The World in Black and White
In Black No More, the world is constructed on a black and white binary. In other words, it is made to seem as if there exist only two racial groups—black and white, which are in constant opposition to one another. The other races are consistently defined according to their relation to blacks and whites; for instance, “Latins, Jews and South Irish…show almost Negroid lips and noses (15),” and “Yallahs” are framed solely as people whom black men fool around with. As for “Somalis, Filanis, Egyptians, Hausas and Abyssinians,” they have “thin lips and nostrils” like whites (15).
Of course, it can be argued that Schuyler purposely sets his book up this way to make a stronger point about the ignorance of whites discriminating against blacks, but something else makes this especially interesting: the same “whitening” and “blackening” process occurs everyday in modern society. Just think about it in terms of immigrants today. On the one hand, you have the model minorities (who are stereotypically Asian) who, because of their financial success, are seen as the “whitest” of the minorities. On the other hand, however, those immigrants living in poverty and debt (they are stereotypically from
posted by Quinn at 8:57 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Quinn--thanks for taking Schuyler's book--as well as our class conversation--outside of the problematic white-black binary. And putting this all in terms of assimilation debates that figure some groups as more "white" than others is really interesting. There is also some great work out there that complicates our understanding of whiteness itself. For example, in _Wages of Whiteness_, David Roediger tracks how Italian Americans were not considered "white" until early in the twentieth century.
Also, lower-class whites have historically--and perhaps even in the contemporary moment--been held outside the privileged realm of "whiteness" because of socioeconomic status. Other arguments point to the fact that whiteness actually signifies, more than skin color, the privilege to be mobile and invisible (vs. for example, the hypervisibility or certain racialized bodies in society)
just some thoughts...
thanks for your comments.
The black-white binary that unfortunately continues to plague American society came as a result of British colonization in the New World. I think that society remains dependent on this racial binary because it simplifies our problems into one side or the other. It is obvious that it is necessary for us to consider the other racial ethnicities that populate our nation, and that continue to grow at amazing rates; however, it seems to be too difficult for people to recognize those grey areas that exist in the racial binary we have created. I also think that it stems from a need in human nature to think of something as good and the opposite as bad--in the racial binary, with whiteness was perceived innocence while blackness meant guilt. While the black-white binary oversimplifies domestic relations, it overemphasizes our horrible history and ignores the strides that we have made in years past.
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