Tayari's Blog: Oh, Just Whiten Up!

Comment #1, by Jackie

Aw, crap. The dumbing down of America I call it. That book was a highlight of my college education, the realization of how much greed existed in the world, the absolute need by one group to dominate at the expense of anyone in the way of what they want. Dr. Anna Grant taught that class and I can still remember the A Ha! moment when I "got it." I shed tears at the inhumanity of it all. So filmmakers think that the truth won't sell unless there is a white man in the lead? To make the story easier to digest? When will the madness stop?

Comment #2, by Tayari Jones

This is from Judy. She was having trouble signing in so I am posting her comment for her.

Indeed, when will the madness stop?! When will the Native Americans ever stop being insulted? Manifest Destiny, Columbus Day, this movie's protagonist . . .
If we didn't have to write, we could have a slapping good time!

Comment #3, by Michael Fischer

That's just depressing, but (unfortunately) not surprising. As a teacher, I'm continually amazed at many of my white students who say that they can't "relate" to literary characters who aren't white. Ugh.

Comment #4, by Jackie

Mike, how do they relate to popular personalities that aren't white? I am thinking music, music videos, sports figures, entertainment folk. Are they emulating them while refusing to acknowledge that there is life and breath beyond the public persona? As in literary characters... I am curious about what prevents them from going the rest of the way.

Comment #5, by Michael Fischer

Hmm, that's an interesting question, Jackie. From what I’ve seen, I think they tend to do as you say, “emulate the public persona without acknowledging life beyond the persona.” For instance, lots of white kids buy hip-hop albums, but I’m not sure they really care about what’s behind the “persona,” or if the “persona” is negative and harmful in some ways (degradation of women, glorification of violence, etc.). I guess an example of this would be all of those “hip hop” parties thrown by white fraternities and sororities where the kids dress up as stereotypical hip-hop “characters.”

As for literary characters, I think this issue isn’t just a racial issue one; honestly, I’ve noticed this with gender as well, esp. amongst males. But what I try to do is devise writing assignments that force students to write about the importance of “relating” to characters of different backgrounds. I guess I just try to attack the notion that they can’t “relate” to characters who are "not like" themselves, which usually shows up early in the semester in class discussions and in journal entries.

Back more specifically to race, I think we’ve talked about this topic here before, but it seems like in terms of white students, a lot of this ties into what’s discussed in whiteness studies…the fact that a lot of white people never really question their own whiteness, which somehow creates this notion that everything should relate to us, instead of us having to “relate” a bit ourselves..to ultimately realize that "relaing" is really a human thing, not a race or gender thing, and that it shouldn't be "hard" to begin with. Good art is good art.

Okay, what did I just type? LOL. This is complex stuff.

Comment #6, by Michael Fischer

*I forgot to add that those "Hip Hop" parties thrown by a lot of white greeks are thrown on--of all days--MLK Day.

Comment #7, by Jackie

It's OK, Michael. I am beginning to feel my age----and my distance from young folk. As I read your post, I took a quick glance back to my youth and while it was a different era, I thought I knew what I knew. Certainly I read what was relevant to me. Thank goodness I was able to grow past my own ignorance. Makes me chuckle to think how naive I was.

As for perspective, when I read Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone, I was constantly amazed that this man could write from the point of view of a young girl. He nailed it. Perhaps your students will one day come across the one book that will challenge their assumptions and send them in search of a better truth.

Comment #8, by Michael Fischer

That's why I love fiction, because nothing like good art can bring us all together!:)

I enjoyed "She's Come Undone" too, and have heard many people say the same about how well he wrote from the female POV.

Comment #9, by james3neal

Well well well ... it's been awhile seen I've read your blog Tayari and now I find this ... I have only walked out on one movie in my life and that was Dances with Wolves w/Kevin Costner (Why can't the story of the "other" ever be told without pandering to the "white audience"?) ... I am still waiting for Hollywood to give indigenous Americans, Native Americans, Indians (I live in New Mexico and all of those terms are used out here) their due and proper representation on film. I recall laughing as a kid at some Saturday morning western movie on television where the Native American characters were actually white actors with paint on their faces. The madness will never end.

Comment #10, by james3neal

Jackie ... I assume you are a Spelman grad as well ... I am Morehouse (1988)... I never took Anna Grant but I know she was dropping mad knowledge in sociology at Morehouse ... she was a friend of my Grandfather Roswell Jackson who taught Religion at Morehouse.

Comment #11, by Marlyn

I was just thinking about the issue of the need for a half white character in Native American texts the other day. Not to say that I have something against biracial characters, but it seems that there is a need for a partially white character to validate the Native American culture. I have also found that if the character is not biracial, then it is a white person who was raised with the group and is looked upon as a member. Although these things have happened in reality and are documented, this is often the only perspective that we are given, especially in film. Characters such as Walker in Chuck Norris' Texas Walker Ranger show, Sully in Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman, and the list goes on. It seems that maybe producers feel that the American public will not want a story from an authentic Native American character, so there has to be some whiteness present to validate the story and also to once again make sure that the hero or protagonist is white. It is really sad that things like this happen.I also question does having a half white character make Americans feel not as bad about the way that Native Americans are portrayed and treated. I guess they can say, "That person is half Native American. This person is living proof that Native Americans aren't treated bad,"