Date: Sun, 3 Dec 1995 08:29:08 -0500 (EST) From: "Ivy I. Chang" <iic4228-AT-is.nyu.edu> Subject: I agree with your thought of Hybridity On Sat, 2 Dec 1995, Quetzil Castaneda wrote: > to njubi: > > oh good, a spirited response back. > re: > >post-ness liberating? > this was my term for what it seemed to me that you wanted to do with or make > out of m.j. > > >we choose our racial and gender identities? > I certainly think that we do --- of course, not in conditions or situations > that we chose, like, condone, desire, created, etc. n> As for all of the racism that you note in your response below; does that not > confirm in fact that people are choosing to try to whiten themselves by > imposing greater indianness/blackness, racial otherness on others? Thus, > there is a conscious as well as unconscious and structural/systemic > constituting of racial, ethnic, national, gender identities. > > So that, for example, when the indigena (excuse me, but your > >excuse me! > >do the indios in guatemala choose their identities? > is kind of offensive since the term "indio" is as pleasant and value-laden > as the words nigger, spic, etc.) > > so that when the indigena seeks to "pass" the "race" line and become ladino > in guatemala, or mestizo in mexico, they conscious seek to "drop" all of the > signs and signals of indianness (clothing, language, mannerisms, > ritual-spiritual life, community forms, etc.). When an Indigena tries to > avoid the "cultureloss" of acculturation/assimilation AND again reinvents > theirself and their culture as INDIAN, it seems that there too there is a > conscious choice. When a ladino/mestizo assumes the well known racist > positions, he or she is also choosing an identity by denigrating other > possible ones. Richard Rodriguez (Hunger of ...[was it: `whiteness'?] and > Days of Obligation) certainly is a nice example of this kind of conscious > choosing. His whole discurisve production is his apologia for choosing a > specific racial-national and gender identity over other (more or less) > possible ones. in short he says "sorry, but it was easier to assume and > pretend that i was white once they gave me the scholarship!" > > >how about the blacks in the west? did they come up with the terms > >'pelo malo' (bad 'black' hair) "no seas tan indio" (don't be an indio) > >"esta mejorando la raza" (improving the race) "me estas > >negreando?" (don't treat me like a negro) "lista negra" "la oveja negra" "tu > >lado negro" "trabajar como negro para vivir como blanco" (working like a > >black to live like a white) ???????" > > to move from indian "race" to "black" race(s!), i think the history of > different caribbean and circum-carib societies (lets include all of the USA > in that circum-ness, by the way) is enough to indicate that racial codes > being culturally-socially constructed involve the people living these codes > to make incessant and ongoing choices that reproduce these codes (ok, yes, > that through historical time change, shift, alter, etc.) > > Farrakhan, it seems to me, is one that is making conscious choices about > whether and how to be black (and male). > > If people were not constantly choosing to live their lives according to the > socio-culturally preconstructed racial-etc. codes then they would never get > reproduced. No where in this statement is there a exclusion of struggle, > constestation, horrific acts of violence and oppression against certain > coded people. > > > You say: > >as to postness/hybridity being liberating, this is exactly the issue i > >was ridiculing with my analysis of Wacko Jacko. Jacko's desire for > >whiteness is only a reflection of the millions who straighten their > >hair, color it blond, use skin lightening creams, etc. it is (excuse me > >for using a term from cultural studies) an attempt at the "magical > >resolution" of their marginalization > > I am sorry. i did not recognize that in your comment of MJ being a > postnational, postethnic, transgendered figure that in some sense prefigured > a future "better" that you were actually being sarcastically critical of > that possibility or of jackson being such a figure. i did not catch the nuance. > > > >hybridity with intention? what about "mejorando la raza"? (improving the > >race) isn't this what mestizaje is all about? to cover up the racialized > >class inequities that maintain the structures of slavery to date? Why > >have 'critical' theorists ressurected 19th century theories of > >hybridity/mestizaje? what does this colonial lazarus promise? > > >njubi > > sorry, but i don't (seriously) understand your endding questions. for me > hybridity has ALWAYS been a part of human social life. period. sometimes in > some places in some sitautions, hybridity is constructed as "good" sometimes > not so "good;" sometimes a cosmic race, other times a corruption of the > purity of blood. sometimes it becomes the emblematic nature of "true, > authentic" identity/cultural formation (pick any society) othertimes it > becomes emblematic of violence, colonialism, neocolonialism: e.g., pick any > tourist attraction. I don't think that this response however gets at what > your point is in this last paragraph. please elaborate it. > > thanks. > quetzil. > > > > > > > --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- > > > > > > --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- I agree with your thought of Hybridity. It is necessary to demystify "hybridity"> --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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