Working Towards Mutual Understanding (Response to "Roles of Actors" Post)

As I was reading the post “Roles of Actors”, it occurred to me that further exploring the sentiments highlighted in the post could be beneficial to the entire class. Based off of our discussions this week, uncomfortable as they were, I felt that this serves as a valuable opportunity for all of us to learn.

 

This entire post presents a plethora of issues that need to be addressed, especially in a class in which power and privilege are embedded in every discussion that we have. That being said, please don't take anything I'm about to say as a personal attack against any one individual. I'm not sharing my perspective in the sense that it is "right", but in the name of moving towards mutual understanding.

 

1. The claims of racism in Hollywood are rooted in systematic discrimination:

 

This may come as a surprise to some, but as Hollywood was founded during a discriminatory time in American history, there were many practices that actively discriminated against minority groups by not allowing them roles in films, plays, or other methods of entertainment. We briefly mentioned "black face" in class, which was a method used to liken white actors to black people. The paint that was used was disrespectfully dark, and their personification of black people was based on stereotypes that would undoubtedly dehumanize them to anyone watching (e.g. “Birth of a Nation“). In the case of Native Americans, there were often westerns that would depict them in similar stereotypical racist ways. Fast forward to 2014, and the memories of these practices still exist. When something is distinctively used as a method to keep people in a place of subjugation, it is completely different than Morgan Freeman playing a guy that was supposed to be Irish. People of color have never systematically portrayed roles that were meant for white actors as a way to perpetuate racism, so it is not the same thing.

 

2. The entire argument is predicated on the notion that all races are on equal ground in America:

 

Racial equity has never, nor does it currently exist in America. Most Americans cling to the belief that "all men are created equal" and think that it somehow means that everyone in this country is treated equally. This has never been true, as the statement itself isn't even inclusive to women (and at the same time there were things like slavery and manifest destiny which were systematically wreaking havoc on people of other races). A country that has so much racial inequity embedded in its history, culture, and way of life is extremely unlikely to produce a society that flourishes with racial equity. While public displays of blatant racism (e.g. KKK) are easy for most people to recognize and deem  morally wrong, institutionalized racism and white privilege are much more difficult to detect because they don’t originate from one distinct source. I know we would all like to believe that all races are on the same level, because that would be awesome, but they're not.

 

3. In order to be discriminated against, you have to be made powerless:

 

Racism, sexism, heterosexism, subjugation, and marginalization, are all things that require one group to have power in which they use to systematically, intellectually, and recreationally oppress another group. Therefore, a group that has no power cannot be racist, sexist etc. towards the group that has power. In the case of race, minority groups cannot be racist or systematically discriminate against whites in America. They can be prejudiced and treat them as such, but largely, they don't have the power to systematically oppress whites as they are the dominant race in the country (in terms of political power, wealth, cultural capital etc.). Similarly, I can never claim that a woman is sexist against men, as I am a male that benefits from patriarchy every day. A woman may be biased towards me, but that's as far as it goes because systematically I belong to the dominant group (men). Most of us have identities that give us privilege, and if that is the case, they simultaneously oppress other groups. Not that this is our fault, but recognizing our privilege and not using it to demean the oppressed group is the first step in reducing its effects. If we choose to ignore our privilege (i.e. saying racism doesn't exist, or goes both ways), we perpetuate it by using it to classify claims of oppressed groups as invalid (note that it's very convenient when the dominant group has the choice to determine if the claims of subjugated groups are even valid, but that's a whole other issue right there.).

 

4. “Why is all of this such a big deal?”

 

As I hope might be realized by this point in my response, race matters, gender matters, sexuality matters etc. These are the foundations of how many people see the world, and their perspectives and experiences matter. For all of us, it might be uncomfortable and difficult sometimes to see the world from a perspective different from our own, but we need to recognize that people are different, and that it is a good thing. We may have similar biological makeups on the inside, but our social contexts and experiences are very different­—that, matters a great deal. If we fail to recognize that everyone's experience is valid, then we enter dangerous terrain where only the experiences of the dominant groups get recognized. There is a reason that history as we are taught in America is largely derived from the perspective of white males, ignoring or leaving out the copious amounts of women and people of color that have made valuable contributions as well. Adopting this view is central for seeing humanity as it is (both good and bad) rather than seeing it as what we think it should be, which is all too often the convenient way out.