The Dilemma of the Metaphorical Mulatto

[brianold]

This is an ongoing conversation between me and a white friend of mine in reference to my blog post the other day about the metaphorical mulatto that I envoked when posing the semi-jokingly, but illustrative, question: "do white people read the liberator?"

You can read the original post here:

[brianold]

here is the initial response of my friend:

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So i checked out your blog which led me to The Liberator. I read the thing about Myspace and Hip-hop, and the thing about Proof, the other article about rappers as targets was really good as well.

Then I came across your "Do white people read the Liberator?" section. I read that and had some thoughts for you. First off, I know that racism is real and that the US an institutionally racist system, a system that was actually damn near founded solely on racism. So solidarity is going to be hard to come by here. But to improve things the main thing that I see that needs to be done is to stop stressing peoples differences. This is a major tactic used by politicians and thought-controllers everywhere stress peoples differences so they won't realize they're in the shit together.

I read the thing about the mulatto and the father slave master. All white men are not slave masters. I know for a fact that my family came to this country fleeing the Nazi's during the Holocaust (racial extermination). So to look at me as the slave master's descendant from the 1700's is not only misguided, but also racist. Because my skin tone is the same, does not mean that me, or even anyone in my ancestry had anything to do with slavery. Now I'm not saying you said that, or that it's your position, just taking the conversation a little farther.

Secondly, when people speak of black unity, and being the original man, and being brothers, and the evil white man, how is that helping anybody? Is that helping the black mans plight? Is it making the white man in power feel any compassion? What does it do to the white guy that lives by you, knows you, goes to school/work with you, how does it make him feel? You are speaking as if you are better than him, and that too is racism. I know that kind of stuff is meant to uplift, but from what I've seen I've come to the conclusion that it only creates more of a division between people. To achieve solidarity and to rid ourselves of racism and classism, the only thing we can do is realize that we are all people and that we're in this shit together.

Don't get me wrong, black people have gotten the absolute worst of it in this country, point blank. They are the oppressed people. But also realize there are oppressed people all over the world of all denominations. European's and their descendants have done some fucked up shit, I'll be the first to tell you. But, if you make a value judgement that anyone with a dark skin tone is somehow more important than anyone else, or more righteous, it is an incorrect thought. Every human being on this earth should be treated with the same respect and decency, regardless of skin tone, gender, age, physical state whatever. Until this happens solidarity is only a word.

I know that this is a very complicated subject and there's a lot more to it, but I don't want to write a book here. You just provoked me to write a little bit. Let me know what you think about all this if you got time.

[brianold]

here is my first response in return:

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Thanks fro writing me tho. glad to know that people still have some courage and are actually willing to speak up, even if it's disagreement.

to respond to your message, no doubt, i actually do know that there are many people considered "white" in america (and around the world) that had little or nothing to do with the atlantic slave trade. and i am also aware that there are europeans (and decendants) who are oppressed even to this day.

check out this short message i was reading this morning. i thought it was interesting (and ironic) so i wanted to share it with you. it also sums up my response to what you were saying. this issue isn't new so i think it's always good to understand eachother and come to some sort of agreeement so we can move on:

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Last week's BC cover story, New Orleans is Our Gettysburg explained how farcical elections, in which the participation of the city's black residents was massively and selectively hindered, are intended to put the stamp of legitimacy upon the dispossession and exile of much of black New Orleans. Widely referenced and linked to from around the net by such sites as BuzzFlash, the story generated quite a few emails from individuals who probably are not regular BC readers. One of the very few of these that was nearly civil or printable came from Anne McNeal:

"I am a Caucasian who has lived in New Orleans or in the surrounding area of New Orleans for over 45 years. I don't judge people by their color. I judge people by their actions. The article is so antagonistically written that it leaves little opening for a reconciliatory approach by anyone the author is attacking. I suggest if the author wants to do more than just merely complain about injustices in life then the author should monitor the tone in the article. Using a softer tone does not equate to invalidating ones thoughts, feelings and opinions. A soft tone and strong opinions can coexist. A soft tone signals approachability and a desire for reconciliation. In my opinion, the author is not ready for reconciliation but is still in the divisive stage of anger. The author shows no sign to work in partnership with others to mend the fences of racism and classism."

At the risk of appearing sarcastic, a tone of equanimity is far easier to adopt and sustain when someone else's community and family has been dispossessed instead of one's own. No current white resident of the Crescent City can possibly dodge the fact that she or he is the beneficiary of unearned privilege vis-a-vis the hundreds of thousands of black residents who cannot return, and who, under the present dispensation can expect neither accounting nor apology for their lost homes, property, their unburied and unaccounted for family members and their dispersed communities.

In such a context, condemning black indignation as divisive and proof that the folks who've been done wrong are not ready for reconciliation is a transparent and classic defense of unearned white privilege. This editor is no bible scholar but there is a relevant passage in the Gospel somewhere about criticizing your neighbor for the mote in his eye while ignoring the beam in one's own. Rather than writing to BC about our antagonistic tone the cause of reconciliation might be better served first by realizing the extent of one's unearned white privilege and secondly by reaching out to some of the activist organizations on the ground in New Orleans and exploring with them what reconciliation might actually look like in the real world.
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i got to slide in there tho... that u also have to be careful of trivializing people's viewpoint by lumping all those stereotypical "evil white man, black man is god, etc" phrases. you're dismissing them instead of coming across that you understand them and disagree. thats fine. i disagree with alot of those theories but i do not dismiss the people who hold them. important difference.

also about the mulatto thing: i think u might have missed the point. the point isnt that all whites are slave masters. i was actually paying compliment to white people who stand up for what is right even if it means going against a system that they benefit from. that right there is similar to a "mulatto" (i was using it as a metaphor) going up against his father (who historically was the slave master who had raped a black slave) and wanting to destroy a system (slavery) that he benefitted from (the mulatto benefitted from the fact that he was the slavemaster's son , but often played with the slave kids. (there's a good movie called "sugar cane alley" about this).

keep the dialogue alive,

brian

[brianold]

here is his second response:

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i wasn't really trying to dismiss or deny any of the points that had been made, i don't think i really conveyed that too well. i just wanted to add in my little piece to the equation.

It's a ridiculously unfair system, I will be the first to say that. I just don't like when people speak with an "its us against them tone." That's a lot of where I was coming from. Not saying you did this at all, but one definitely gets that feeling from the article you added to your response.

Also, the white privaledge thing is real, but it's not as huge as a lot of people think. Racial profiling is probably the most major common slight still occurring today, and it's very real. I know this for a fact, as I don't get followed by police or pulled over without cause at all when I'm by myself, as I do when I'm with my guys (who are black). But I have gotten my ass-whupped by the police, who also dropped my shorts (to search me supposedly) in the middle of the street; with no just cause. So that can happen to white people too. But the system is also institutionally racist (government, schools, jobs, you name it), I know this, and will be the first to say it, been saying it my whole life.

Also, with the white privaledge thing, I'm not getting it. I haven't gotten shit in my life because I'm white, period. Maybe a lack of racial profiling, in stores and by police, but thats about it. It's hard enough for me (with 2 years of college education and a clean record) to get a shitty ass $10 an hour job. What the fuck has being white ever gotten me? Shit, thats what. Racism on the court, thats about it.

Damn i'm losing it here. Let me re-iterate my points: I am not dismissing anyones point, this country is fucked up and racist, period. I just hate when people speak with an "it's us against them" tone, or feel that being black gives them license to be racist towards anybody else (my own thing, not from your letter or articles). Also, that New Orleans is probably the most fucked-up situation in this country's history; and that white-privaledge is real, but it's not really extended to everybody, and it doesn't buy as much as you think.

It's hard to explain your points in so few words, but do you feel where I'm coming from at all?I'm just trying to add in a broke white city-person's view, and explain we ain't so different after all. Because most of my friends are black and to be honest my life really isn't any different from theirs at all.

[brianold]

my second response in return:


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Your points: "I just hate when people speak with an "it's us against them" tone, or feel that being black gives them license to be racist towards anybody else (my own thing, not from your letter or articles). Also, that New Orleans is probably the most fucked-up situation in this country's history; and that white-privaledge is real, but it's not really extended to everybody, and it doesn't buy as much as you think."

My Points:
1) I AGREE wit you!

2) I'm just saying don't "hate" it, "understand" WHY black people are so quick to do that (which it seems like you do to a certain extent.)

3) You have to understand why black people are so bitter. NOBODY likes it. Black people don't LIKE it. No one likes it when they themselves or when others are bitter you know? But like the article quote I sent you illustrates, WE HAVE TO STOP trying to change someone's TONE (i.e. "I just hate when it's put in us against them terms") and worry about the ISSUES. For instance, if your baby is crying, you should first try and figure out WHY he is crying and worry about that rather than tell the baby "stop crying! just stop crying." You get my point? The former is proactive, the latter is re-active and useless in the immediate sense.

4) We grew up in Minneapolis. You went to Washburn. Both you and I have to realize that our experience was different than the MAJORITY of whites and blacks in the nation. Look at the prision rates, the dropout rates, the CONCENTRATED poverty rates, and you'll see that there are still ALOT more issues than racial profiling that say that white priviliedge is real. Realize that an attack on that system is not an attack on you. Don't get caught up in the language -- that's how you mistook the metaphor about the mulatto/slavemaster. If you get too defensive without first understanding you can miss the point sometimes. That mulatto metaphor would still apply if we were talking about invading aliens and earthlings. The point was about the issue of loyalty, not race.

4) We ALL have to understand and acknowledge world history and the facts. So when black people talk about all that original man stuff, in a sense it is true. Black African people were the original human beings on earth. Period. I realize people get caught up in it. But why argue? I always believe that if we just focus on the immediate issues all that will clear up latter. But I'm not going to NOT work with someone because they are stuck on claiming that they are the original man.

5) We have to focus on ALTERNATIVES to this system. It's not good enough to say "this system is wack, I'll be the first one to admit it BUT..." there is not but, that the issue at hand, we have to focus on that. Once we do we'll start to look for alternatives. Because I'm of African decent, the first place i'm going to look is Africa. That's what I have to bring to the table. I think white people who want to be truly for an alternative have a hard time because when most of europe goes back into it's past to look for alternatives they won't find much but the roots of the current system. Poor whites have it the hardest because on one hand it's hard to disown your own civilization. (i.e. the mullatto and the slavemaster/father example)... John Brown is the perfect example of a poor white person realizing that the civilization that he belonged to was F*&*ed up and making the decision to fight till the dealth to abolish it. See, white privilege doesn't have to be directly bennefitting. John Brown realized that the only way I can deny my white privilege is to fight to destroy this system or fight for an alternative. Just like Americans who just wake up go to work come home play with their kids and go to bed don't think about how many people in Africa or Asia or even Eastern Europe had to die or suffer for them to commute to work, to wear the clothes they have on, or even to buy that fisherprice playset for their baby... they might not see how they are privileged over the rest of the world. But the fact is that anyone who is living a semi-normal life is priviledged over millions of people. And the fact is that white folks just by existing in America are privileged, if even just psychologically... and the only way to deny that privilege is to fight like John Brown did to destroy that heirarchy.

btw... i appreciate your responses.

[brianold]

his third response:


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To respond:

1) I understand all the reasons, and I feel the bitterness completely, I've been speaking on these injustices my whole life. Thats one reason i get bitter, though. Thats why I said my shit mostly. Its like all these things you're talking about are real (prision rates, the dropout rates, the CONCENTRATED poverty rates) the lack of a presence in decision-making or important government jobs, etc., etc. All of these things are real, and I've been speaking on them my whole life, and my family is the same way. So you could see how it kind of annoys me when people speak with an "us against them tone," or as if I am somehow the enemy, etc. Thats mostly what my first response was about. You could see how it could get a little annoying? Especially when I don't have shit either.

I do see where people's bitterness comes from, and I understand it, and empathize with it completely. But do you see where I'm coming from? Not on a global level, or a level regarding the whole "white race," but on an individual level. Because that is what I am, an individual. I can only lead one life which is my own, and I refuse to claim any responsibility for the acts of any man, or men, beside myself. As much as I don't hold you personally responsible for Rwandan genocide simply because you share the same skin tone as the murderers.

2) As for the original man stuff, I believe that that is true, but not quite the way people portray it. I believe in evolution, the land-bridge from asia to north america, etc. I believe that all human beings are the same animal, just with different pigmentation and customs, as derived from their habitats (evolution as well).

3) I agree with just about everything you're saying. It's not as much that I'm getting defensive, or arguing with you; it's more just that I'm just advancing some of my own opinions because you asked for them. We're not on opposite sides her, so to speak; but more looking at the same issue from different angles.
To explain why my position is not defensive, and really just the advancement of my opinions: I claim no responsibility for the actions of any other man on this planet regardless of race. I am an individual, not part of a larger white race, not part of any conspiracy of global domination. I have not participated in anything like that ever, nor have I (singular, myself, just me) ever reaped the benefits.

I know you're response to this may be that I am a part of it whether I choose to be or not. That this is just how things are, so to speak. To that I disagree. This racial divide throughout the world is nothing more than a construct derived by humans, which has become reality. It is real, because we have made it real. An analogy would be that the U.S.-Mexico border is real, because we have made it real. In our world you can't just walk back in forth across the line, bring whatever you want across, whatever. There could be punishments against you, exacted by human beings. The line is real because we have made it real, it is a construct we have created which we enforce. But in reality, there really aren't any of these dividing lines for countries anywhere in the world, there is just land and water. In reality the line doesn't exist. Just the construct. It's the same with race. People will continue to uphold these constructs, and act accordingly; but that doesn't mean I have to. I am an individual with freedom of thought, and I say fuck these constructs, they're bullshit. I believe in reality.

Is my belief creating social change or helping anyone? No. But it isn't hurting anyone either.

[brianold]

in between response i sent him an article:

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Yo i thought this article was relevant and interesting. blackelectorate.com posted it, but it's from lip magazine by a white cat named tim wise.

http://cybermessageboard.fatcow.com/mpls...p=491..491

[brianold]

his response to article:

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Tim Wise. That's a tight ass name, is it his real name???
I gotta say, of what I read, I agreed with this gu

The part about liberals not liking this was especially amusing (I consider myself independent. fuck politicians, republicans are worse than democrats, but that doesn't make democrats good); because my mom is always writing to somebody, or arguing with right-wing jerks, as if she can somehow show them something they missed, and that Norm Coleman will somehow stop whatever bullshit he's currently up to because she wrote a convincing letter. I'm always trying to convince her that that shit is futile, that they don't even read her letters or listen to her calls. But she keeps fighting the good fight, even if it is futile. *by the way she does this not out of any self-interest, like this guy says, but because she's always trying to help out everybody.(though he was right on with the self-interest thing on a mass scale, not an individual one).

The Lincoln thing is true too, not too many people know that shit though. You can find the quotes where he said those exact things. And I don't mean online or in bullshit. In scholarly writing, and in university courses.

This is kinda where i was coming from with some of my shit from before-
"After all, why do folks of color fight racism? Surely it is not out of the goodness of their hearts, or for some altruistic or charitable reason. Rather, it is because racism is deadly, and harms them: Fighting it is a matter of self-interest for people of color. And so what if it is? Do we really wish to suggest that whites should aspire to more noble motives -- as if we should be expected to be more selfless than others -- in our struggle against racism? Surely not. "
Because I wonder sometimes whether if the tables were turned, if the U.S. was hypothetically a black majority and the opposite of now was in effect, whether it wouldn't be the exact same situation? Because i've been to a lot of places (parties, gyms, etc.) where i been the extreme minority, and them shits weren't always the safest for me, and they damn sure weren't discrimination-free.

Which kind of brings me to where I stand on the issue. That racism is just one of the many human flaws, amongst greed, jealousy, lust for power, etc.; flaws that are evident in a majority of human beings. They are human flaws, not a flaws of a certain color of people. People of all colors possess the flaw of racism. White people have just been, by far, the most treacherous perpetrators of this phenomenon.

Gotta stop reading and writing there. I got about half-way through this reading (gotta get up at 5:30 to go to work tomorrow); but for the most part I agree with this guy.

[brianold]

back on track to the main conversation thread, here is my third response in return:


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I know and agree with your point that race is a social construct, but racism just as anything else, becomes real at the moment where its effects are real. Even in The Matrix shit became real when Neo figured out if you were killed in the matrix you were killed in real life. So that Mexican border becomes real as hell when people die trying to cross it. That is reality, whether it is a manipulated reality or not. And here's where what side you are on matters: to you the mexican border isn't AS REAL, because your family is not dying trying to cross it. See the difference?

The original man thing -- I agree with you again, but to clarify: regardless of whether physical evolution is true or not... at the heart of this mantra is that "culturally" and speaking in terms of "civilization" people who are darker skinned are more closely related to the "original" origins of civilized man. That can't be argued. Saying that, we can agree that we are all humans, we were all birthed out of women, breathe oxygen and bleed blood.

Back to what sounded kind of like a neutral stance at the end of your message: there is no neutrality...
1) either you are resisting a construct that is destructive
2) you are not resisting a destructive construct
3) you are actively assisting a destructive construct.

The first is obvious... the second and third are both HELPING the continued existence of a destructive construct. So logically, if you are not helping you are hurting, there is not neutrality, especially as an American and even more especially as a white American.

About Rwanada: again, I think if we talk about it in terms as you presented as far as comparing skin color, etc... it doesn't work.

We have to always look at things in their historical contexts.

So Rwanda and Sudan and Congo and Uganda... all of the modern cultural conflicts in Africa were perpetuated if not started because of, but certainly rooted in the drawing of arbitrary borders during the 1884-85 Berlin Conference prior to the highpoint of the imperialist invasions of Africa by Europeans.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_conference)

Now about the question of where you stand as an individual.

I believe in that to the fullest. That individually we all have capacity for good and evil and balances between the two.

BUT, what's clear is that the Eurocentric paradigm (i.e. The worldview that is rooted in Europes "great" civilizations and achievements) has proved to be destructive (back to the mulatto metaphor) and as humans we are ALL trained in a paradigm (that is not in your control). We all see the world through paradoxial glasses.

Unfortunetly, many African-Americans are being trained in this Eurocentric paradigm too... but most other cultures have a root that they can return to if they so choose. And often even if they don't choose to that root still battles inside of them for control of the mind of that person.

So my question would be if you are completely denouncing your "collective" ties to the domination of the Eurocentric paradigm... where then are your roots? You can't drop one pair of sunglasses for nothing... it is not possible on an INDIVIDUAL level because paradigms take generations and milleniums to form. They are created out of collective push for civilization.

I fight the battle to rid myself of the European paradigm daily... but I often cannot escape it. But I have the African-centered paradigm to which to retreat to. From speaking with my Native friends, they have a paradigm to retreat to... my asian friends have a paradigm to retreat to... all of these paradigms have spiritual norms, cultural norms, economic norms, political norms, etc... we aren't fully practicing them, but we can at least retreat to them when we find ourselves being too "Eurocentric" after a long days work or after watching a scary movie while 100,000 people starve half way around the world. What I'm saying is that these alternative paradigms provide conviction that we should not be LULLED to sleep by this eucentric/western paradigm that says "go ahead" watch a movie, watch a basketball game, go shopping! -- all while millions suffer and die.

So as an individual we can all struggle with right and wrong, but we have to realize the world was here before we were therefore we are not in total control of ourselves. Paradigms that have been shaped over thousands of years are powerful and you can't deny that you are shaped by them. And that subconsciously we subscribe to them. If it were my choice i would completely subscribe to an African centered paradigm. But there isn't a complete restructured body of knowledge on all that comprises yet because so much was destroyed and stolen. So what paradigm do you subscribe to? That's the real question and that's the heart of the mulatto metaphor:

Do you subscribe to the paradigm of your white slave-master father? (i.e. a destructive paradigm, remember it's metaphor)... or do you subscribe to the paradigm of your black mother that is nurishing and sustainable?

[bjanitor]

This is a great dialougue i think it needs to happen a little more often.

I think that the biggest issue with the relationship between black people and white people is the fact that many of us deal with each other with a certain level of dishonesty cause we were trained to do so, out of being respectectful to the sensetivity of race.

The other thing is that probably 1 percent of the white population are decendants from slave owners, and the rest just subconciously want to claim that power to reinforce a sense of superiority.

I think both of you are right but from a different perspective, I think that we are the same animal in the way of a panther and a Lepard, we are in the same family like they are both felines we are mankind but I think we are a different species that is interconnected through are similarities and are relation to each other in the eco system. I think we are like the ying and the yang, opposites with a simialar focus inorder to maintain a balance, I think our failure to submit to our natural state has caused confusion in the roles of our different species. The media has caused so many issues of insecurity surrounding the two that neither of us can honestly communicate and represent are true selves, both races have insecurities with regards to the other beyond the stupid shit of Wealth and genitalia size. I think these insecurites play out on both sides and force us into a unhealthy assimilation mode, where we have some people who seek to assimilate to white culture with a lack of understand of why white peoples culture is the way it is and White people assimilate to black culture with a lack of understanding on why it is the way it is. I think that the original man decleration is healthy, not neccesarily for the scholar but for the common unconcious black man, I think it is because he needs something to help build is self esteem and help to adress the world with a sense of confidence that the system as been stripping from him for more then a few centurys.

some a couple thought to maybe help the dialougue

out

~the janitor