5 posts tagged “white”

Annie posted a comment made by lofty editors at Draft Mag (reposted by Jeff Hammett ) about the Festival of Beers,

"Occasionally, we consider moving to San Diego. It’s warm. All the time. It’s beautiful. All the time. The people are attractive. All the time. Honestly, what’s not to like? Then you visit, however, and realize it’s essentially a city devoid of culture, unless you consider being a stop on the way to Tijuana an important cultural experience. We don’t."

annie  then insightfully points out,

"We just have to look harder… I know there are some pockets of culture here and there (music! delicious food! lotsa museums!), but definitely not in La Jolla."

I am really glad that Annie posted her response. When I read Jeff's comments I became very upset but I couldn't articulate it at first. Because one, I am not a fan of San Diego and often find myself talking about why I am uncomfortable when I am in SD, and two I agreed with parts of what Jeff wrote - that sure it is warm and sure most people consider a visit to Tijuana a "cultural experience."

After a few minutes of Tricia the Wolf personality where I wanted to bite off Jeff's head and the heads of every tourist who make comments about "culture" and san diego I decided that a more constructive approach was better than nurturing cannibalistic thoughts.

What is culture? I define it as beliefs, practices and values.

Many of time tourists want to have a "cultural experience" when they visit a town - but this usually means they want to eat food that interesting enough but not so authentic that their taste buds would have to be challenged into liking it and go to museums that are artsy enough so that they feel good about learning about "others." 

The problem is that most tourists come to SD and they visit just a few miles - between 30 to 40 miles I would conjecture - they will go south on the 5 to Coronado but no farther, and then up north on the 5 to La Jolla. The brave ones will say I want to go to Mexico so they will bypass everything between downtown SD and Tijuana. Tourists then say they either LOVE SD or they HATE it. LOve it because great weather and people. HAte it because no culture. So Jeff here sits on the latter. Actually this dichotomy is one that is most often reified by those who live within the 30 mile swatch.

so what's my beef with the lofty editors at DRaft Mag?  From here on, I will refer to the Editors of Draft Mag as "Crocodile Face."

• culture is more than a beer festival and a 30 mile swath of predesignated tourist stops. So if you don't leave the 30 mile swatch that I have circled in orange, then you will feel that there is "no culture" in San Diego

• Actually that feeling that  Crocodile Face has of "no culture" points to the the dominance of white, elite, culture. So what's is beef with white culture?  I don't like it when people claim that white people don't have culture - especially it sounds most lame when white people go to places where the white population forms the majority in demographics and they walk away screaming, "there was no culture!" 

• if one defines culture as the experience of lots of public events with people of color all around you smiling and talking, then Crocodile Face is right - there is a lack of public cultural events in SD that brings together a diversity of people.  So yes the beer festival that Crocodile Face attended probably didn't have all the blacks and latinos out of ther neighborhoods. Oh and probably not a lot of asians either huh? That's cuz we like to have private tea festvals with dragons (just kiiidddding)

• so you don't want to live in SD cuz there's no culture here huh? Let me explain to you the position that you are in to EVEN make that statement in the first place.  The author, Crocodile Face,  is in a position of luxury to even say that he could pick up and leave his  city and move to another just because it might be more cool than where he is living now -  - now I am in his position also - I am the person who is in position of priviledge to say that I can pick up and move.  I picked up and left california to move to NYC solely based on the reason because I wanted to - I didn't know anyone - I had never been there - but it sure looked great from the movies and NYC has this feeling of cultural greatness that I wanted to understand.  But I knew that for me to experience culture in NYC, it had to be beyond just eating authentic food and going to museums - I knew that I wanted the experience of being adopted into a community, to work with a community, to share common values and goals and to work towards similar missions.  But tight communities have tight ties.  Neighborhoods that are seem to have a strong sense culture tend to have strong social ties and networks - that means people know each other, they hang out together, and they watch out for each other. But it's hard to get into these networks   So I knew that I had to work extra hard to become involved and to gain the trust of the community that I wanted to work in. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to join the communities that I wanted to work in (mainly lower-income, black and latino) by living in Manhattan. So  I made the choice to live in areas where I wanted to invest my time to getting to know my neighbors. So if the author, Jeff, makes the decision to not move based on his perception of lack of cultures other than dominant, white, middle-upper class san diego culture ---perhaps that decision can be re-evaluated once he stops through Chula Vista and see those cultures.

• Now if an outsider (this includes me), goes to Chula Vista or National City or parts of Escondido - it may still feel that the most culturally diverse place is Walmart! So where are all the people of color on the streets in these areas south and north of the 30 mile SD dominant culture swatch? One of the issues with SD that Crocodile Face picked up on is the lack of visible diversity - and Annie says that we must look harder- Annie is right. We do have to look harder. But i think SD is particularly hard city to "Look in" if one doesn't understand the culture of migration and fear in San Diego  and as  two cultures that are inextricably linked.  Even though SD has one of the highest populations of Latinos - why is it so hard to see see Latinos? Why isn't it like other cities where you can step out in certain neighborhoods and feel culture dripping from the clouds? It's because SD, with help from the federal government's ICT unit and leftover autocratic, facist Bush administration policies, has done a wonderful job at creating one of the most hostile city environments for Latinos in the USA. SD sits at one of busiest border border crossings in the world and the busiest in the USA - it is also the site where undocumented Mexican migrants come to support our economies.  What's been happening lately is that the immigration officials have been rounding up anyone who has dark skin, detaining them, and questioning them.  What they are doing is illegal and the ACLU San Diego Chapter is doing a lot to fight this. With all the immigrant raids on Mexican families  - many who are citizens and unevenly documented Mexican families (e.g. in some families the parents will have citizenship but one of their kids may be undocumented), the ICE officals along with the silent compliance of local and county police officials, have created a widespead fear among neighborhoods with high numbers of Mexicans.  The levels of fear are so high that families are scared to leave their houses. Undocumented people are scared to walk around on the streets. Even those with documentation are getting harrassed. All of this has created a culture of fear among the Latino community in SD - So tourists of SAn Diego -  if you wonder why you don't see more Latinos on the street - it's because they are not comfortable walking around like you or I - like someone who is a citizen.

• In the context of the culture of fear and an understanding of the culture of migration, SD doesn't lack "culture," it just has a lot of "hidden culture." A lot of cultural practices, celebrations and etc are taking place indoors. The kind of public celebrations that could possibly bring lots of different cultures together aren't as frequent - with the exception of JOB's annual fiesta - which is an organization that is doing some of the most exciting coalition building and community organizing work in SD.  It's hard to get people out of their houses when they are afraid to come out! JOB, lead by Norma Chávez- Peterson,  is organized by people of color who work within and with Mexican and black communities - so there is a higher level of trust to attend their annual Fiesta - which you should be attending in August if you want to find evidence of vibrant culture in SD. Last year my girl norma rodriguez organized the festival.
  

So my beef with SD is that there is one dominant, white, middle-upper class culture. I have no beef with the dominant culture in SD as it is one that I share many common values with (and I live within that 30 mile radius so to say that I am not a part of dominant culture is a farce), but my problem with it is that it is the dominant one! And so much of local San Diegan culture is hidden because of the fear among immigrants. The treatment of migrants is just horrific in San Diego - they are terrorized and treated like animals at times. Not all white people in SD feel this way in SD, but a large enough population of Caucasians in SD who hate Mexican immigrants have created a level of fear so high that they have been successful in scaring away the Mexican community back into their own homes, neighborhoods and centers. So if you are walking around downtown or in Pacific Beach thinking where are the people of color, take a look around you and look harder, They are there. they are working. they are just trying to blend in and go home at the end of the day.

** for an example of the unbalanced representation of Latinos in SD, read my post on what happened in the 2008 San Diego Wildfires, San Diego Fires - How Race and Class are Covered by the Media - We have no "refugees" here, and how I and others created a roundtable to discuss these issues

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

"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. "

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:

"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.)

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!  

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.