The Unpalatable Other (Class Assignment no. 1)

Wow. I am unsure how else to go about beginning to process, much less express my reaction to what I just came across. The shock; the desperate disbelief; the unmitigated anger. I was just looking through YouTube to find the video that I'm required to post with my weekly web-log entry for my "Multiculturalism and the Practice of Education" class. To my raw dismay, I came across the profile of a particularly vocal individual who commented on a tongue-in-cheek video commentary on race and romance. I'm not going to do him the service of posting the name of his YouTube channel. Intrigued by his nonchalant reporting of the fact that black men are wont to raping whites, I checked out his profile and suffice it to say I was floored by the bold, white-supremacist, negrophobic, antisemetic content. I could not bear it.


The individual was clearly well-educated, well-read and well-informed about what he was saying. I gathered that he took the time to do research to formulate his opinions. And he still had the certainty to make the claims that he made in defense of the white race. I'll spare any further details about his page. What was truly scary was the list of his friends... confederate advocates, Aryan pride brothers, someone with Hitler as his icon! Imagine in this day and age, such a large and such an active community of hardcore white supremacism.


I thought this was perfect way to both exemplify and expand what Victor in "The Color of Fear" said during his explosive rant. He says that as a black man, he (he being his morphology/appearance, his hair, his culture, his language, his dress, his nature) is unpalatable to mainstream, Anglo-America. That the social climate of the United States is allergic in a way to the ethnic other that must assimilate. After browsing through the active channels on YouTube rebuking mutlicultural politics and advocating for the rise of the white race (I won't even touch that), it becomes clear that this indigestability of the racial Other in America isn't solely because institutions like schools and the corporate sphere are adapted for Anglo-Americans in their cultural image. It's also because there exists a politic of resistance to the narrowing of the gap between the racial "self" and racial "Other." That there are those, on both the ethnic and the white-washed sides, who oppose potentially losing themselves in re-adapting American traditions to encompass disparate cultural traditions and such. This opposition can be overt--in which case it is very alarming and unbelievable--or more covert, which should honestly be just as alarming.



www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY04gIruZ4E#watch-main-area

This video highlights the contemporary discourses being used to address race in America. Now, keeping in mind this video uses the easy target of Fox News for it's case study, it is terrifying that these clips echo some of the same sentiments as those that are announced all over the page of that Wodinist White Power YouTuber that I came across earlier. The package and the delivery may be more apporpriate, but my reaction should be no different. And it's not. I can no longer fooling myself into thinking that White Supremacy is but a myth. Let no one say that Victor's anger is unjustified. We who are black are a challenge to the essentially white-centered framework of this nation. Just because the White Folk that I see on a daily basis are egalitarian, eager to understand me or are at least supportive of my progress as a Black person in a White nation, I should always recognize that there is much intolerance yet to be battled.

--TAHS

Some thoughts on Anger

Monday, in my "Multiculturalism and the Practice of Education" class, we screened the first part of a video in which the producer Lee Mun Wah collected ethnically diverse (heterosexual) men with strong socio-political convictions and sat them together in a circle to address openly racial politics and well as conceptions of race struggle. The video was released in April of 1994 and featured men of ages ranging from mid-thirties to upper-fifties.

In response to the naive and ignorant comments of David, the token "tolerant" Anglo-American, that suggested that there was no reason for the minorities to have the embittered attitude that they have and even questioned their refusal to comform, Victor lashed out in vehement shouts at David, telling him off and directing the full force of his rage at Anglo-America as an institution towards David as a surrogate victim. Victor, easily establishing himself as the enraged, embittered and scorned person of color was speaking out of offense as Daviddownplayed the affects of systemic pressures on Victor's African-American and Native American ancestors.

For those of us who grew up in the sheltered, all-embracing, difference-mitigating discursive climate of the 90's in the United States, our first instict would be to smack our foreheads, snap at Victor in muffled protests to cap his gratuitous outburst or immediately re-explain, re-interpret, re-word Victor's beastly and most stereotypical tirade into cooler, more logical, less embarrassing, and effectively less angry response for David. That would avoid the assumptions that Black men were bitter and angry, right? That would prove that we're more articulate than an impulsive outburst of blind fury and perhaps get the point across better to the white man, who is probably turned off by the militant approach in any case. After all, what's the point of just being angry.

I should like to offer some thoughts on anger in light of our natural reaction. Anger is the very essence of inviting change. Anger is how we as subaltern, as persons of color, as queerfolk, as women, immigrants and disabled communities survive. The way I see it, anger is a force that we ought NEVER shy away from. Let them know that we are angry, that we are dissatisfied, that we refused to accept this and refuse to meet their expectations of us and submit to a system. Let them recoil in the face of our anger and let them know an echo of the fear that we as the oppressed have felt since Adam's rib turned into a woman.

Victor had every right to be angry and I admire the passion that he had the courage to express in the room. However, anger alone is not effective. Barking at David and going off on a tirade that addressed more than Davidcould have understood without giving David the tools to understand first was a mistake. David, being in the social position that he is in, is already inclined to the temptation of blinding himself to the plight of the Other, inclined to shrugging off the sheer reality of Victor's pain and experience. Exploding in one's anger only produces the opposite effect of what Victor and most minorities aim for. Instead of being induced into readily recieving education, Victor's attacks are only registered as angry white noise.

Victor could have turned his anger into something more productive and subtle, like sarcasm, sheer humor, mild-mannered critical discussion, story-telling, poetry, a blog... But instead he delivered his anger in it's raw form, perpetuating the gap of understanding between himself and David, who could presumably have used the outburst as an excuse to completely tune out.

This exchange in the film illustrates perfectly both the power and motivation that anger can give us to promote change and increase mutual understanding, but also illustrates how easily the potential for all of that can be lost and how the anger can hinder these goals if it is not checked. Moreover, my point is that this was a poor execution of a useful emotion. I rebuke my generation's temptation to dismiss Victor's anger as entirely inappropriate, inconsequential and inherently ineffective. I recognize a strength and a passion to educate and nuture David's relatability to the minorities that he cannot comprehend and fully respect through his own devises. It is with a similar strength that I fuel my writing and hope to nurture the mutual understanding of everyone I touch.

-TAHS

The Birth of the Author II

Today was my first day of classes for the semester and I must say how strangely comforting it is to be back into this particular routine. Given my presumed detest for hierarchies and systemic reinforcements of hegemonic stratification, it may come as a surprise to you. I justify this by saying that it is this routine that keeps my mind active and alert.

Additionally, I am very excited about the classes that i am taking this year. Today's class was an Africana Studies/Education seminar called "Multiculturalism and the Practice of Education," and it was absolutely exciting. Why so? Here's the description of the course: "This course will guide students in exploring and examining multicultural education through historical, sociological and philosophical foundations as they relate to race, ethnicity, culture, religion, ability, gender, sexuality and overall diversity. The course will emphasize the role of multiculturalism and cultural competency in pedadogy. The course will focus on the significance of multicultural curricula in the critical development and enhancement of an equitable, democratic nation." This stuff is RIGHT up my alley (except the whole democratic thing...).

Incidentally, one of the class requirements is that I publish a web-log to respond to various questions and topics of controversy raised in class. Since this web-log is my first since middle school, and the issues that the course requires me to blog about interect seemlessly with many of the concerns that this blog was intended to tackle, I think it only appropriate that my weekly blog assignments be posted on this blog.

The question of my anonymity remains a tricky one to tackle, but my professor (who seems to be the teacher of my dreams) may be understanding as to my particular requests.

So there you have it, "The Angry Homosexist" has now added a new dimension to it's purpose. It's time to change the world... one blogger.com post at a time.

--TAHS