Late Submission by Temoc

04-18-2010

Dear Miss Sally Hemming,

I would like to personally address some things, in a letter that should never be read by any other eyes than our own. I would like to address my writings, visions, and actions. Though you cannot read, this letter, is for your eye, and will be said to you, with me by your side.

I have written a work called “Laws”, in my notes on the state of Virginia, mainly because I think we needed my opinion of laws to be written, seen, and heard. There are many issues to be sought out and fixed in this new country, and Laws, within the state and greater must be address.

Let it be known that I care for you deeply, as my helper, and that the secrete that I hold is one which I do not believe in everything I have written. Rather, I am deeply confused, but I know my vision and purpose, and God’s will. I know, for the time being, you must stay a slave. To please the common folk, the Negro must stay as servants to us. But as you know, from your time in France, this does not have to be true. Unlike what I have written in my notes, you are human, and you are a living being, and you deserve all the treatments of any other person….but I cannot write this. This is not the time.

You are my slave, my servant, my friend, and other times, another person for whom I cherish deeply. Ms. Heming, this is a hard letter for me to write, but I had to write it. What I have created, for Query XIV is to say the least, gross. But it is what is right, for the time now. It is just, it is my idea of the idea union, for this time. Over our time together, I know this, these words, are not correct, completely. However, I need you to know, that I am confused. And, that yes, you I care for deeply.

I have told this to you in my own ways, but in reflection to my article, this poured out.
Until this reading to you.

Sincerely,
Thomas Jefferson

1) How does “Laws” affect the creation of the Union and how does it form our ideas about the Negro people now, and of the Native population.
2) What are the differences of portrayal, between Ms. Hemmings and Ellen Craft, in terms of black womanhood? What are the common themes presented?





5-2-2010

Dear Mr. Jacobson,

I would like to address one small issue with you about your work…

I have to say, I do agree with much that you have written in the Political History of Whiteness. In terms of politics, scientific study, and privilege, I think you deconstructed our historical relationship whit whiteness very well. However, what about Blackness? And what of the relationship of whiteness to blackness?

You did site Franz Boas on page 33, and the discovery of modern anthropology, but what of the application and morphology of whiteness and blackness then? Yes, Black people were humanized more, and yes, white people became more homogenous in terms of culture, but from my perspective, nothing really changed….you just showed how the polarity of black/whiteness has more or less stayed the same. But, I do not think you illustrated the true ramifications of this kind of thinking.

The fact of the matter is, Black people, since and before Jefferson’s note, have been the alien—for lack of a better term. The blackness, embedded in our skin is the ultimate point of difference and discrimination. We have, and still are, treated with the first glace understanding that we are the worst of people, thought that may not be true. Yes, whiteness has not always been homogenous. And yes, there was strife. But, always, the black people are treated the worst, unless they can pass….and even then, alienation occurs within.

I have to say, you have written an important document. However, I would have like to see more of the other races represented in response and relationship to whiteness. More, importantly, a close comparative analysis, so that this history can be seen in relation to color. Yes, your document show much about whiteness, but, in then end, we are still only talking about white people—how much more work have you done than your predecessor?

Thank You

Toni Morrison.

In response to Sanchez’s work
1) How does Mexican American and Mexican culture mix and change? How do people adapt to place and space?
2) If Toni Morrison believes Blacks are the real Aliens, what does that have to do with Land and Sea? How does this speak to the immigration of the Mexican American?





5/9/2010

Dear Helga,

I have read about your journey. And I am happy, sad, and yet still hopeful.

You have been through so much honey, yes you have, and I see it. I am sorry where you end up. Why, oh why, I ask myself why do decided to have all those children and tie yourself to that man in the end. But I guess, a man of God is familiar, it is beckoning you.

But, you did, as I, know the life of a single woman. You knew what I meant. The hardship and troubles of being of color, and being in the city, alone. It is hard, full of danger, and like me, you had not idea what to do.

You didn’t know your place, but we didn’t have one yet. In the future, I am sure we will have one, but as of now, there is nothing for us…. there is only “our place”.

I have to say, even with your ending. It could have been worse. Going to Europe, going and minstrel shows being so popular there…we are not liked everywhere…but you had your journey.

I am so sorry it was so hard and sad for you. I had hoped you would fine your love you needed…but I think you did….in your children I pray. I pray for their future, and their work and adventures….for you were a beginning, and definitely not an end…

Sincerely

Hunter.

1) Who did it in the end of Passing? What do you think really happened?
2) In Pinky, how does blackness and blackface perpetuate? How does it do so now in our popular culture?





5/23/2010

Dear Lee,

Your work in Orientals can be seen to always show “the Asian” as other. Always….

It is a crazy concept to think of…
In most of your anecdotes, you play with what it means to be Asian, in response to the 3rd sexuality: “The male Asian, being so submissive he does not matter…. In fact, he is the other… just have him work for us, and let us make fun of his doppelganger phenomenon of himself”. It is all very interesting.

What I find most fascinating, is the relationship to Playing Indian…as my book is titled…
I find interesting the concept of other. For Indians, playing it shrouds oneself in other, that is assumed not to exist. But, for yellowface, one shrouds in the other that which is there, yet, fears no ramifications, because the subject is essentially dehumanized. Indigenous people are not even considered human, they are considered dead….and yet, Asian, knowingly alive and present—the model minority—well it does not matter. Even in the age of 2007, we play a racist role against the Asian males, and in Miss Saigon, the female…

I do like the concept of the other, and I believe it is accurate. I just wish there was a way to change it, and somehow make the Asian culture native….but I do find issue with that. How can we do such a thing without the continued erasing of the Native American population? How can the Alien cease to exist, when the native has always been here.

I think we have an interesting problem and dilemma here. After we talk about majority culture, and how they treat the minority races, how do minority races treat each other? Yes, of course along with the majority culture….but really, how does a melting pot really work? And how dangerous is it?

Very, and I think you would agree.

I would like to speak to you more about your work. Please contact me if you can.

Sincerely,

Philip J. Deloria

1) What are the differences, as Toni Morrison would see it, between blackface and yellowface?
2) What are the similarities between Mexican American immigration and integration and Asian American immigration and integration?

Dear Robert Lee

I find many of your arguments about the Asian-American experience rather compelling; however, your need to co-opt language from the black experience in america, and further compare the experience of black and asian americans contradicts your assertion of the Asian as the "true alien", and reaffirms the black people are indeed the most alien of racial minorities. As I explain in my essay, other racial groups were historically compared to and defined based on their physical differences vis-a-vis black americans. The american racial paradigm establishes a black/white binary, and positioning other ethnic groups in relation to the two. All of other americans, because of their phenotype contrast to blacks, have been able to successfully melt into whiteness. Your argument that Asians were the "model minority" simply reify's this point, since their are only "model" in comparison to the social reality of blacks. This convention of comparing blacks to other minorities as you have done in constructing your "model minority" theory is problematic as it completely oversimplifies and neglects the structural limitations experienced by black americans. I hope that this letter helps you reconsider many of your thoughts, and engage racial history of America more critically.

Best,

Toni Morrison

Dear Congress of American Indians

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has decided to allow sports teams to use celebrated figures from all races and ethnicities as their mascots. This is a part of the NCAA's initiative to promote diversity in sports representations of different populations. Mascots such as the West Virginia Rednecks, Orange County Dumb Blondes, Arizona Papi Chulos, Mayfield Thugz, will not be readily available for sports teams across America to adopt. Our goal is to provide mascots of people of all racial backgrounds, especially minorities, so that they are better represented in sports media. Also, Indians will no longer be the focal point of sports mascots. We hope that this addresses all of your concerns about the "Indian mascot" issue, and that we can build coalition and work together to promote our mutual interests of diversity in sports.

Best,

The National Collegiate Athletic Association

Thomas' Response

My favorite post remains the first that I did, discussing the performance nature of identity.

I suppose the slave narrative that we read made me realize how much of our identities is determined by how we behave and act--and that in turn determines how people treat us. This has been especially relevant for me in thinking about my own identity, how much of it I perform and how much of it is intrinsic or socialized.

I think over all my questions will remain about how much of identity  is true or innate and how much of it is a social construction. I'd like to explore this question more and it's something I constantly think about when I use labels to define myself. Some labels seem to extend further than words (a rose by any name) while others seem totally dependent on social contexts.

Jenni's Reflections

In order to reflect on my previous blog posts, I actually decided to write another letter, because this letter was in my head the whole time I was reading article on "The Boondocks." Basically, the questions I still have from this class focus mainly around defining race and particularly defining "mixed race," using definitions of race and ethnicity that continually change, and excising older definitions of race (scientific, "one drop" etc) from our national discussion of race. My favorite blog post and text was the one on "The Hemingses of Monticello" because I believe our discussion on that book was one of the more controversial but also one of the more rich and fruitful, as we had many different opinions and never really "completed" the discussion - there were always more questions. I also enjoyed my own blog post from William Craft to Ellen Craft because I enjoyed writing such a personal note. For the rest of my reflection, here is my letter from Jazmine from "The Boondocks" to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

First of all I want to say that I think you're doing a fine job as president. I'm sure it's not an easy job and I think thepeople who don't like you are giving you kind of a hard time. But mostly I wanted to ask you about how you identify yourself. I know that seems like a silly question but my mom says that I get to choose how to identify myself, and my friend Huey says I'm just like you and you're black so that makes me black. What do you tell people about yourself? It's not that I don't want to be white or that I don't want to be black, I just don't really want to have to say I'm one or the other because if I say I'm white, Huey says that that's obviously wrong and people can see it, but if I say I'm black then what about the part of me that's from my mom? Where does that part of me go? Where do the different parts of you go, Mr. President? What about your daughters? They're about my age, where do the different parts of them go? Maybe you could pass this letter on to them and they could write me back if they have any ideas. I'm just wondering if you have any advice for me and anyone else like us. My mom says when I grow up I can "check more than one box" - but my dad says that has political implications that I may not agree with. What did you check?

Sincerely,
Jazmine

Reflections

First off, I'd like to say that this class was one of the most educational and inspiring class I've taken thus far at Stanford. Looking over the course of this class, I'd have to say that I've learned so much from not only the materials we've read, but from each of the students in this class. Also, it has tied so many former classes I've taken together in a way that I've never experienced before - which affirms the fact that race and identity is either the crux or extremely tangential to anything one studies.

My favorite post would probably be the one I wrote about Mexican American identity. I am currently taking a class on Mexican American history, and the themes that we've learned in this class tied very well together with the ones I'm learning in the other class. I think the most interesting thing I've learned in this class however was how race and identity were perceived in postbellum United States. Seeing the "one-drop rule" concretely in various materials we read was fascinating. It still is strange to me that race is so central to the American psyche and has been engrained indelibly onto each and every one of our minds, even today, however in various manifestations. I hope that one day the American populace will reduce the importance of race in the legal realm, and shift over to affirmative action on the grounds of socioeconomic status instead of racial makeup. We have all learned, through the course of this class, that race is arbitrary - but what we identify with, what we glean important from our ethnic make-up, is the most valuable way to explore race.

Kiyan's reflection post

My favorite post was from Ellen Craft to the white male persona she embodied when her and William escaped to slavery. I wanted to explore the performative nature of race and gender, their intersection, and how this act of "passing" subverted the foundation of racial and gender identity.

The themes that interested me the most were passing and intersectionality. Passing complicates the construction of race, since it debunks myths about a biological basis for race, but show how race is informed by behavior and cultural artifacts. The idea of intersectionality interests me because various identities informed eachother. I was particularly fascinated by the conflation of race, gender, and class. For example, in the picture we saw in class of the racially ambiguous black family from New England many people believed them to be white because of artifacts that showed their elevated class status. Privilege and wealth is associated with whiteness, as we learned.

A question I have is how the "DL identity", a gay or bisexual male passing for heterosexual, complicates and affects black masculinity, and what is reveals about "Black men" as a constructed identity.

Final Reflections – April House

As a psychology major, I generally approach matters of identity in terms of the self and personal, individual mechanisms. I am especially pleased that this course encouraged in depth analysis of historical contexts and how these macro/aggregate influences drive individual behavior and practice. Further, this class sparked an interest in fictional and biographical history that I never knew I possessed. I suspected that historical research encompassed tenets of solving a difficult puzzle or discovering a new revelation – but I had underestimated how intensely personal it is to investigate the details of someone’s life and learn how they actually might have lived. At times, I felt as if I was getting acquainted with individuals who desperately wanted their stories conveyed and understood. Further, this course challenged my own traditional notions of identity (gender and race) and the innumerable forces that shape it – including religion, sexual orientation, social class, geographic region or even place and time of birth.

Our blog assignments allowed me to 'channel' -- if you will -- assess and examine these lives in a manner that was personally meaningful and relevant. Initially, I didn't expect to enjoy the project, but during the course of our readings I found myself deeply immersed and curious about the figures we encountered. I really wondered who they were and how they lived. The selected narratives, stories and accounts deeply resonated with me and I often contemplated how many stories had been lost and how many countless others yearned to be told.

I still remain curious and interested in the myriad intersectionalities that complicate and confuse matters of identity construction and construal. The human spectrum is so full and robust that it is short-sided to evaluate an individual or a people solely in terms of a singular, isolated dimension.

My favorite blog submissions were the two regarding Helga's Father/Helga and Sally Hemings/Annette Reed-Gordon. These particular assignments invoked intensely compelling sentiments that I attempted to express in another’s voice. In generally completing the blog assignments, my primary concern was that my estimation of our subjects’ feelings and perspectives were fairly accurate and justified. Sometimes it was difficult to shrug the essentialism of my 21st century worldview – but I really tried to fashion someone else’s world through their own eyes.

Thanks for a fabulous class and inspiring a new personal interest worthy of insightful exploration.

Reflection

Looking back I have to say I am surprised and impressed at how far I have come. In my first class (which was technically the second class) I was extremely nervous at how I, as your average 'white' guy would function in this class. Everyone seemed to be a CSRE major, and I didn't even know what that stood for. I remember listening to people describe their identity stories and thinking "When have I ever had an identity crises?" and "What identity issues do I have?" The thought had never entered my mind, I thought. In retrospect I had thought about the concept of identity within my own family, but never quite couched it into those terms. I'll come back to this later in the blog post.

For now I think I should talk about my favorite blog post - my post about Ah Toy's suicide note. The story of Ah Toy was briefly told in the 'Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture' I bent the rules of the blog posts a little bit since my suicide note was not written to anyone in particular. But I thought the spirit of the post fit within the guidelines. Anyway, since I had not read the actual book, writing the suicide note was a little difficult. I couldn't capture Ah Toy's dialect. But I thought I was able to gleam a sense of his frustration and mix it with a little of my own past frustrations with girls and produce a heartfelt suicide note.

Back to my thoughts on identity...I have a much better understanding of how to talk about identity and what is my own identity. Over the course of the term I feel like I have been able to make more insightful comments in class as I've grasped the language of identity. And I think that's enabled me to reflect on my own identity issues with regard to my mixed religion family. That helped me put together my thoughts for my last meeting with Ms. Hobbes about my final paper. I certainly have thought about the loss of Judaism from generation to generation in my dad's family, but I had never quite articulated it as a question of my identity. Hopefully I have learned enough this quarter to write an articulate thoughtful paper on this subject. I hope so!

I really enjoyed this class, and I hope everyone else appreciated my "diversity" as well.

Ben

Jacobson to Morrison

Ms. Morrison,

I enjoyed reading your article "On the Back of Blacks." I certainly agree with your overall point. One of the main ways that immigrant ethnic, racial or religious groups assimilated into the greater 'white' culture was through their difference to a homegrown minority. You focus on blacks although I would add Native Americans too especially from the early history of the American colonies to the last of the American-Indian wars. But still, I agree with your general presence that "only when the lesson of racial estrangement is learned is assimiliation complete."

However, I begin to differ where to try to overstate the problem. Your statement the immigrant's "nemesis is understood to be African American." This is simply not true. The most obvious example that come to mind is the togetherness experienced by soldiers in World War II where the white men of very different backgrounds were forced to come together and rely on each other for survival and victory. The nemesis here that brought all these men together was Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, not blackness.

Certainly there is much truth in your statement that "stability is white. Disorder is black." But this simply does not prove that blacks were the necessary enemy needed to gain access to the exclusive white club.

Matthew Jacobson

Questions:

1) Are we truly at a point today where the many ethnic groups that Jacobson describes are truly white?

2) Does whiteness become more accepting as it grows? i.e. is whiteness more, less or just as exclusive a club as it was 150 years ago?

Chestnutt to DuBois

Mr. DuBois,

In the beginning of your essay "The Souls of Black Folk" you decry that the "the shadow of deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people." Earlier you mention that you believe the fundamental conflict within African-Americans is the split between "his two-ness - An American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body."

While I appreciate your efforts to document and describe the plight of those of African descent in America, I believe you narrow your focus far too broadly. Specifically, I think you completely ignore the issues felt by the mulatto. Mixed-race people face an entirely new set of problems on top of the problems facing the genuine Negro. How do you decide whether a person is black or white? It is certainly absurd to classify a man fifteenth-sixteenths white as a black man. But what about a man 14/16ths? What about 13/16ths? 11, 9, 5, 3, 1/16th? Where do we draw the line? Do we decide by reputations, by reception into society, by what? The officials laws vary greatly between states.

Before the Civil War the color line was regulated strictly in theory. But now, since enfranchisement the black group has been split numerous times. Mr. DuBois you forget about these many negros that have to contend not only with black identity and American identity, but also with white identity. What do they do? Since the mixed race population is not insignificant by any means, I think it is of the utmost importance that you deal with this group of people.

Sincerely,

Charles Chestnutt

Questions:

1) How do you actually identify a black person from a white person? Can you "tell" other than by skin tone?

2) Is Pudd'nhead Wilson's fingerprint method a parody of identity? Or is it trying to promote the idea that you can 'fingermark' black versus white?

Thomas Jefferson to Sally

Sally,

I find myself living in a grand contradiction of sorts, that no matter what I do I cannot seem to escape. I confess to have a physical aversion toward dark-skinned Africans. I do not like them, I find them rather disgusting, yet for some reason I find myself hopelessly attracted to you. Yes, I know that you certainly look white, but at the same time when I look at you the thought of your black race cannot be completely erased from my mind. I should be repulsed. I should be disgusted. But I am not.

So too do I find the thought of race-mixing to be an unpleasant one. The amalgamation of black and white produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character, can innocently consent. Yet at the same time I find myself bonded to you and the children we have created. I cannot abandon you or them. I will take care of you all to the best of my abilities.

Unfortunately the black in your blood is omnipresent. I could never leave my wife, and regardless of her I could have never been with you. And to be honest I cannot say that I love you. Yet at the same time I cannot be certain that I don't. This is all very perplexing to me, but I suppose that's how things are meant to be between us. Weirdly, I like it that way.

Thomas

Questions:

1) Why did it take so long for a book like this to become written? Has it taken all these year for the American people to become comfortable acknowledging that a white founding father as legendary as Thomas Jefferson could have had a real relationship with a black woman? We have certainly seen various examples recently of illegitimate black children. John McCain comes first to my mind (although his rumor proved to be false), but there are definitely others that I am blanking right now.

Reflection

This course has really helped me think through and re-think concepts of race from a variety of different perspectives. In particular, the issue of "whiteness" and whether it is appropriate as a category of racial analysis is something that I had not considered before this class.

We started off with the story of Ellen Craft. At this point I was concerned with the fact this this memoir, written by William craft, was passed off a memoir of both his and his wife's journey to the North. Ellen Craft seemed to be given less agency than the tremendous role that she played in their escape. She was also described almost solely through the role of the color of her skin and her physicality or beauty, rather then as a agent of movement and change in the Craft's life.

Next, in Benito Cerano, I was concerned by the issue that the whiteness or blackness of a person was correlated to the sympathy that person received. In retrospect, this is clearly an obvious point, but this issue was particularly striking to me in this story. The issue that in our history people were able to allocate more sympathy to those with lighter skin is still baffling to me. It seems so bizarre and so cruel that something as frivolous and uncontrollable as the color of one's skin could have been the cause of such a disastrous institution.

Furthermore, this artificiality in the construction of race was so bluntly and poignantly portrayed in Puddenhead Wilson. Such a clever way to portray the strangeness of this institution!

In the Jazz Singer, Playing Indian, and Matthew Frye Jacobson's piece, the issue of passing as "white" by denigrating other races like Blacks and Native Americans was a truly new concept for me. I had never considered that this notion of creating self as NOT the "Other" is a way to not be the "Other." Later on, I realized that using this notion to show that European immigrants became white after having overcome prejudice downplays the intense prejudice that African Americans and Native Americans faced in comparison.

I've really enjoyed the conversations that we've had in this class and the ways in which the movies have tied into these concepts. Thanks to the class for really helping mold and challenge my ideas about race in America.

Reflection

In reflecting on my previous blog posts, I think my favorite post was from Pinky to her Grandmother. I really enjoyed that post because it brought up the complexities of skin color, beauty, and passing within both black and white contexts. As I wrote this post, I thought more about these topics and realized the extent to which these topics cannot and should not be simplified. Questioning the ideas of authenticity within racial groups has always been very interesting to me and I think that the movie Pinky presented this issue in a thought provoking way.

As far as my favorite topics for the class, I was very interested in the Hazel Carby article Policing the Black Woman's Body in an Urban Context. Carby's article really got my interested in the history of class divisions within the black community, which is a topic that is still very relevant today. The article made me think about what it means to be a respectable woman, and what practices really reflect moral values and moral deviance.

A few questions I still have (that we will possibly discuss in our last class) are about the identity of mixed-race people in America. What factors make mixed-race identity construction different than others? Can a person truly identify with two groups of people who have a history of ill will towards each other? And finally, is the growing numbers of multi-racial people solely due to the increase in mixed race unions? Or is it also that society is more willing to accept the multiracial identity?

Reflection

Looking back, my thoughts surprise and re-invigorate my interest in many of the themes and conflicts we explored earlier in the course. But I think my favorite posts were the post from Du Bois to Chestnutt about the color line and the post from the Hemingses girls to their father Thomas Jefferson. I liked being able to tease out the conflicts in intersectionality. I was the summarizer of powerful arguments and the debator at once, which was a great experience. It became challenging at times because I, of course, am not the author but their pieces were a helpful roadmap in creative composition.

My most passionate posts were about mixed race identity and color-blindness in white America. I still find these topics most riling for me, scholastically and colloquially. The mixed-race conflicts are interesting to me because when I observe America as it changes, the definitions of one race pluralize yet look even narrower. When I think about my very own family, half of my siblings are fair skinned, almost pale, while I have brown skin, but none of us are immediately mixed-race. My siblings could possibly pass, but they choose to be black. I wonder if they would have done so in 18th and 19th century.

I cannot justify the whiteness studies and post-racialism with something personal, but I can still say it highly interests me. My remaining questions lie around this topic: Would white studies ever reach the high school classroom? Does this count as ethnic studies? Will the loss of white hegemony and simply put numerical dominance puncture a new hole in who counts as “white”? I might continue this exploration. Thanks for a great class!