9 posts tagged “black”

I just watched Epic Fu's great episode, which included a piece on The Face Transfomer.  Beyond thinking that the Face Transfomer is cool, I started thinking about the social meaning behind this exercise.

Here I am pretending to be an “Afro-Carriabean” - wtf?  I mean cool yes, sure,  I want to see what I look like as a manga character and am curious to see what I look like as a black person,  but there was something odd about trying on different races.  Literally. 

What does it mean for race relations and conceptions when we feel that we can freely try on different races?  Have we become so comfortable with race that we can play around with it like shopping for clothing? 

I am always really sensitive when people say that a person acts like a certain race or culture.  It’s almost akin to imaginatively being another race  - kinda like what we are doing with Face Transfomer.   And you know I actually hear this verbal exchange most often among my white and black or latino friends.   I’ve heard a black person say to a white person, “you know so much about black culture that you are black or at least must have been black in a past life.”  Now I find that on one end to be a compliment, that the white person is accepted as part of the black community, but on the other end I find it difficult to swallow as a form of compliment because most often it is white people who have the most latitude to be absorbed into another race or cultural group.   You don’t usually hear the reverse, that a white person will say to a black person, “wow you know so much about black culture that you are actually white!”  It's like you hear in the movies where they say to white people, you can always come into our part of town, but we will never be allowed to come into yours. 

For dominant groups, like Caucasians in the US,  race can be an after thought so it’s almost like a novelty to pretend for a moment that one is another race or ethnicity.  For people who look anything other than white in Western countries, there isn’t as much freedom to forget one’s skin color because they are reminded of it (usually negatively) in their daily interactions with institutions and people. 

In particular, for non-whites, being a certain race or ethnicity can be a complicated process of accepting ones skin color and coming to terms with the popular (mis)conceptions of one’s race or ethnic group.  A lot of times, this entails the imagination of being white before a full embracement of one’s race or heritage.   For a time period when I was a teenager raised in an all white upper-class  community, I wished I was white so badly so that I wouldn't  have to deal with the racist jaunts by my classmates.  And so here I am, trying on a "West-Indian" face.  Kinda surreal.  Now do I really want to imagine what it is like to look like an Indian female, let's say in the US? or in India? and from what class? what is my migration history? or was I born here?  My point is that being another race is more than just trying it on for a few seconds digitally, but some how we've reduced it down to just that and I wonder if this novelty is an indicator of that we're comfortable with race or that we're just dealing with race in a more post-modern removed and techno-mediated way. 

And you know it's  usually people who are more affluent who have the opportunity become the "other,"  to learn about another culture and to transplant themselves into another ethnic group’s cultural world.  So jokes made to white people like “wow you know so much about my culture, you must be Mexican” just make me uncomfortable because there’s a certain level of privilege that comes with learning about another “culture.”  The fact that I make time and spend money to learn Spanish because I find the language beautiful and useful for my academic interests in Mexican migration is a  privilege.  Now it is a privilege that I embrace and am not embarrassed of and make no apologies for, but at the same time I am quite aware of my social position to even be able to learn another language more out of interest and less out of need.

So back to Face Transformer - does this mean America is comfortable with race (and manga, chimps and euro painters j/k) if we can freely try on different races?  And what does this say about race when we can collapse large groups of people together into general categories?  In Face Transformers all the blacks, Caribbeans and Africans are grouped into the afro-caribbean category, and all Asians are collapsed into the East-Asian category and I think the West Indian group is not referring to people from the West Indies but Indians and Middle-Easterners.   This is an odd form of racial reductionism.  And where are the Latinos – where do they fit in this? And Inuits? 

I’ve always kept a tab on these Face Transformer-like sites  and I  think the fun in trying these online sites out is an expression of an underlying desire to temporarily imagine another physical body without fully committing to that body/face.  And the kinds of changes  rendered by these online sites point to a greater cultural obsession or let’s say anxiety with that rendering.  So for Face Transfomers we could say this is an obsession with race and euro paintings:)   Oh and with age also – you can chose to be a young adult, baby, teenager and old person.

One of the predecessors to Face Transformers was My Heritage and I wrote about the social meaning behind that too 2 years ago when it launched.  So instead of transforming into a race or chimp, like Face Transformer, you can transform yourself into a celebrity and see which one you most closely resemble.  So this points to an obsession with celebrities.

Well after my social diagnosis I think I will upload another picture on Face Transformer and see what I look like as a Male. Hmmm perhaps I have an underlying anxiety with switching genders?  Well did anyone have these thoughts when they uploaded a face on Face Transfomer? 

oh and one thing that I definitely learned is that I don't like good as a Caucasian! Good thing that I embrace my Chinese face!  

Raquel originally posted this article from Tim wise. thanks mama!

"Your whiteness is showing.

When I say your whiteness is showing this is what I mean: You claim that your opposition to Obama is an act of gender solidarity, in that women (and their male allies) need to stand up for women in the face of the sexist mistreatment of Clinton by the press. On this latter point--the one about the importance of standing up to the media for its often venal misogyny--you couldn't be more correct. As the father of two young girls who will have to contend with the poison of patriarchy all their lives, or at least until such time as that system of oppression is eradicated, I will be the first to join the boycott of, or demonstration on, whatever media outlet you choose to make that point. But on the first part of the above equation--the part where you insist voting against Obama is about gender solidarity--you are, for lack of a better way to put it, completely full of crap. And what's worse is that at some level I suspect you know it. Voting against Senator Obama is not about gender solidarity. It is an act of white racial bonding, and it is grotesque."

Generic Asian Man:  I have more money than you!
Crazy Monster: Oh Yeah?  I have more cultural capital than you!
Generic Asian Man:  I create your cultural capital!!
Crazy Monster:  You little misrecognized structured bitch.

I drew this cartoon during a seminar discussion on Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction.  Bourdieu is HEAVY - everytime I read him I become so depressed because I feel like no matter what, the working class, or the marginalized are always fucked.   So to counterbalance this - I drew a cartoon, a la Bourdieu - but with a silly side.   Would he find it funny?  I don't know - but to understand this cartoon if you haven't read his work yet, here's a quick primer.  

Bourdieu  tried to show that there are more ways than just using money to dominate people - and that people use "culture" to also reproduce their superiority.  So he conceptualized this as "cultural capital."
For example, he said public education is a way social hierarchy is reproduced.  When the school sends their students on an art museu fieldtrip -   this is form of trying to enforce the dominant class's taste of what is considered to be "artistic" and valuable for education.  Bourdieu was trying to point out that the contradiction with public education is that it's supposed to INCREASE equality, but instead it PERPETUATES inequality.  When teachers and textbooks force into black kids that they need to know about European art and memorize European history, this is one way of reproducing the hierarchy of whites on top, and blacks on bottom.   Of course textbooks give Blacks one month for their anti-slavery  heros, and a chapter on third world Africa,  - and of course we say the West colonized Africa, but one month of heros or 1 chapter of lesson plans is not enough.  Even though we are past the plantation days,  school classrooms and curriculum ensure that racial superiority stays alive in more subversive ways.  It's all one big structure of structured domination! AHHHHH!

Read and Laugh at Crazy Monster #1-4

As I watch this disaster unfold, I keep comparing how the news frames the San Diego 2007 Firestorm in contrast to how they framed New Orlean's Hurrican Katrina. Race and class are at the heart of the comparisons. So much of this sounds different when you are talking about SD's primarily Caucasian middle-upper class communities being affected by the fire - whereas in new Orleans it was primarily poor black people stranded in the hurricane.

we can see many differences just by comparing how the media and government talks about the evacuees who stayed behind despite a mandatory evacuation.  In New Orleans, helicopters didn't rescue all the black people on their roofs, supposedly because they were hearing "gun shots." I remember the reaction from the news and online community was that those who didn't listen to the mandatory evacuation were complete "idiots" or people trying to defy the law- essentially those stupid poor blacks folks. In San Diego - firefighters can't focus their resources on fighting the fires because of the winds and because  they are also busy doing emergency rescues on people who didnt' listen to the mandatory evacuation.  HOWEVER - the news frames these people in a more sympathetic light - by saying well you can understand why these people are so attached to their beautiful homes they own because of all the hard work they've put into it and even though they should have listened we understand the pain they are - essentially we are sympathetic to middle-upper class folks for staying behind in the face of a fire if they are protecting their houses. White people again are reinforced as HARD-WORKING and PERSISTENT even when they FAIL to evacuate while blacks are framed as LAZY and UNOBEDIENT for not evacuating.

Remember how the media said black folks were raping, murdering and eating each other in the New Orleans Superdome? Now the media in San Diego frames the 10,000 primarily white middle-upper class folks from North County in the Qualcom Stadium as peacefully sharing oral stories about their homes and eating home-baked brownies dropped off by sympathetic volunteers, and getting massages by compassionate massage therapist volunteers!!!!  And please notice the headline of the article by ABC about those who are giving massages, "CIVILITY REIGNS IN SAN DIEGO," as if the opposite - UNCIVILITY - reigns in other places.   CIVILITY refers so much to those who are CIVILIZED and separates the civilized from the uncivilized.  This implies that the situation in Qualcomm stadium is totally different from the situation in other uncivilized evacuee areas - like the Superdome, where the black evacuees were supposedly unpolite, violent, sweaty, dirty and smelly - and where the Black Evacuees were called REFUGEES.  So at least San Diego has learned so much from Katrina - they are taking the names of people who enter the stadium, and they are not referring to them non-US citizens.   We have no white refugees in San Diego- truly they are first-class civilized citizens!

I have to admit that I am so upset right now that I am having a hard time  finishing a deconstruction of this headline and the images - so if anyone wants to write more about this please do - and I will link to you. 

I know the situations (Katrina and Southern California Wildfires) are completely different and do not stand for a sound comparison, but a comparison in media representation is worthwhile and reveals how the class and race of community matter.  . For a reminder at how much race and class does matter in media discourse- here's a photo where I examined from the Hurrican Katrina and how the news framed a black man wading in water as "looting" while they framed a white man wading in water as "finding" floating goods.  Btw- Many New Orleans evacuees are STILL homeless and not doing ok 2 years after the disaster.  For those in Malibu and San Diego who had their mansions burn down - I wonder what will happen?

I am so mad that the city I live in is filled with so much sweet words of prejudice.  Not that this doesn't happen everyday everywhere - but it's just really intense when your city is burning down and there is so much racial and class politics in the media.  As Raquel has written - the whole South side of San Diego county is burning down, but it the press coverage is scant compared to North County of San Diego - where all the super-rich super-luxury mansions are loacted.  It's where people, like this person, go to escape their  2nd home or to their friend's hotel  or book a room at the Aviara for $350 a night with sculpted flamingos and golf courses.
(South County is more middle-low income, racially and ethnically mixed and 10-5 miles from Mexico.)

You can read my other thoughts about the National news coverage of SD fires here,  distortion of wildfires here, emphasis of LA over SD here, and what a Sociologist would do during a fire here.

UPDATE: NPR just did a piece on how bloggers are either comparing or arguing against a comparison of Katrina vs.Southern Ca. Wildfires.  They link to many other excellent blog posts that do some great comparisons.

this photo was taken by ABC News and was part of this story and part of The Stencil.

I am in shock after reading  Jeff Chang's post on Davidjacob's Random Walks. - but then again having worked for the UN briefly - I am not in shock at the blatant insensitivity of this ad.   And hello UNICEF - it's obvious from your insincere apology below that you don't understand why people are protesting this campaign - it's not about the cosmetic brown make up itself - it's about the racism and stetreotypes that the make up signifies.
 
From Can't Stop Won't stop:
Save Africa hipsterism reached a new low this summer with this UNICEF campaign by ad company Jung von Matt/Alster presenting German children in blackface. You can see them beginning here. More analysis here.

Even the taglines, meant to call attention to Africa's educational crisis, sound nuts. Here's one: ""In Africa, kids don't come to school late, but not at all."

Lost in translation maybe? Nein! After protests, there was this reply from a UNICEF official:

The idea behind is that children from Germany demonstrate their solidarity with children in Africa by showing up with a coloured make up. Their message is: "Children may look different but are equal - we all want to go to school." Absolutely no connotation of black children as "dirty children" was intended.

Before publishing the ad, we had carefully discussed possible misinterpretations and the agency had also tested public reaction in a survey in Germany, without receiving negative comments. Neither did we receive any negative reaction from the German public after publication.

The ad was published in a few high-quality print media like Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Spiegel, Die Zeit, Stern, free-of-charge. These media had never volunteered to publish the ad if they would have expected a negative connotation. Obviously, the perception of the ad varies by country... We apologize if you feel irritated by the make up of the children.

Onward...to cultural understanding, oh UNICEF soldiers!
Originally    posted by Zentronix  from zentronix: dubwise & hiphopcentric

Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

The execution of Troy Anthony Davis is set for tomorrow, July 17th.  Send an e-mail to protest it, please blog about this or re-blog this post.

Amnesty International says that "Troy Davis was sentenced to death for the murder of Police Officer Mark Allen McPhail in Georgia. The case against him consisted entirely of witness testimony which contained inconsistencies even at the time of the trial. Since then, all but two of the state's nine non-police witnesses from the trial have recanted their testimony. Many of these witnesses have stated in sworn affidavits that they were pressured or coerced by police into testifying or signing statements against Troy Davis."

I understand the reality of stopping this will probably not materialize (which brings me back to when I angrily wrote about Stanley "Tookie" William's execution a few years ago) - but silence is worse - and even if his execution isn't stopped tomorrow, at least the Georgia state will see the intense the opposition is and *may* prompt them or some individuals to re-think the death-row policy. 

Davis's case is especially apalling in the high error of its evidence (purported witnesses), and even members of Congress have written to Georgia's Board of Pardons.  "Nobel-prize winner Rev. Desmond Tutu, singer Harry Belafonte, actor Mike Farrell, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Sister Helen Prejean, Sam D. Millsap, Jr. (former D.A. of Bexar County, TX), record producer and activist Russell Simmons and Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation are among those who have voiced support for clemency." (From Amnesty Intl)

So send an e-mail or fax to Georgia's Board of Pardons.  Amnesty makes this very easy - you can do it all online here!  it's very important that we write online about the issues that surround this unjust execution so that there is a digital presence of issues that are either ignored or mis-represented.  I would like to think that if there was a more equal presence of blacks blogging, vlogging and just online in general - there would be more of a protest on the internet.  Unfortunately, the inequalities we see offline are also mirrored online, so please please blog about this or re-blog this post.

My thoughts: Asians, Virgina Tech, Condolescences, Racism and etc
Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.

I was walking to teach my section today when a student approached me and asked if I would like to sign a banner that would be sent to the students at Virginia Tech.  I looked over - and it was organized by the KOREAN AMERICAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION at UC San Diego.

I asked the student why I should sign it and how that would support Virginia Tech, and he said “well I'm Asian and you're Asian - and we need to support the students. “

I asked “what does that have to do with being Asian” and he said he said “ we also need to fight racism against Asians - since the shooter was Korean. ”

When I glanced at the banner again, I realized the 20 students signing this Korean Association Banner for Virginia Tech were all Asian.  I took a picture and walked away. Then one of the Korean Student Assoc. girls yelled out – “instead of taking a picture you should sign our banner."

As I watched from afar, I noticed that the student who was asking students to sign the banner was only approaching Asian students for signing their banner.   Although Asians are the ethno-racial majority on campus, there were plenty of white students around and he didn't ask any of them within the 5 minutes of my observation.

I walked away very upset at what just happened.  I felt it was so petty to worry about Asian racism (they did it by cloaking it in "we're concerned for students at Virginia Tech) when this horrific tragedy just happened!

Why is it that this Virginia Tech shooting prompted this Asian Club to address racism – when really there are more immediate issues that this shooting has brought up – like gun control policy, identifying psychological maniacs on the verge of massacring others, emergency planning, effective campus security, and emotional reverberations around other college campuses? 
 
And then immediately I thought of the e-mail that Liane just sent me – it was a press release post from the Asian American Journalists Association, urging the media to refrain from using racial identifiers of “Asian” or “Korean” in reference to the shooter.  “There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people. The effect of mentioning race can be powerfully harmful. It can subject people to unfair treatment based simply on skin color and heritage,” said the release.

This press release made me very upset, not because of what they are urging (which is a great idea but a bit too late).  First of all racism is not the immediate concern in this situation.  What I am most upset about is that the Asian American Journalists are only expressing concern for this specific situation because they fear that they themselves
will face epiphenomenonic racism. The wouldn't have spoken up if the shooter were white or Black.  Although there is nothing wrong with being concerned about the potential racism one will face, as it will also upset me when the stereotype of “Angry Asian Man Gone Wild” develops (which my friend Christian sent me this link to show that it already has developed) – what's wrong is that they only choose to speak up when it became a fear that Asians themselves would face discrimination because of the shooting. 

This is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to work with Asian-American non-profit, organizations, or collectives that create spaces for equality and community – because ultimately  it is too often that Asian activists who fight against discrimination and for representation, are only fighting for Asians.  They forget that their are other minorities that are fighting for the same causes, and that building coalitions and solidarity with Blacks, Latinos, Queers, Jews and other minorities  - is a more powerful strategy to fight for equality. 

Jewish, Black and Latino organizations are always fighting discrimination when it happens to an individual or group other than themselves.  They really take on Martin Luther King’s quote – that "injustice anywhere is is a threat to justice everywhere."  But Asian organizations don’t speak up enough when discrimination happens to another group other than themselves.  

Last summer in NYC, when Miss Jones made the racist comment in their parody about "Chinks" drowning in the Tsunami, there was tremendous support from Black, Jewish and Latino based groups.  They organized protests, press conferences and press releases alongside and with Asian activists to admonish Miss Jone's racist comments about Asians.  But when a racially motivated attack or injustice happens to someone who is not Asian – who may be white, queer or black  - Asian organizations are not there for them. 

What Asian groups need to realize, is that if they are really fighting racism/discrimination, then they need to fight equally for all races/ethnicities  - otherwise they’re just favoring one race/group when they are fighting – themselves.  They speak up when they become worried that they, as Asians, may face similar forms of discrimination that Blacks, Latinos, Jews and anyone else who is dark has had or continues to experience  - especially in the aftermath of a highly public shooting/massacres/murders.  Where were Asian groups during post 9-11 Muslim/anyone-wearing-a-turban/dark colored person discrimination period?  Where were they when Matthew Shepard was killed for being gay? Or for the Amadou Dialo shooting? 

This is not the case for ALL Asian individuals or organization in America – I am reflecting on what I have noticed as a community organizer and media researcher.  I am sure there are individuals and organizations who do speak up,  but nationally Asian groups have not made a great media impact when fighting for others  – at least nothing comparable to the effort they are now putting into fighting potential racism against Asians in the face of Virginia Tech.

On this last note – I think one of the best Asian American role models I admire is New York City Councilman – John Liu.  He is the councilmember for  a predominantly Asian population in Queens, NYC.  However, he is a great example of a councilperson who stands up and fights for issues that cut across all income stratas and ethno-racial groups.  He always speaks up publicly in the media for any person of color who experiences racism in NYC.  He fights for policy changes on issues that effect people in different boroughs, neighborhoods, and classes.  He is one of my favorite Councilperson in NYC. He honors his Asian roots while serving his all his constituents of NYC equally. 

Hollabacktalk's Brittany and Hillary wrote a very critical post about my response on Ryanne's cat call video. They felt I was out of line for questioning what Ryanne did and they didn't think I made valid points and did not understand her method.  I tried to post my response to what they wrote, but they deleted my comment. That's too bad. this is public conversation - so why censor some people's opinions?  Especially when I am the subject of their post - shouldn't I have the right to response?
I am happy that blogging makes this all transparent and that responses like Hollaback's have an audience.  Everyone can see the kind of exchanges that are taking place and I think its great for the purposes of dialoguing.
At the same time,  I felt that my writing was not interpreted correctly, so I wrote this response to to their post.

RESPONSE TO HOLLABACKTALK:
1. You say "When women start questioning other women's experiences like Tricia felt so compelled to do, we do nothing but work backwards and against one another."  Are you suggesting that as a woman, I am not allowed to express my own opinions? Opinions that may represent a different point of view?  

2. you say that I shouldn't compare the video to lynching, a "period of state-sponsored racism."   Actually, lynching in the south was never state sponsored.  It was completely ignored by the state.  The KKK was a citizen vigilante group that took justice into their own hands.  

I did not say the video is the same as lynching -  I draw parallels to lynching and I think the culture around vigilantism can turn into mob actions perpertrated for the wrong reasons.  I was concerned about how many of ryanne's commentators took on a mob mentality and didn't see them as human beings  - calling the cat callers "morons," "assholes", and judging their work as "shitty" brick chopping, and that they didn't get an education in 6th grade on acceptable behavior.  It really made me upset - b.c being a cat caller does not correlate  to bad education and low levels of intelligence.  The cat call itself is sexist, but it was out of line for the commentators to jump on the bandwagon of making a value judgements on the character of these 4 men - who are black - as morons and doing un-valuable work.  This is what I am worried about when I saw web 2.0 vigilantism - that unchecked vlogging vigilantism can lead to a mob mentality, which parallels other periods of mob mentality in the US.  

A true example of state sponsored racism is South Africa.  In such an extremely racist aparteid society, lynching culture never developed because the state sanctioned and institutionalized racism through a high degree of bureacracy.   therefore, citzens didn't have to overtly dirty their hands, the state did it for them.  for more on this argument, please read Ivan Evan's book, Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa.  

3. Where is it that I "claims to be concerned for the rights of the unrepresented men on sites like HollaBackBoston?"  I believe its important to hold men accountable for their actions.   Taking someone's pic, unless their penis is hanging out, isn't that effective in stopping the action. But sites like yours empower the woman who is posting the picture - which is an important part of the process of stopping sexism.  

Actually, I believe  recording video is more effective, like what ryanne did - I was just concerned about the tone - which I clarified in my e-mail to Ryanne.  

From my e-mail exchanges with Ryanne, she is planning on doing some follow video to show what has come out of this - and I think that's incredibly empowering - to confront the cat caller, and then to come to some understanding with the cat caller (This was also suggested by kenyatta).  

If its really about revenge and public humilation of men who cat call, harrass and threaten women, you should encourage your partipants to shoot video on their phones of men cat calling and being violent,  and post it to youtube or blip.tv.  There's a much greater chance men and their friends/families will see these videos than the still pictures on your site.  And it's a lot more powerful when you can record men being sexist, then just a picture of their face.  With so many cell phones that have video cameras, this is quite feasible for your audience.