Racism is a dilemma that has haunt humanity for centuries. From slavery to discrimination, it has loomed over society like an everlasting smog; a toxic cloud corrupting the mindset of individuals. Although numerous attempts have been made to erode racism, obstacles still remain for the people of color.

The biggest source of knowledge for a modern society is the media. Studies in 2016 showed that 62% of American adults rely on social media such as Facebook and Twitter to obtain news. As we all know, in modern society, people also rely on films, such as documentaries and historical movies to learn about the past. Now one may ask, is this really a bad thing? Yes, technology has made it easy for information to be accessed, to be learned, but at the same time knowledge acquired through technology, through media has its downfalls. How many times has a person from a different culture attempt to write about the history, the perspective of people he did not know or grew up with, or even share the same culture with? This concern was shared by Claudia Rankine in her article “On Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary.” She continued on to say that, people, such as white people, proceed to write about others such as black individuals. She says although that it is not necessarily a bad thing for authors to voice their imagination, it is also wrong. It “is to make a mistake. It is to begin the conversation in the wrong place,”(Rankine and Loffreda).  She further stated that “our imagination are creatures as limited as we ourselves are.” People’s imagination is limited to what they know as an individual. People can’t accurately depict history simply through their imagination. People can’t play the role of historical figures without experiencing the pain, and suffering of those figures. People using imagination to show their perspective on cultures and history they do not fully understand is an issue.
 

Thanks to Aleks for posting it in the Zoom chat today. I’d missed it when it came out, but wow: this is one of the best responses to the rise of Trumpism and the white resentment that enables it that I’ve seen:

“Sound & Fury”

Poetry: “This is what it means to wear a color and believe / the embrace of its touch.”

Also interesting that it references Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury (and perhaps Macbeth, from which Faulkner took the title). I’m teaching The Sound and the Fury now, as it turns, out, so I’ll have to share with that class as well.

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is a historically famous novel – not just because it was subjectively a “good” read, but because it is what many consider to be the anti-slavery novel that laid the groundwork for the Civil War. Based on its impact, one would come to assume that no one would ever be able to criticize this book because of the effects it had on the attitudes of slavery in the 1800’s, and the effects it still has today. Wouldn’t a criticism on this novel be considered a little… racist? 

James Baldwin, a black writer from Harlem, was able to effectively criticize “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” with his own essay, “Everyone’s Protest Novel.” In it, he goes in depth as to what makes this novel so controversial. At one point, he compares the novel to white missionaries going on a trip to Africa. This shows that Baldwin thinks of this novel to be some type of “charity work” that is almost unnecessary. Rather than these white missionaries being able to truly help people in Africa, the only thing this really establishes is the fact that these white missionaries not only feel better about themselves for “helping” others, but also that they end up creating a framework of white people being superior to black people. The “what” of their mission trumps the “why” – which is what Claudia Rankine elaborates upon in her writing in “On Whiteness and The Racial Imaginary.”

Rankine writes, “Are we saying…  white writers can’t write black characters? That no one can write from a different racial other’s point of view? We’re saying we’d like to change the terms of that conversation, to think about creativity and the imagination… So, not: can I write from another’s point of view? But instead: to ask why and what for, not just if and how. What is the charisma of what I feel estranged from, and why might I wish to enter and inhabit it.” This means that rather than just absentmindedly write and feel, for some reason, “inspired” to make your character black as a white author, ask yourself, “what is the true purpose of making this character black?” If the author makes this character black, would this be diminishing the character into someone who is simplified into just a “black” person for the white person’s benefit, as Baldwin mentions in his writing? Would the character’s full reality as a black person be elaborated upon, or would the character’s race just add onto the reduction of actual peoples’ realities for the sake of making another (failed) protest novel? In combining the criticisms of both Rankine and Baldwin we learn to think more about how labeling a character as a person of color can be performative in nature and, more importantly, demeaning to real people; there is a line that must not be crossed in order to not make these errors.

However, this begs the question, what is the “line” that white writers cannot cross? What is the universally acceptable answer to the “why and what for” that Rankine mentions? If one person of color accepts the explanation, but another does not, should the black main character and his or her character development and struggles created by the white author be erased from the novel? While creative writing should not necessarily have boundaries, perhaps Claudia Rankine’s next steps could be to lay out a definite framework as to what is and is not acceptable for people to write about when it comes to creating a character of a different race – and perhaps someone will write another critical essay on her standards as well.