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08-02-2015, 02:06 AM
As someone who is neither black nor white literally, I usually see racial issues in terms that are neither black nor white figuratively. I do not believe every claim of racism. I also don't disbelieve every claim related to race.
I am persuaded by the facts, especially the evidence suggesting attitudes and actions can be racial without being racist. They may reveal implicit bias (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/index.jsp), the forms of prejudice and micro-aggression that are not clear and not severe. These hints and signals and symbols line up along a spectrum. They point at what is worse (http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3147&context=dlj). A single incident or case might be ambiguous or excused, but patterns emerge that are compelling and disturbing.
Here is an example. I have been told by African Americans -- students, colleagues, and friends -- about the experience of someone white feeling their hair, because they are curious about its "nappy" texture. (http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/25/touching.natural.black.hair/) These are typically childhood encounters. (The term "nappy" itself can have a demeaning connotation. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9568018))
The individuals who have reported this presumptuous behavior do not describe it as a daily occurrence, but they point out how offensive it is regardless of frequency. Picture the mirror image, the affront of the average Caucasian toward a stranger, a person of color, touching them unexpectedly on the top of their head. (It does happen to individual whites with unusually curly hair, but that's part of the point: what is common for members of one race is rare for members of another race.)
A disclaimer, if it serves to put anyone at ease. I am confident that I likewise am guilty of transgressions of every manner, though I don't believe I have committed this particular one.
What is interesting, however, is that non-blacks who have heard about this phenomenon exhibit various stages of denial. Their reaction is not limited to the specifics of hair. They might be oblivious to the the complex politics of hair: straightening and coloring as signifying assimilation, coercive or otherwise. The "Black is Beautiful" movement of the 1960s was a response (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/black-is-beautiful/), radicalism that became mainstream. The United States military just last year had to revise its grooming regulations, which treated natural black hair as "matted and unkempt." (http://time.com/3107647/military-black-hairstyles/)
Allow me to offer a stylized composite of how whites have talked to me about blacks. These are conversations of course in which there are no blacks present. They remind me of the Eddie Murphy skit on Saturday Night Live, in which the comedian, in makeup to pass as white, discovers that everything is free and it's always a party -- when there are no blacks around.
Another disclaimer, by way of background. A few are tempted to pre-empt me by supposing I am on the "side" of blacks, which only confirms that for them there are sides to be taken. To the extent it is relevant, I grew up in neighborhoods that were just about exclusively white, and it wasn't until I was an adult that I interacted meaningfully with anyone black (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=frank-h-wu/howard-university-changed_b_6737918.html). I doubt anybody can be neutral on race, but some of us have the perspective of being outside a black-white paradigm -- whether we like it or not.
So here is what happens when I mention an episode such as someone white marveling at someone black. Perhaps I have breached the etiquette of race by commenting on the conduct. The defensive instinct kicks in.
It begins with the interjection of, "No, really? That doesn't happen. Does it? I doubt it." People who deem themselves normal are incredulous about the supposed indignity.
Then those who reflect on the matter, admitting the possibility, retreat to, "Not often though, right?" They are not sure, other than of their own innocence.
Following that, the rationalization is based on both intent and consequences. They say, "The kids who do that, they don't mean anything by it. You can't really call them bigots." Or they say, "It isn't serious. That isn't the same as a hate crime." Unless, they imply, the motivation is rooted in white supremacy and the outcome is egregious, these are trivial slights not worth noticing much less remarking upon.
If someone concludes the claim is at least plausible, their best retort is nervous. They want to laugh it off. They encourage others to do so. "Oh, come on. Lighten up, have a sense of humor." Even if there is a wrong, there isn't any remedy.
Finally, people have no choice but to suggest it's all the same. They are confident that black people -- and, they might add, "how come they are called African Americans?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/arts/use-of-african-american-dates-to-nations-early-days.html?_r=0) -- do the same to white people, or they would if they could. They ignore the different numbers and the disparate statuses.
Anyway, they aren't concerned with such problems. That is why we continue to struggle with the "American dilemma." The title of the Gunnar Myrdal (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/18/obituaries/gunnar-myrdal-analyst-of-race-crisis-dies.html) study of race relations, a classic of social science research that remans as relevant as when it was published during World War II, does not refer to what might be expected. It describes not a difference between two races, but the distinction between abstract ideals and concrete reality. All of us yearn to be reassured about our progress, but the remaining problems do not affect the material conditions of our lives uniformly.
For whatever it is worth, an observer who is neither black nor white cannot help but discern the color line. Race enthralls us, in the original definition of the word. Despite being a myth, it is powerful enough in our shared imagination to create its own reality. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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I am persuaded by the facts, especially the evidence suggesting attitudes and actions can be racial without being racist. They may reveal implicit bias (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/index.jsp), the forms of prejudice and micro-aggression that are not clear and not severe. These hints and signals and symbols line up along a spectrum. They point at what is worse (http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3147&context=dlj). A single incident or case might be ambiguous or excused, but patterns emerge that are compelling and disturbing.
Here is an example. I have been told by African Americans -- students, colleagues, and friends -- about the experience of someone white feeling their hair, because they are curious about its "nappy" texture. (http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/25/touching.natural.black.hair/) These are typically childhood encounters. (The term "nappy" itself can have a demeaning connotation. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9568018))
The individuals who have reported this presumptuous behavior do not describe it as a daily occurrence, but they point out how offensive it is regardless of frequency. Picture the mirror image, the affront of the average Caucasian toward a stranger, a person of color, touching them unexpectedly on the top of their head. (It does happen to individual whites with unusually curly hair, but that's part of the point: what is common for members of one race is rare for members of another race.)
A disclaimer, if it serves to put anyone at ease. I am confident that I likewise am guilty of transgressions of every manner, though I don't believe I have committed this particular one.
What is interesting, however, is that non-blacks who have heard about this phenomenon exhibit various stages of denial. Their reaction is not limited to the specifics of hair. They might be oblivious to the the complex politics of hair: straightening and coloring as signifying assimilation, coercive or otherwise. The "Black is Beautiful" movement of the 1960s was a response (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/video/black-is-beautiful/), radicalism that became mainstream. The United States military just last year had to revise its grooming regulations, which treated natural black hair as "matted and unkempt." (http://time.com/3107647/military-black-hairstyles/)
Allow me to offer a stylized composite of how whites have talked to me about blacks. These are conversations of course in which there are no blacks present. They remind me of the Eddie Murphy skit on Saturday Night Live, in which the comedian, in makeup to pass as white, discovers that everything is free and it's always a party -- when there are no blacks around.
Another disclaimer, by way of background. A few are tempted to pre-empt me by supposing I am on the "side" of blacks, which only confirms that for them there are sides to be taken. To the extent it is relevant, I grew up in neighborhoods that were just about exclusively white, and it wasn't until I was an adult that I interacted meaningfully with anyone black (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=frank-h-wu/howard-university-changed_b_6737918.html). I doubt anybody can be neutral on race, but some of us have the perspective of being outside a black-white paradigm -- whether we like it or not.
So here is what happens when I mention an episode such as someone white marveling at someone black. Perhaps I have breached the etiquette of race by commenting on the conduct. The defensive instinct kicks in.
It begins with the interjection of, "No, really? That doesn't happen. Does it? I doubt it." People who deem themselves normal are incredulous about the supposed indignity.
Then those who reflect on the matter, admitting the possibility, retreat to, "Not often though, right?" They are not sure, other than of their own innocence.
Following that, the rationalization is based on both intent and consequences. They say, "The kids who do that, they don't mean anything by it. You can't really call them bigots." Or they say, "It isn't serious. That isn't the same as a hate crime." Unless, they imply, the motivation is rooted in white supremacy and the outcome is egregious, these are trivial slights not worth noticing much less remarking upon.
If someone concludes the claim is at least plausible, their best retort is nervous. They want to laugh it off. They encourage others to do so. "Oh, come on. Lighten up, have a sense of humor." Even if there is a wrong, there isn't any remedy.
Finally, people have no choice but to suggest it's all the same. They are confident that black people -- and, they might add, "how come they are called African Americans?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/21/arts/use-of-african-american-dates-to-nations-early-days.html?_r=0) -- do the same to white people, or they would if they could. They ignore the different numbers and the disparate statuses.
Anyway, they aren't concerned with such problems. That is why we continue to struggle with the "American dilemma." The title of the Gunnar Myrdal (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/18/obituaries/gunnar-myrdal-analyst-of-race-crisis-dies.html) study of race relations, a classic of social science research that remans as relevant as when it was published during World War II, does not refer to what might be expected. It describes not a difference between two races, but the distinction between abstract ideals and concrete reality. All of us yearn to be reassured about our progress, but the remaining problems do not affect the material conditions of our lives uniformly.
For whatever it is worth, an observer who is neither black nor white cannot help but discern the color line. Race enthralls us, in the original definition of the word. Despite being a myth, it is powerful enough in our shared imagination to create its own reality. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. (http://start.westnet.ca/newstempch.php?article=terms.html/) It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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