Tuesday, December 3, 2013
"I'm black but I would like to be whiter."
In the world today, we are each defined and categorized based off different aspects of our lives whether it be our occupation, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, personality characteristics, or things related to our overall physical appearance. While society may decide on many aspects of these "categories", we adjust individually in forming our personal identities. One of the more dominant "categories" that is sometimes more difficult to pinpoint is racial identity. These controversies are seen mostly in the struggles for biracial children to form their perspectives of themselves.
I found an article from The Washington Times which touches on this idea. The author specifically references Halle Berry and her daughter. Halle Berry is biracial, being 1/2 black and 1/2 white, and the father of her daughter is a "white French-Canadian", thus making their daughter 1/4 black and 3/4 white. The author includes several statements from Berry regarding her daughter's racial identity. Berry notes that her daughter will have to make the decision for herself on which side, white or black, she personally identifies with, just as Berry had to do herself. While Berry mentions that she sees her daughter as black, the way her daughter forms her identity will be mostly shaped by the way she is encompassed by society and how others seem to identify her.
The author also discusses the racial identities of 2 biracial sisters, in which the one whose physical appearance leans more towards their white genetics identifies herself with her black side, being actively involved in black organizations throughout her schooling. I thought it was interesting and yet disappointing that she was "accused of overcompensating for being biracial." Her sister, whose appearance resembled closest to their black genetics, identifies herself with their white side and did not pay much attention to the organizations her sister was involved in.
I remember I came across an episode on the Tyra show that was focused on "Preconceived Notions About Race" in terms of biracial individuals that hated one sides of themselves and having them discuss how they personally defined themselves. There were people on all sides of the spectrum, one of which was a woman who appearance-wise would definitely be considered to be black, but she proclaimed herself as an active member of the KKK. She explained how she did not like black people and made a lot of generalized statements about "the way they talk and act" and how "they are unpredictable." Having found the video again and rewatching it, I had the same feelings of just complete shock at what this woman was saying. It's difficult for me to process how this woman came to feel and think the way that she does and that she has developed such an intense hatred for a very prominent aspect of herself, at least genetically. Obviously I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to have to basically choose between 2 sides, or not (as one woman claimed that she was mixed, she did not claim either side exclusively) and how difficult and conflicted it would be to have to decide or what to decide about yourself. What is said in this video goes hand in hand with the article however in referencing the Jim Crow "One Drop" concept, that simply because these woman appear black they are automatically considered to be black while they may not necessarily identity themselves this way. There were two women who were very light-skinned but 100% African American, completely contradicting and pointing out the inaccuracy in the idea that we can assume an individual's race by the color of their skin. For these women, it is an every day frustration of having to correct people and having to go through the same conversations all the time.
article:
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/politics-raising-children/2011/feb/10/jim-crows-one-drop-rule-may-still-apply-biracial-c/
video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM2_w-m_UFs&feature=related
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I think this really drives home how race is just a socially constructed concept. For people to be able to choose a side of their ethnicity and identify with it racially when they are perceived as another way proves that this is purely a conceived notion. At the same time, I can understand where the two sisters in this article are coming from. While I do not label myself as bi-racial, I do feel that I have two very distinct parts of my racial identity (white and middle eastern) and that the way I identify myself is different from the way society perceives me. To the public I am a white girl, but personally I identify with and feel a stronger connection to the Middle eastern part of my ethnicity. I understand both the desire to link myself with my heritage because of a sense of pride for my culture, and also an intense desire to distance myself from it because of the negative stereotypes that are associated with the region. Society gives me the 'benefit' of perceiving me as white, which, in the same way as the girls above, highlights the hypocrisy of the concept of race. If society defines you as one thing, but you self identify as something else, what race are you really?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your reflection and that brings me to something that I've discussed in a previous class. Identity is a combination of how one identifies himself in addition to how others identify you. It seems that the way that others identify you may have a larger impact on determining overall identity. We can also see how harmful and dangerous attaching negative stereotypes to races has been in being a determinant in how people identify themselves.
ReplyDeleteI, too, remember watching the Tyra episode where the girl truly feels identified as a member of the KKK and vividly remember another episode where mothers bleached their daughter's skin so that they would have lighter skin. The beauty standards that society perpetuates through the white-normative marketing and advertizing have had serious repercussions. This is all to say that society's impact on the ways that people self-identify leave many stranded and often struggling to identify themselves.