6 posts tagged “racism”
this is a must read post on Racialicious by Tami on what the media is doing when it comes to mediating the life of Michelle Obama.
Between “Mammy” and “Miss Ann”: The “problem” with Michelle
update - I found two really smart posts about this media debate over Michelle's femininity - one post here and another here - both are by Cocoa Fly. Here are some pieces of writing I liked from Cocoa Fly's Back Up Off the First Lady:"Privilege hates to lose it’s place. Privilege believes that it deserves to be exulted above others. Indeed, it resents when the “other” is elevated to equal status, particularly when the “other” refuses to conform to the rules that privilege has put in place. So, the criticism of Michelle Obama’s physicality and sartorial choices comes as no surprise.
Most mainstream media are on board the FLOTUS love train. They call the First Lady beautiful. They love her unique style. They cherish those awesome, toned arms. They love her modern marriage. They celebrate her role as a mother. All of this talk about appearance and being a wife and mother–stereotypical feminine ideals–is driving some white feminists to distraction. They think this focus diminishes Michelle Obama’s considerable intellect and professional achievements. Most black women I know see things differently. The so-called feminine ideal is a tyranny to all women, but it is white women who stand as its embodiment. In the public consciousness, black women are almost never the most beautiful ones or the good wives or mothers. White women see Michelle Obama getting pushed into a feminized role and lament that this always happens to women. Many black woman recognize that it rarely happens to us and we are happy that people are finally recognizing our femininity.
The criticism that Michelle Obama has received, among the accolades, is instructive about the way black women are often viewed by the American public. Yesterday’s New York Times “Opinionator” column rounds up Web analysis of reactions to Michelle Obama’s style and appearance, particularly on the first couple’s recent European trip.
Reading about Juan Williams’ “Stokely Carmichael in a dress” comment, hearing the constant pondering of the first lady’s large buttocks and strong arms, and witnessing ongoing attempts to portray her as domineering, a narrative emerges that is not unfamiliar: Black woman are big, aggressive–not feminine, but masculine. Perhaps the only stereotype missing is the hypersexual tag that we often get saddled with–hypersexuality that is the opposite of the virginal feminine ideal.
Some folks clearly resent the presence of a black woman in an iconic position of American womanhood–one that is not meant for us.
Take the nitpicking about the First Lady’s clothing. Fashion press, as well as designers Donna Karan and Oscar de la Renta have sniffed at Obama’s choices of niche designers and off-the-rack clothes. Karan reckons Obama is going through a phase: “I hope and believe this is just a moment.” While de la Renta questioned the wisdom of wearing a sweater to Buckingham Palace. And, of course, there is the constant sniping about the First Lady’s shockingly uncovered biceps. "
"And finally, Michelle Obama is NOT Jackie O. I'm tired of folks saying, "Jackie Kennedy wouldn't do this. Jackie Kennedy wouldn't wear that," when Mrs. Obama does something people don't like. Michelle Obama is making her own legacy and Jackie Kennedy is not the current First Lady. Last time I checked my calendar it read 2009, not 1962."
"People have talked about Lady O's looks, called her "angry," "militant" and "unpatriotic." She was even called "trash" and "bitch" by pundits. I was so frustrated when I heard the "trash" and "bitch" reference. It makes me angry because there are racist undertones to some of these comments. Would they call her these things if she weren't black? I've never seen a First Lady so criticized, attacked and disrespected. I didn't agree with the way Pres. G.W. Bush ran the country but I never thought to call Laura Bush vulgar names or Hillary Clinton, Barbara Bush, Nancy Regan, etc. SOME people can't handle seeing an intelligent black woman who is poised and living a luxurious lifestyle."
"why is the naked white baby oppressing the naked black baby?"
this is what would say if I was constantly suspicious of the everyday ways racism is reenacted in mundane practices of child play. But I am not that kind of person, so I wouldn't these kind of thoughts.
(I saw these dolls in a preschool in new jersey.)
Dear readers of Hi Tricia, hello again! I've been traveling around the world for two months and finally am now back in the states. I have lots of posts to write about my work and play in India, China and Sweden - and some cities in between - but honestly i've been so overwhelmed with all the stories I want to tell that I just haven't been able to pull myself together to do it until I had all my thousands of photos uploaded to my flickr!
Now that I am almost done with uploading my photos, I came across one of the photos that I had uploaded earlier this summer on my way to India - and this photo pissed me off so much when I saw it that I knew this would be the photo that would get my blogging ass back into the webosphere! So more posts will now!
So I saw this Canon advertisement of the Maasai (Masai) - a group that sustains their way of life through tourism business in Kenya - on a photo light box my 500 hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany (actually it was 12 hours but it did feel like 500). When I saw this photo after deboarding the plane I immediately I took the picture and at the same time some stupid German boys came up to me and said, " that's a pretty cool picture huh!" I tried my best with my jet lagged brain to penetrate their eyes with daggers of complete filth and disgust shooting from my forehead. I didn't have the energy to say anything back.
THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS WRONG WITH THIS CANON LIGHT BOX ADVERTISEMENT!!!! WHERE DO I BEGIN! hmmm help me on this one if I miss anything! I am too upset to even write in full sentences
1.) portrayal of Africans as "tribal"
2.) invasion of the African body through the x-ray
3.) the capitalistic and exploitive use of African bodies for Western consumption
4.) problematic boundaries over the visual and symbolic exploitation of AFrican male's genitals (referring to the male in the front with the x-ray over his pelvis)
5.) technology as triumphing over more "traditional" lifestyles
6.) technology as more revealing and useful than indigenous knowledge
7.) highlighting the notion that Westerners bring englightening technology to backward-nature-hunting Africans
8.) a return to colonial relationships and images
9.) exoticizng the "tribal" through technology
Leah posted this and said "his sums up my feelings about new england and race perfectly."
My thoughts: Asians, Virgina Tech, Condolescences, Racism and etc
Originally uploaded by triciawang 王 圣 㨗.
The Virginia Tech Massacre just unfolded. 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 the signatures 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” developing (which my friend Christian sent me this link to show that it already has developed) – what's wrong is that many pro-race equality Asian groups only choose to speak up when it became a fear that Asians will face discrimination themselves. In this case the Korean student group at UCSD was concerned that Koreans would begin to face discrimination.
This is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to work with many 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,
"injustice anywhere is is a threat to justice everywhere."
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 other minorities have faced - 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. 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 Massacre
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. 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.
