I'm really interested in what you all think and say about racial and ethnic identity. It's much too easy to adhere to established theories that seek to explain attitudes and beliefs about race and ethnicity while possibly ignoring attitudes and beliefs that don't align with them.
The comments from the previous blog post share some common beliefs about one's ability to control ethnic and/or racial identity. You all perceive a lot more individual control over that than the theories would suggest.
So my question is this: are those beliefs held because of our faith in the autonomy of the individual, or do you really believe that we have more control over the way others see us than the theorists would concede?
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I don't think I understand your question. Can you please explain that?
ReplyDeleteMore specifically, what do you mean by "faith in the autonomy of the individual?"
The autonomy of the individual might be important on a personal level, but in a larger context I think it might be rendered completely useless (particularly if the society is one, like the United States, with fixed categories of races and ethnicities). I can call myself whatever I want: white, German, Czech, Alsace-Lorrainian), and I might believe that I have some sort of racial connection (based on biological factors like my scattered small dots of melanin or my hair color) or ethnic connection (based on, perhaps, my high tolerence for alcohol or my family tree extending to folks who lived there in my past, and feeling that if I had just lived a few centuries ago I would have been kicking it some Prussian market town).
ReplyDeleteBut why do I find it necessary to consider myself as such? What does it matter that my great grandfather Wilhem Schnitzelberger was frolicking in the German countryside? And why should I feel obliged to make a matter of the fact that my skin tone resembles that of an unripened peach?
Unfortunately, though, this leads to the idea of colorblind racism. I completely understand how, to some folks, it is extremely important that they are labelled as a certain race or ethnicity. I was talking to my friend Sylvester, an older black man who grew up in rural Oklahoma and travelled between there and St. Louis from his birth in the late '30s. I naively told him, after his prompting, that I felt that race didn't matter--that folks could be black, white, yellow, what have you, and I would just see them as people. He considered that, but then told him how important it is to him that he is labelled as a "black" man because it's so deeply important in his own history. He was used to being divided like that; the label became second-nature, almost like that of being a "man". To him, racial identity defines his existence: it explains his history and life path.
But he didn't choose that. Society, that abstract concept, chose it for him: people in power, people in history, people who looked different from him. And of course, if he's labelled then everyone else must be. We like to classify things, to divide things into categories; why not do this according to skin color and physical features, eh?
Although I may not feel any connection with my heritage or with my "whiteness", I respect that others do. My point, I think, is that the only reason people started labelling themselves and becoming autonomous is because it's what the hegemonic culture and society decided was the good thing to do in a particularly conservating time in history in a nation that was composed entirely of "foreigners" (they killed the natives, of course). Whether or not it's bad or good, it's happening--from the forms we fill out to take the SAT, to organized groups like White Supremacists or the like, we all seem to be...doing race.
I feel like I have a lot of gaps in this opinion, though, so please correct me where you see fit and tell me I'm wrong!
What I mean by faith in the autonomy of the individual is whether we, as a society, share the belief that individuals control how they represent themselves to others. In other words, do you or I or Johanna or anyone else have the ability to tell other people what our race and ethnicity are because they are fundamenally part of us as individuals and as such, it should be up to us to decide how we are identified? Or do others have a say in that too?
ReplyDeleteJohanna,
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Turner might say about your friend Sylvester is that his identity as a black man is not only about his history and ancestry, but also about the political statement it makes. Culture, identity, ethnicity, race -- according to Turner they are all inseparable from the political-economic context in which they exist. Think about why it's important to track race in the census in the US whereas in France, there is no such question on their census forms....
It is interesting to think about why I am able to sit here and say that I believe race does not matter. Because truthfully to me, it does not, but never have I thought about why that might be. Johanna's point about having no connection to our 'whiteness' is very intriguing. Maybe I have no issues with race because I feel that I personally have none myself. It seems strange, yet I have nothing that roots me to where I came from or why I look the way I do. I have never even considered this possibility in looking at race. Many people do feel strong connections to their race, ethnicity, heritage, etc. and know exactly what makes them who they are. Maybe it should not be a bad thing necessarily to notice race, maybe it is a point of pride, it would be nice to have something to define oneself with; it is the whole idea of the 'us' versus 'them', we want something to link us to a certain group.
ReplyDeleteI think we have more control over how other see us than theorists popularly believe. This is because people see race more than just visible biological traits. There are certain behavior, action, and body language that people attribute to a certain race, and while you certainly can’t change your skin color or the texture of your hair, you can certain control how you behave, act, and dress.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I went to a very diverse high school (48% white, 48% black, and 4% others) and people mingled well together. Within my particular group of friends, there is this one black girl who we always jokingly call “blasian” because she sometimes act more Asian than black. She is very into South Korean culture and knows more about it than any of us because her sister is an English teacher in Korea. She watches a lot of Korean movies and becomes influenced by the way the actors/actresses speak, act, and dress. Then, there is another friend of mine, whom we called a twinkle. This means she is Asian (yellow on the outside) but act white (white on the inside side).
Of course, these are all based on stereotypes about each race. I am not debating whether stereotypes are good or bad, but the reality is everyone uses stereotypes in order to make sense of the world. Thus, by speaking, acting, or dressing a certain way that alludes to a racial stereotypes, we can control how people see us in terms of race.
Nice comments so far!
ReplyDeleteThe notion of control and racial/ethnic identity spins a tricky and confusing web. Surely we create our own ethnic desitinies by our actions and decisions. But to what extent are those decisions being influenced by social sanctions from other people?
I think it's a pretty Western thing to praise and put faith in the complete autonomy of the individual when it comes to racial identity. Of course we would do that; we live in a time and place where uniqueness is encouraged and recognition is groveled over. But the way in which we direct our own social identities is not everything. Our ethnic identity would not exist without other people there to help shape it. I don't think I would go as far as Johanna, however, and say that an individual's racial/ethnic autonomy is rendered useless.
Rather, the way I see it, control in relation to race and ethnicity is something that exists outside of social relations and interaction...kind of like an aura, in a weird way. Identity gets configured in a way that's based on the collective assumptions of people that fit within the context of the time period. The best example I can think of to explain this is high school popularity. How do you think certain people get labeled as "popular"? It might be because of their expensive clothes or high-profile friends. But all of that only happens because the majority of people assume those things are necessary to be popular. Same thing with celebrities... there's just a mystique about those people that is not tied to particularities. And I guess this is how I see race and ethnicity, more like a feeling that is associated with other people based on a mix of assumptions that are my own (from my own experiences with those people) and what is generally assumed about a group of people.
I'm wondering to what extent assumptions shape individual behavior? And what consequences transpire as a result? Just think of the transition from segregation merely 50 years ago to celebration of diversity these days. Who can explain why that happened? The general assumption about what it means to be a minority in this country shifted over time, without any definite cause or leader. But those opinions and assumptions had to come from somewhere! As it is, it seems like they are just...floating in the air, for lack of better phrasing. People hold them, and believe in them, but they don’t really know why. Maybe because everybody else does…
Racial and ethnic identity allows me to connect to every part of myself. I remember when I traveled abroad for the first time and I put my race in the section where it asked for race. The customs official scratched out Black and put in American. I don't see my race as American. This was a sore point for me because he told me that I was American, your color doesn't matter. I did not want to make a political statement in the customs line, but that infuriated me. The questioned asked my nationality. My national origin I could say is American, but at that time in my journey, I was not feeling like I really came from anywhere because I could only trace my heritage back to my great grandmother and grandfather.
ReplyDeleteI traveled a great deal to Africa in search for my identity and to connect to the land of my ancestors birth. It was very emotional for me as I saw similar cultural patterns and practices. Some of the people I met were beautiful and there was a ceremony of apology from African chiefs who welcomed us home and apologized for aiding in our entrance into slavery. I spoke with people who had knowledge passed down through their family of people who went missing as a result of slave traders just as I have knowledge of what my family language (swahili) was from Africa.
My experience of race and ethnic identity is personal and I treat everyones identity as personal because it shapes them and brings with it all the genetic codes, phenotype and genotype. Colorblindness where one does not see color or ethnicity is saying to me that you are not getting to know that person. If one wants to say we are all just Americans, it does not say much about the culture that we bring with us which is rich, interesting and complex. It also tells me that the individual lives a very sheltered life and is not fully exposed. In order to expose yourself, you must put yourself in environments without the glasses of your culture, but leave yourself open to experience how one processes and experiences life in other cultures. It fascinates me and I feel it is what makes the world go round.