Who is the victim of racism in this story?
I had seen this comic a while ago and forgotten to post it. Take a moment to head over to Top Shelf’s website and read it, I’ll be here when you get back
Some questions for pondering (and discussion if you feel so inclined):-
- Do you see racism portrayed in this story? If so…
- Where do you see racism in this story?
- Who is (are) the victim(s) of racism in this story?
- Who is (are) the perpetrators of racism in this story?
- What would you do if you were a teacher in this situation, or the principal, or the pastor, or a family friend?
- What would you do if you were Angela’s parents?
I have thoughts, but I’m having a hard time being cohesive about them. So for now, you have questions.
hat tip to Pop Culture Shock for reminding me about this comic. Rich Johnston has some good thoughts here too.
edit: Welcome to everyone who’s here from When Fangirls Attack . And to my regular readers, if you are curious about issues of gender, race issues, etc in the comic industry, WFA is a good place to find out what’s going on.
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1
I had a difficult time reading this comic…
I’ll post my thoughts later, when I’m not so tired and am better able to form complete sentences ;o)
2
Richard, I thank you for sharing this challenging and unusual perspective on racism.
There are 2 sides to the racism coin, intent and perception.
What we see of Sarah’s intent seems perfectly innocent. The opposite side of the coin would be Angela’s perception, which we don’t see much of, other than that she seems to see the “Aunt Jemima” portrayal as unusual. Did she on first blush find it demeaning or patronizing? Or just simply odd? Also, would her reaction be different upon hearing Sara’s explanation?
Also, I would like to know what the teacher was upset about. Was she concerned that Sara’s character choice would be seen as patronizing to African Americans? Or was she simply put out that Sara chose to portray herself as one of _those_ people, (like the bully at the bus stop)?
Thanks again for making me think.
3
lots of thinking…
1. Sarah’s ignorance. The comic only reveals that she thought she was unique by putting on the charcoal, and also that she wanted to be different. BUT the minute she sees Angela, she knows, somehow, that something is wrong in what she did. White privilege of not having to think of others and difference until confronted with it…
2. Sarah is upset at ruining her costume, but she is also upset about not being unique, about not being something completely opposite of who she is, change. Her face is raw from scrubbing it off, and she is stuck in life. But she isn’t trying to change out of desperation of a life of oppression and racism….I have heard stories of young black girls rubbing their arms raw trying to rub off their color….that is completely different.
3. Like already said, why did the teacher not explain??
Ok, I didnt answer your questions.
* Is there racism? I am still pondering…I will say yes, the essence of blackface, intentional or not, is racist or has racist affects. ie when the two girls meet.
* Ah, victim…..I would rather say that both girls, and everyone, were affected by the racism, rather.
* The perpetrators? Sarah’s teacher and her parents. They should have intervened, explained, and turned this whole situation into a life lesson for all involved. Especially when running into Angela.
4
Wow, great comic. Thanks for sharing. Not much time to respond:
If anything was wrong with Sarah it was simple naivety about the history of blackface, but seeing all the terrible reactions of the adults around here, how could you expect anything else.
The racism that I see is the numerous responses of others to seeing a black person, or more specifically, a white person who is choosing to be black (in costume obviously).
darn, out of time. Thanks for sharing that.
5
I am Managing Editor of the civil and human rights blog, TheDefendersOnline. I read this whole “story,” looking for instances of racism, or for victims, but really it seems to be about youthful naivete and perhaps, on Sara’s part, a lack of exposure or awareness about people who aren’t like her.
Obviously she’s growing up without any significant exposure to or interactions with Black people, and obviously the adults in her life have never discussed such matters or explained why what seems to be an innocent idea (dressing up like the Black woman on the bottle of syrup) might not work as planned, or why her intentions may be okay, but the idea might cause problems Sara didn’t anticipate.
Assuming the “story” was created by a White person, it might be interesting to have a conversation about the author/illustrator’s goal, and what kind of thought they might have been trying to provoke. I wondered why the punitive teacher seemed comfortable dispensing discipline without any explanation, thereby totally squandering a potentially rich “teachable moment,” and why there was no reference to what part of the country this was in, what kind of community, etc.
While the piece seemed to be a call for intelligent and informed debate on a “sticky situation,” since it was much too long to work dramatically, it really came off mostly as an exercise that would be given to kick off a workplace diversity session.
The MAIN question, though, is this: Sara referred only to the syrup when talking about Aunt Jemima. Does that mean she doesn’t use Aunt Jemima pancake mix? And please, somebody have Sara and/or her creator watch the (original) version of “Imitation of Life” for some Hollywood backstory!
6
I’m not sure I have cohesiveness yet, but I’ll try
@TaRessa I haven’t seen Imitation of Life yet, so I’m going to have to add it to my netflix list.
@All One of the things this reminded me of was the Blackface incident at Hamline that I had blogged about earlier. One of the students who went to the party in blackface had said that he didn’t know what Blackface was. I would probably say that one of the major places that one finds racism in the situation in the comic (and in the Hamline situation) is in the idea that one could go through high school and do well enough to succeed without having heard of blackface.
I think Sara and students like her are also victims of racism, because they never learned about the others in their society, and never had an opportunity to learn about the journey that their society has taken in learning how to deal with race and thus she never got the opportunity to continue that journey.
I think the reaction of the teacher also exacerbated the problem, I don’t know if this is what would be going through her head, but it definitely feeds into the idea that it is taboo to talk about the fact that we have different color skin, and that we, and our ancestors, have different lives because of this.
I have other thoughts, and responses, but I have to get to work.
7
Another way that Sara is experiencing racism is that she’s getting a small taste of what it’s like to be told that being black is something to be ashamed of. And ditto the thoughts above re: Sara’s ignorance of the phenomenon of blackface and its legacy of patronizing attitudes and stereotypes.
8
That was fascinating.
Robert Heinlein wrote in “Starship Troopers” that North America is a place where they care a great deal about race, and show it by trying to not make a big deal about race.
One aspect that no one else has commented on so far is the choice of African-American “icon” that Sara chose to dress up as. While Aunt Jemima has been on bottles of syrup for decades, I remember reading somewhere that her image is a stereotype of the black woman before, during and after the American civil war, and that it carries with it heavy connotations of slavery, lack of education, lack of intelligence, etc., etc.
So, to give you my thoughts on your questions:
Do you see racism portrayed in this story? If so…
Um…yeah.
Where do you see racism in this story?
I see it in pretty much everyone in the story. Everyone with a speaking part, that is. And that includes Sara.
Who is (are) the victim(s) of racism in this story? Sara, the African-American girl she encounters at the bathroom.
Who is (are) the perpetrators of racism in this story? Sara, albeit unintentionally. Everyone else who opens their mouth.
What would you do if you were a teacher in this situation, or the principal, or the pastor, or a family friend?
I tend to be really long winded, so I’d probably pull Sara aside and explain to her that what she is doing, while innocent in intention, can be misconstrued by others and it’s probably better that she not do it. But then, realistically, given the cultural milieu of the story, I would probably not be a teacher, principal or anyeone else in that story; or if I was, I might just be like anyone else in that environment (though I earnestly hope not).
What would you do if you were Angela’s parents?
Same as previous answer.
Here’s my thinking. Sara is committing an act of racism because she is using an image that is (as I understand it) universally seen by African-Americans to be a symbol of time when they were slaves, or little better than slaves (free in name only). She’s not intending to hurt, but the mere presence of that image can be painful or shaming to some. So, despite the fact that she is innocent in intent, it’s her lack of education that leads her to make her mistake. And that’s what it is.
Everyone else is guilty of racism because they make such a big show of reacting to her costume. Regardless of their motivation – whether, as Harvey said, they were concerned about giving offence, or offended that a white person would dress up as a black person – reacting to it as strongly as they did shows they are not comfortable with the idea. What would they have made of Al Jolson?
But then I think…what if she’d picked to dress up as someone else who was African American? Oprah Winfrey? Michelle Obama? Condoleeza Rice? Florence Griffith Joyner? Would the perception be the same, and would the reactions of others be the same?
Fascinating…
9
@Harvey Yeah, they are definitely communicating to her that being black is uncool
@JMW Thank you for bringing up the Aunt Jemima thing. She’s definitely the epitome of the Mammy stereotype. I’m constantly surprised that this image is used as a trademark. I like the way that you would talk to Sara. I think that saying to a child that “People used to dress that way to make fun of African Americans in the past, and so you shouldn’t do that now because it will look like you are making fun of them,” might be a good way to explain it on the level of a young child. What do you think?
10
@Harvey. Hi! Thanks for the reply.
My only concern is that I would tend to overanalyze it for the child, and end up confusing him/her. Or end up on tangents of questionable relevance. As I said, I’m long winded (and long-keyboarded, to boot). My kids would be asking me questions like, “Why did people make fun of African Americans?” and we’d get into a whole history lesson on slavery, racism, the US Civil War, the Holocaust, Apartheid, Rwanda, and what not. I’d probably end up just confusing them. And yet I don’t feel that I can impart the information without providing context – some way of fitting this information into a framework that makes sense. It’s how I process things, and I project that onto my kids.
As a vanilla caucasian (make of that what you will), I like to think I’m aware of race issues on an intellecutal level, but I also feel that I can be as blindered as any other person might be. I like to think that it’s because race doesn’t matter to me, and I hope that I’m not deceiving myself. I suppose all I can do is keep plugging away.
11
@TaRessa That the teacher didn’t take the time to explain is actually typical of what I saw growing up in predominantly white, mostly middle-class schools. If a child did something that fit into the category of highly-visible racism even out of naivete (an example that comes to mind is being a preschooler making up what I thought were nonsense words rhyming with bigger), they would be swiftly punished but not told why. To a lot of these teachers, I think it was about maintaining appearances more than actually stopping racism.