need to reach down past all the culturally nero-minded muck that represents amerikan social values etc… and come to realize that all culture and knowledge came from afrika ; appreciate these facts and respect the true intellectual value of this point ; authors such as Gerald Massey & Ivan Van Sertima are an excellent place to begin ( a lot of reading but worth every minute / the voluminous work on this subject IS extensive ).you don’t have to start wearing a kufi or change your name ...just get the facts straight…respect yourself and others and stop being so xenophobic…that job alone if started today would take maybe a good generation or so of collective study and revisionist thought….
....Respect….
Calm dowm Kuya…history ain’t that bad a thing…if you don’t know it you are bound to repeat and I know you don’t want that…Mythology is the language / science of the ancient scholars ;don’t blame our collective fore-mothers & fore-fathers because some johnny wannabe think he know somethin and I mean thin as in thinly veiled non-scholarship wants too lie about our collective past ( please check out the work of Prof. Van Sertima , his personal story speaks to that very issue and his professional mission conquers that misconception ).The baby is beautiful it’s the bath water that needs to be thrown out….also excellent RobbyB don’t want to be marginalized or marginalize myself that’s the most damaging aspect of racism when you believe all the negative hype…Respect…
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