Race

Guest Blogger: Prof. Cornell Eric Hooks-Wise

That’s right class, in a post-racism world everybody gets to have a race. I know that many of you thought that the essentialist ontological classifications of race should and would evaporate once we made enough progress to call ourselves post-racist, but as my colleagues and I have lectured and written for decades, it has come to now be understood that race, per se, was never the problem. How we deal with race, how we treat each other better or worse based on racialized stratifications, our culture of racial supremacy, superiority and ipso facto caste systems was the problem. This is what we’ve meant all along when we say that race is a social construct. We didn’t mean that race was made up- obviously it’s right here in front of us, but the critical nature of race lies in our practical, political, and economic application of it. How we handle it, how we put our differences into our societal structures is where the construction of race lies. Now, now that we are engaging in a post-racial societal reformation We’ve finally learned to use the gift of race for good and not for evil.

I know that many of you are disappointed because you hoped that the ol’ “we’re all one human race” thing would prevail and that some how magically one morning we would all emerge out of bed the same generic tan color, and that race would there by be obsolete. Or that we would all lose the full use of our ocular cones and rods and “stop seeing race.” I know this might be a hard adjustment for you, (though I’ve been trying to prepare you for this for years). But, fear not! I do have the good news that acknowledging race does not erase our commonalities. Of course we are all related. Yes our similarities are important, and should be celebrated. Yes, we are all one human species, (hey there’s that correct grammar coming into play again). So don’t worry your unifying little minds. Race was never what pulled us apart in the first place.

So go forth and enjoy this new era, students. Embrace your race, Embrace your species. Embrace your new world!

Now leave me alone, I have a seriously overdue sabbatical to take.

White

Guest Blogger: Becky

Hey guys? Guess what?

I’m white!!!

Yep, I’m white. I’m white, I’m white, I’m white, I’m white. White, white, white, white, white.

I. Am. White.

Wow it feels soooo good to say that!
I have spent so much energy thinking of other things to call myself so that I don’t have to admit that I am white and I was starting to run out of things to say. I had tried “I’m Caucasian” but then someone told me that that is an anthropological category that includes lots of brown-skinned people (oh, it's also a breed of dog). I tried “I’m Irish” but then I was told that that is an ethnicity (not a race) and that once again, brown-skinned people can be that too. Then I tried “I’m 1/16 Native American,” but that was just a lie.

Now I can just say “I’m white!” So cool!

I have to admit, I was so freaked out by the whole thing that I had to ask one of my old college professors to help me to understand how this all works. I didn’t want to enjoy it too much if it’s not the right thing to do. It can get pretty confusing at times. I used to feel so much guilt every time I said white. Even when people of color explained to me that not saying my race was a part of a racist system. I never got that. I always thought that being white was a bad thing. But then someone asked me to think about all the good things that are white. I did. I thought about clouds, and snow, and soft bunnies, milk, and George Clooney, and I felt so much better. I know that white people have done some pretty bad things over the years. It’s hard to admit that people like Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer and the Unabomber are white like me, but I have to acknowledge that they are as much a part of my race as the good people like Thomas Edison, Howard Zinn and Mr. Rogers, but I think I can do that. I mean, no race is perfect is it? Wow, how’s that for a revelation?! White people aren’t perfect! This is so freeing!

Black

Hey Jamal, isn’t it refreshing to hear "black" as a racial category and not as a synonym for all the worst things in the world? Now that racism is over, people no longer use the world “black” to mean “evil,” “wicked,” “ugly,” “dirty,” “bad,” “looming,” “sinister,” “psychologically twisted,” “disturbing,” “Darth Vaderesque,” or as a descriptor for all things negative? No more black comedy, black magic, or black spots on your soul. Gone are the “dark sides” and “dark moods.” Of course that means that “white” no longer means all things good, as in “white magic,” “white lies” and “white supremacy.” Now people use real English vocabulary to describe things with actual specificity. Having to find the words to say what they really mean, people are re-engaged with actual communication skills. Thesaurus sales have increased ten-fold! It’s created a real renaissance of language. Who knew we had so many useful words at our disposal?

I’ve also noticed that now that people don’t think that black is a bad word, so that when referring to a black person, people no longer whisper "black" like it was a life-threatening disease. Remember how people used to stutter when they try to say that someone is “b…b…bl…black,” often becoming so scared to say the b-word that they stumble into some other b-descriptor to put before it, which I suppose makes the word “black” easier to say. You know what I mean, right? White people try to describe a black man walking down the street, they start to say “black” but then get nervous and say something like:

“I saw this b…b…big black man walking down the street. Oh, did I say big? I meant beautiful this… uh, b…beautiful…black man, yeah, that’s what I meant.”

It would take them so long to get “black” out of their mouths, that by the time they did they were so traumatized that they forgot why they brought up the big beautiful black man in the first place. This precipitated many blank stares from white people, I guess waiting for me to either approve or get offended at their description. When I stared back at them, simply waiting for them to finish their sentence, panic often ensued, resulting in the frequent comment “you don’t’ think I’m racist because I said that, do you?” Awkward.

Kindergarten and elementary art school teachers have also stopped proclaiming “black is not a color!” at the top of their lungs. They recognize that this has confused children for decades and became a frequent playground taunt used against African American children. Ugh I hated that! Especially when it made its way from the playground of my childhood to the office staff meetings of my adulthood. People really hold onto that stuff they learn as kids. Now the teachers leave the dynamics of color theory for a time when students can understand it, (like in art school) and let kids be kids and just play with their paint.