This week in
class we were faced with an exercise where we had to put ourselves in the shoes
of the women in Shapeshifters and write
encouraging letters to them, hoping to keep heads high and looking forward to
the future. Thursday was an experience where I felt confused and unaware of how
to go about writing a letter appropriately, but what even defines 'appropriate'?
Every situation defines what appropriate means and in my case, writing a letter
to La Tonya pushed me to realize that just because I may be uncomfortable addressing
her poem, it’s what her poem means to her
that matters. That was La T’s sense of agency, that was her way on owning
her decisions, life, and sexuality, and it was a form in which she finally had
power to control something on her terms. That
is how she stood up for herself and that in itself if unbelievably difficult.
Watching A Girl Like Me was difficult. To think
that there are mothers going to such lengths to bleach their skin and maybe
their children’s skin is heart breaking but who has been there to tell them
otherwise? Who has been there to tell them that black is just as beautiful? Recently, thanks to the Dear Black Girl campaign, people have
been spreading the word and reminding little black girls of their worth and
potential. I stumbled upon an article in
relation to the Dear Black Girl campaign
where a women wrote a letter to a black girl. Stephanie, the women who wrote
this letter, didn’t necessarily fit into the guidelines of the campaign but
decided to comment anyways. (You can read her letter here). Her words were honest,
meaningful and encouraging; setting an example to women of all races that every
word of encouragement is another step towards helping young black girls to love
themselves!
Unfortunately,
young black girls are too often described similarly to “broken” neighborhoods,
even though they were brought up generation after generation of family
members who initially dealt with the discrimination of the housing market. Yet,
people assume that families in poverty “put it on themselves” or “aren’t doing
anything to fix it”. Gorski stated, “The myth of a “culture of poverty”
distracts us from a dangerous culture that does exist – the culture of
classism… The most destructive tool of the culture of classism is the deficit
theory”. The deficit theory is lethal due to it’s dependency on
stereotypes and not taking into account the systematic conditions in which
people live in. By ignoring such circumstances and social influences, we do not
understand the real and true picture. Thus, leaving families hindered in more
ways than one. The need to understand completely and entirely, the history of
every situation is crucial. History is the reason why things are the way they
are today. Without understanding the history of different topics, we will never
truly understand the issues at hand in today’s world. So, what steps can we take to reverse the
entrenchment of whiteness? How can we spread the importance of understanding
interstionality when looking at a situation such as this? (Not sure if there is
anyway to truly 'reverse' whiteness, but how do you think we can help?
The concept of "whiteness," from information provided by, if I remember correctly, How Race Is Made among several other early readings for this class, has been about more than just "race" from the beginning - or, at least, the closest thing to a beginning we can pin down for "whiteness." Just looking at the institution of slavery in the Americas shows this. The problem with reversing the entrenchment of "whiteness" comes from the fact that the aforementioned institution of slavery, with all its racial, gendered, classed, etc. implications and the idea of "whiteness" it helped define, was created by Europeans, who, at some point in the time between the beginning of that institution, laid claim to a vast swath of the world. In other words, the ideas behind "whiteness" have been spread all over the place. Furthermore, just trying to "reverse the entrenchment of 'whiteness'" in one place at a time does not work because human move around and talk to each other; people from different places are always sharing ideas, meaning that not only will the ideas of "whiteness" return from somewhere else, they can easily spread places they were not before. This is not meant as a discouragement, only to say that it is not a simple task of saying "how" and doing it. For social change of any significant magnitude, progress is usually very slow; it would undoubtedly be much more so for this planet-level movement, especially since people are rarely keen on cooperating with each other, especially at such scales. Even if nothing is accomplished within the next thousand or so years, the overarching ideas behind governance, states, etc. in many places on the planet will eventually be overthrown, very likely in a large number of massively violent clashes. Done correctly, this could be harnessed to finally toss "whiteness" aside. Of course, that would not be for quite a while.
ReplyDelete-Forest Copeland
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ReplyDeleteThis post poses difficult and interesting comments. I believe that deconstructing 'whiteness' as a means for denigration involves the entrenchment of empathy; an empathy that we practiced as a class this past week. 'Dear Black Girl' is a practice in empathy. And when put into action, this practice has the potential to be incredibly relevant and meaningful. I believe that the institutionalization of understanding and awareness will help spur very real and impactful change. Empathy, however, is hard. During the letter writing exercise, I struggled with my tone. In some ways, the urge to appeal to Sharita's optimism for the future, was difficult to resist; it often became muddled by condescension. Who am I to tell this woman that it will get better? In doing so, am I virtually ignoring the very real strength that Sharita possesses in the here and now? Is she not valuable for who she is presently as opposed to any future contributions she is expected to make to a racist, capitalist, misogynistic society? So often when we seek to understand others, to empathize, to build them up, we rely on the very structures which denigrate them in the first place. Empathy is important. But first we must examine the lens through which this empathy is projected, and whether or not it too is complicit within a larger system of oppression.
ReplyDeleteThis post brings me to the book we read, where Aimee Cox is incredibly self-reflexive in her book. She allows these girls to teach her, instead of remaining an untouchable observer. Cox's "Shapeshifters" brings a human face to the economic disaster that is Detroit, showing us how young black girls survive and thrive in uncertain circumstances. She brought up the concerns about young Black girls of America, whom not only suffered from their own race, but also oppressed by poverty. Within her book, she did not just talk about racism or gender violence, she talked about the vulnerability of Black girls as well. She is contesting the stereotypes, because for the most part, people see the Black girl unruly, disobedient, loud and out of order, and people really do not talk about girls being vulnerable.
ReplyDeleteThis post brings me to the book we read, where Aimee Cox is incredibly self-reflexive in her book. She allows these girls to teach her, instead of remaining an untouchable observer. Cox's "Shapeshifters" brings a human face to the economic disaster that is Detroit, showing us how young black girls survive and thrive in uncertain circumstances. She brought up the concerns about young Black girls of America, whom not only suffered from their own race, but also oppressed by poverty. Within her book, she did not just talk about racism or gender violence, she talked about the vulnerability of Black girls as well. She is contesting the stereotypes, because for the most part, people see the Black girl unruly, disobedient, loud and out of order, and people really do not talk about girls being vulnerable.
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ReplyDeleteYou pose some interesting questions, Gabrielle, and I think they are very difficult to address. To reconstruct whiteness is to deconstruct what we have come to believe is the norm. That is what whiteness has become; it is an invisible set of standards by which everyone else is othered, and everyone else strives toward. I believe that, at this point, rejection and rebellion are important ways to reconstruct the normalcy of whiteness. To be unapologetically you in defiance of white supremacy is the best way to devalue the attitudes, actions, and beliefs that have skewered the perception of ourselves, and through this rejection and rebellion, empowerment on their terms is created.
This was a very touchy subject so I do applauded your for addressing it. The idea of reconstructing whiteness is truly one must think about strategically. I feel in order to reconstruct whiteness we must first realize just exactly what it means and what the privilege entails. The first step is to as Krystal stated is to completely abolish the thought itself, no one person is better then the other, so therefore the privilege part is eliminated. The next step would be to get rid of norms and focus on equality and the last and most important step would be to unapologetic for doing both of these things. I believe if this can be fulfilled then we can start a journey to eliminate witness and it's privileges.
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