Talk amongst yourselves… Heres something to get you started from this week’s Newsweek magazine:
If my purse ever gets stolen, it’s Dave Chappelle’s fault. In the spring of 1997, I attended a barbecue at the home of a friend in Los Angeles. Since the party was almost exclusively populated by a particular type of television writer (think Conan O’Brien), I was taken aback when a young black gentleman entered the festivities. Given L.A.’s then-fearsome reputation as the home of rogue cops, riots, and drive-by shootings, I was scared that the newcomer was a crack-crazed Crip out for honky blood. But, no, it was Dave. Once I realized my mistake, I spent the entire evening agreeing with his every word and laughing at all the comedian’s jokes.
And I have spent the next 12 years leaving my purse wide open and at least six feet away from me. It’s my penance for having automatically assumed a black man in L.A. was a criminal. Being black doesn’t get me a pass on unconscious negative feelings about African-Americans or the shame we feel when they become conscious. We see the same cultural indicators as everybody else—back then, hours of riot footage, rap videos, and the O.J. trial had created an automatic connection in my mind between African-American Los Angelenos and danger.
So, I was actually excited to read about a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in which researchers from the University of Washington confirmed the validity of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). The IAT made a lot of news late last year when results showed that 70 percent of those who took it harbor an unconscious preference for white people over black people. And no, I’m not talking about 70 percent of white people—I mean people of all races who took it, including African-Americans. Read more…
Great article. I love Dave Chappelle!
I think that we as persons of color don’t want to believe that we, too, hold prejudices. As it to be believe that as people of color, we’re by default immune to it all. After all, it’s far easier to point the proverbial finger away. However, when we as people of color step up and face our own issues with race, ethnicity, and the plethora of other isms, I think it enhances one’s humanity, and one’s ability to empathize more effectively when we point out the shortcomings in White people
I’m going back to read the recent threads about how to handle compliments on “white” features.
I’m white; my husband is Canadian-Born-Chinese. Our newborn is already getting gushing compliments from my husband’s family on her double eyelids. I have nothing to say. I just ignore it. When I think about it later, I feel a little snarky, like I could say, “She could have quadruple eyelids and I’d still love her eyes.”
My family notices nothing. I doubt that they are even aware that many Asian people tape their eyes daily or even have cosmetic surgery to “achieve” double eyelids.
Any suggestions from other parents of Asian or partly-Asian children for how to handle comments on double eye-lids or a lack thereof?
Karen, and, I’m sorry there was no direct link for you to a blog, etc. But, perhaps you’ll come back. Here is something which may help:
http://eyemd.wordpress.com/2007/02/02/are-double-eyelids-inherited-genetically/
He is Dr. Benson Chen, Asian Eye MD.
Karen~~I don’t get any comments. The most I got when he was a baby (from complete strangers) was that he has big eyes, but I think most babies have big eyes and we no longer get those comments since his eyes aren’t especially large anymore. (When I mean baby, I am talking about six months or a year, not newborn.)
The only other comments I get is that he is “cute” and a lot of times I think people say it because they think he is exotic looking, but since I don’t know for sure, we just say “Thank you.”
Just a quick vent. I have decided that I am “disappearing” the copy of Disney’s Peter Pan I got as part of a big lot of VHS tapes someone was giving it away. My 4 y.o. son has watched it a few times with his dad, but I hadn’t watched more than bits and pieces before last week and holy crap I had absolutely no memory (from my own childhood) how much completely out of control “Indian” stereotyping is in that movie, and when my son started talking about building a fire and dancing around going “woo woo” I decided that thing is going in the trash as soon as he’s not looking. I’m sad, because there are a lot of aspects of that movie that he (and I) really like, but it’s just too big a part of the film toFFWD over and too unbelievably offensive to ignore. (I don’t think he has any concept that the whole “woo woo” thing is at all racial–it’s just a cool dance that he’s imitating like he does with so many other movies–so I’m not saying anything about that unless he continues doing it.)
Anyway, I was just wondering if other people had stories (or warnings) about other movies, etc. that they’ve felt the need to jettison. It would also be great to hear suggestions for more positive and authentic materials about Native American culture. We live in Arizona, so we take him to tribal festivals, etc. several times a year, but both he and his 5 year old cousin recently started asking me “What are Indians?” (when I told them we were having Indian food for dinner). I think I did a decent-ish job of explaining that India is a country far across the ocean where they invented the really good food that we were going to have for dinner, but that American Indians are the people who live here, and were here before the Europeans came and got confused and called them the wrong name. But it would be nice to start supplementing that with a somewhat richer perspective.
Marcy, I’m a little puzzled by your link. I already know what double eyelids are. Were you thinking I’d forward it to my family to educate them?
I was looking for suggestions on how to handle comments that imply that double eyelids are preferable to single eyelids.
There is something hysterically funny about her thinking Dave Chapelle was a gang member for 12 years! I fell out laughing because of that alone.
Dear Karen (cc.Marcy, S’mom),
You can always point out exactly what you think, it’s an empty compliment because beauty is so racially and market driven. Brush them off, roll your eyes. If you dare, tell them that it’s a pretty racist compliment and you’d prefer not to hear it.
And totally inform your parents about the whole epicanthic fold story so that they are aware and can talk about it in the future if your child asks.
And remember, the most beautiful person that your girl will see and judge by before the media gets to her is you. And it’s totally awesome.
And Dear Jennifer P.
I’m sad to say that Aristocats also has a shocking segment in which a siamese cat with chinky eyes and a gong on its head plays the piano with chopsticks and sings something stupid about egg foo yong and fortune cookies in that really bad asian-accented voice.
I’m gonna wait til my kid is a teen before I let her see these two movies, thanks for the heads up. Geezus. And I guess you should look into Lady and the Tramp, siamese cats again…shudder.
Interesting about the Siamese Cats. I’ve always been bothered by the ethnicizing of animated animal characters in (mostly) Disney films, but I’m not sure whether I worry as much about my son being exposed to these, since their racism depends to some extent on picking up on cultural connotations (Jim Crow, siamese cats, etc.) that are generally invisible to him, and also they’re just not scenes or characters significant or interesting enough for him to imitate. But in Peter Pan you explicitly have white children “playing Indian,” apparently with the complete approval of the grotesque caricatures of “Indians,” and I think there’s a much greater risk of him thinking that “Indians” are just another fun kind of character you can “play” at being, like pirates or superheroes. But oh, “classic” literature and films are just chockfull of landmines, aren’t they? And now off to comment on the “Little House” blackface post….