(Sturctural) Racism and Moral Voices

[alixtii]

International Blog Against Racism Week is coming to a close. I like to think that every week is International Blog Against Sexism week in my journal, but race doesn't get mentioned all that often. I can't post with any particularly appropriate icons, for all the eight people who appear in my six icons are all white. While I think we are agreed that's deeply problematic, it is not as if going and getting an icon of a character I don't really like would solve anything. The issue is deeper, systemic, and blaming the individual never solves anything. (Not that I should be absolved of responsibility, either.) Changing my icons won't change anything; changing whatever made me not as interested in the non-white characters will, alongside an honest attempt to understand and appreciate the characters I might not "get."

(Honestly, this is how I see affirmative action most of the time. I don't oppose it anymore, because I think the restrictions on it by the Supreme Court are extremely fair, but I don't see it working particularly well, either.)

The closest character to a character of color whom I really loved is Kennedy, and she (and/or Iyari?) passed for white to me for the entire time I watched the show. I even sort of remember the "Really? Hmm" moment when I learned that Iyari Limon was Latina--and of course there are photo shoots of her that I've seen since which really accentuate it.(And there was a really great post about that and how problematic it is on my flist a couple days ago. Let me finish my thought and I'll hunt down the link.) Class issues intersect here--it was clearly established that Kennedy was at least upper-middle class, with a vacation house on Long Island, and there seems to be a weird (or not-so-weird, really, when one thinks about it) way that "upward" mobility requires a much greater enculturation in white culture (i.e., patriarchal hegemony) so that we would expect an upper-class Latina to pass for white better than a lower-class one.

Part of it is to whom I'm attracted; with the exception of the Mesektet/Dark Champions icon, all of my icons contain at least one character to whom I'm attracted. Why do I tend not to be attracted to people who are non-white (and when I do find such a person attractive, it is typically on "white" standards of beauty)? Well, "socialization" is the easy and obvious answer there, but I think the damage has been pretty much done by this point. Any suggestions as to how I can save future generations from this? (Of course, any evaluation of a person based on appearance is problematic from a feminist viewpoint, but it is not a practice from which we can very easily escape.)

Okay, so I wanted to use this time to revisit the question of whether texts can speak with moral voices, because that's part of what is at stake when we look at racism/sexism/classism in texts. There is nothing outside the text, so by definition every act of racism/sexism/classism is carried out via texts. And structural raceism/sexism/classism is built into the very language in which we create the texts, which presents those constructing the text with an interesting dilemma--we must work within the language so as to be communicative, but outside it so as to be liberatory. Twas brilig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.

Sunnydale is a white, upper-middle-class community. Now there's some worldbuilding issues here, admittedly. We know that Sunnydale has people moving in and out a lot, and the property values are low, and I'm not an economics major so I don't know what it would take to keep up the upper-middle-class lifestyle that the residents of Sunnydale have. And it's been argued that geographically, there's no way a Californian suburb with that level of moving in and out could keep the level of racial homogeneity that it does. I don't know enough about California to speak to that issue. What I do know that here on the East Coast, there are plenty of towns just like Sunnydale.

To say that because Sunnydale is a white community that there is something oppressive with Buffy is ludicrous (and I'm not accusing anyone of making such an argument, just working through a train of thought.) Otherwise, only shows taking place in the Feminist Utopia would be proper, and I'm not sure that such a show would at all be entertaining. Instead, we must look at what function Sunnydale's whiteness performs. Insofar as Buffy is a subversive attack on the complacency of white middle class Americans, Sunnydale's whiteness is a suitably progressive source of satire. We know that the show called attention to the lack of diversity at least once, when Mr. Trick first entered Sunnydale.

If you're not convinced by this reading of Buffy I could go on, drawing on more details and whatnot. But as a result of various meta discussions, I'm not sure whether there is any correct reading. Buffy is a floating signifier, and as a result it says nothing and everything about race. A racist moving picture from the late 19th century might be the most powerful message against racism in the contemporary moment: it self-satirizes.

So what is a radical feminist to do, other than throw their hands up in despair? Nothing is forbidden, everything is permitted? Well, this is where the switch from theory to praxis comes in. (Although the way we conceptualize praxis--which is, of course, another type of text--is ultimately dependent on theory.) In this world, are people of color empowered or disempowered by the Buffy text? This is an empirical question that cannot be answered by watching Buffy alone, and as such, I have no idea what the answer is. And while I think censorship is always an evil, and that people have a responsibility to their Muses, there is no responsibility to go out of our way to disseminate damaging (i.e. damaging in the specific here/now of a sociohistorical location) texts.

An it harm none, do what thou will.

(To recognize "harm" as such, of course, we need a theoretical apparatus already in place--in this case, my radical feminist convictions.)

This is why, as I've said before in this journal, there is no such thing as a feminist text, and the flipside of the argument is that there is no such thing as a racist text: because texts don't speak with a moral voice. They don't speak with any voice at all; they need to be interpreted.

Comments

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Part of it is to whom I'm attracted; with the exception of the Mesektet/Dark Champions icon, all of my icons contain at least one character to whom I'm attracted. Why do I tend not to be attracted to people who are non-white (and when I do find such a person attractive, it is typically on "white" standards of beauty)? Well, "socialization" is the easy and obvious answer there, but I think the damage has been pretty much done by this point. Any suggestions as to how I can save future generations from this? (Of course, any evaluation of a person based on appearance is problematic from a feminist viewpoint, but it is not a practice from which we can very easily escape.)

Hmm, on the attraction front I find that I'm attracted to people on the basis of previous experience with those of a similar type. Hence I like 'sensitive'/slightly fey South Asian guys because I was friends with Cosmic and Danny at university, and I like Latina women because of the gorgeous Spanish girl I worked with in Rome. And so on. So I disagree that any 'damage' to your mental picture of what constitutes attractive is permanent, especially considering that you're a lot younger than me.

Also I'd say that judging on first appearances is a human problem rather than specifically a feminist one.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Hmm, probably true, although certainly patterns set early do perpetuate themselves, because if one doesn't seek out such individuals one is left having to hope that life randomly will thrust oneself with dynamic people of color--and in some geographical locations, that's too much to ask for. And while there are some really amazing Latina women at my summer job, and yes I'll take those experiences with me forever, I think I do still judge them somewhat by a "white" standard of beauty (even though some do really well when judged by that standard).

And I'm not sure how this applies to media representations; if, say, characters like Zoe or Rona leave me cold, then exposing myself to them isn't really doing the world any favors, is it? But I'm assuming that my socialization is part of the reason why they leave me cold, because I know how much Zoe is able to do for some people and how much they love her.

And I'm a radical enough feminist that I don't think I really make distinctions between "human" and "feminist" problems--pretty much everything that is wrong with society is a result of the patriarchy under my schema. Which is part of the reason why, to me, racism is a "feminist" problem.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

I met Danny and Cosmic (and Ayisha and Spooks) for that matter when I was at Edinburgh University, not somewhere that was remotely racially diverse at the time. Through my Women Writers Group at the same time I met Sheila , a white Scotswoman who had lived in the Caribbean for many years. She introduced me to Caribbean cooking, helped me understand the specific problems of racism her sons faced (mixed race and dual nationality) and took me to see black poets at the Edinburgh Festival, one of whom focused on the specific problems of racism in the Netherlands (even whiter than Edinburgh at that time, as I remember).

Okay, so maybe I do subconsciously seek out people of colour because one of my role models growing up was a black mechanic in what was then an exclusively white branch of motor sport. Another role model was the holder of the Ladies Records at several of the tracks we went to, which may be why I subsconciously gravitate towards little people, I dunno. But I don't think socialisation ends at 18 or 21, or whatever age you think it stopped for you -- I know my Parents are still open to new ideas and to changing their opinions of groups of people for example.

I don't think you mean the same thing I mean by 'radical feminist', but I would say that some of the problems we have today, including the tendency to judge people by their appearance, can be found throughout history and across all societies. Which suggests to me those problems are a result of people being human and not of the patriarchy in the form as it exists now.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, as much as I do not believe that etymology is destiny, I can't quite forget that "radical" comes from a word for "root," so I suppose that by "radical feminist" I mean a feminism which looks to the intolerance found in the deepest structures which are the most foundational--language, myth, logic, cognition itself--and tries to deal with it there, as opposed to liberal feminism which tries to deal with problems (mere symptoms of a greater disease?) on the surface, e.g. by passing laws (with various degrees of success).

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

So on the one hand you're saying that you can't overcome your socialisation in terms of who you're attracted to, but on the other hand you want to overcome other people's socialisation by directly challenging their attitudes to gender roles and stereotypes. Or am I missing something here?

Yes, I think that individuals can do a lot to help or hinder any cause, and yes, I think that it's easier to instill better attitudes in youngsters than it is to get adults to change theirs but I'm still not sure that I can accept the concept of a (heterosexual) male as a radical feminist without instantly thinking of the son-in-law in the Reginald Perrin series from the seventies (which probably just flags up my socialisation), and I really don't want to go there.

[slashpine.livejournal.com]

Here from metafandom. Great read!

And -- praxis ... is, of course, another type of text -- Yowza! I want to friend you just for that brilliance alone!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[oyceter]

This is why, as I've said before in this journal, there is no such thing as a feminist text, and the flipside of the argument is that there is no such thing as a racist text: because texts don't speak with a moral voice.

Weeelllll.....

To play devil's advocate: I think there are such things as racist (and anti-feminist, and anti-racist, and feminist) texts.

For example, Patricia Gaffney's Crooked Hearts has a plot point in which there is a Chinaman (I use her term, not my own) kidnaps the white heroine, drugs her with opium and plans on deflowering her. The white hero rescues her, and there is much talk of the evil yellow Chinamen and how they like to kidnap white women for deflowerment.

I would say that yes, this is a racist text, as it perpetuates stereotypes of the Chinese that have been around for quite some time, and that as such, it is harmful.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, first off, in your last line you adopt my criterion. Crooked Hearts is harmful because it perpetuates stereotypes that have been around for some time. The fact that the stereotypes have been around for some time is not a feature of the text, certainly; it is a feature of the sociohistorical moment in which we find ourselves, reading the text.

I'm not sure what you mean by "perpetuating" stereotypes: are we assuming that otherwise the reader would never have been introduced to these stereotypes, and that having heard of them, they will assume that they are true? Because if this is our assumption, then yes, we have a problem, certainly. But these assumptions cannot be generalized to all or even most readers even in this age, yet alone across time.

It's undeniable that a text can function in a racist manner in shaping a person's worldview. I mean, I couldn't be a social constructivist if I didn't believe that. People aren't born racist (or sexist or heterosexist); they are taught to be that way, and they are taught by texts (whether literal texts like the novel you mention or broader social texts).

I can't speak to the specific elements of Gaffney's text; I, of course, have never read Crooked Hearts or even heard of it before right now. But to a certain type of reader, isn't a narrator who refers to a character as a Chinaman by definition, a priori unreliable? And just because a book includes racist characters who engage in racist dialogue cannot make it racist, can it--since both To Kill a Mockingbird and Uncle Tom's Cabin would be racist?

(To be fair, there are certainly ways in which both those books are racist. No treatment of race relations will ever be unproblematic, and those two novels are problematizable in some especially glaring ways. But this only reinforces my point: they are floating signifiers, and can be damaging and/or empowering depending on context. Certainly there have been sociohistorical moments in which both novels did much to fight against racism.)

Insofar as I can determine--and I've been working on this question for a while now--there is no formal characteristic which separates a satire from a serious piece. The distinction relies completely on context, on how the text is received in a given sociohistorical moment, what assumptions the readers make about what the author is saying (i.e. how they construct the author-function). Swift's Modest Proposal is not a pro-infanticide text (is it?), but given the right audience there is no doubt that it could function as such--and did and does function as such to countless numbers who don't recognize Swift's satire "for what it is" (if it is indeed anything stable). Which is why the fact that Crooked Hearts can be damaging to certain audiences (and I am certainly willing to believe that it can be!) can't by itself make Crooked Hearts a racist text, can it?

(I don't particularly like this conclusion, in part because it seems so counterintuitive. But I can't to find any way around it.)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm always interested in what you have to say in your metas and fics, although I'm not on your friends list so I hope you don't mind me commenting.
Anyway, I just wanted to say I'd be very interested in that link if you do happen to find it...and thank you for raising many issues that I've pondered.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Here's the link . . . I hope you look back here to see it. And your comments are always welcome!