Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 11:40:39
From: "Benjamin G. Lanier-Nabors" <bglncait-AT-uab.edu>
Subject: Re: Not White, Not Quite?


	I agree with the confusion noted below, in response to Andrew's note of
gratitude.  I am not aware that "white" is a race--or, for that matter,
"black" or any other "color."  "White" is much too general a term to
use--even "European" is--as the "Celts", "Gypsies," etc. attest.  Also,
"minority race" is quite--if not more--problematic.  The complexities that
postcolonialists deal with and the sophistication that they (we) typically
strive for defies making proclamations such as "If your not Australian
Aborignes, African-American, Indian, Native American, Fillipino, etc., then
you are a part of the 'great white' hegemonic juggernaut."  If we have not
been as sophisticated and self-critiquing as I think we have been, that
means that we have failed in our task(s) as postcolonialists and/or
multiculturalists;  such possible tasks are, but not exclusively, the
following:  to challenge binaries (praxis), analyze and deconstruct
imperialist and colonialist history (praxis), and draw a line of resistance
against the potential for more hegemonies (more of an activism).  
	Also, I sense a bit of "white rage" here--the increasingly popular move
among whites (particularly middle-class males) to somehow claim that they
are victims and are alienated by "p.c. liberals" and "minorities."  Such a
position is dishonest and threatens to once again silence--by proclaiming
"reverse racism" and thereby reclaiming the center of discourse--those who
have worked so hard at trying to come out from under colonialist tyranny
and those people who have theorized, analyzed, studied, and explained the
process of and aftermath following colonialism/imperialism.

Ben
English
UAB
bglncait-AT-uab.edu  

At 08:51 AM 7/23/99 PDT, you wrote:
>
>>Thank you all for this information.  It has all been valuable, and I hope 
>>it
>>stimulates further discourse.  I have found the term applied to the Irish 
>>by
>>other writers, specifically ones arguing that to be postcolonial, one must 
>>be
>>of a minority race, and because the Irish are white, they do not fall into
>>this group.  I find it interesting that such a "liberal minded" stance for
>>criticism has proponents who are so willing to turn a blind eye to the
>>"colonization" or, at least, oppression, of members of a "majority race," 
>>i.e.
>>whites, all over the world.
>>
>>Andrew
>
>Sorry, Andrew could you please explain what exactly you mean by this?
>
>
>
>
>>On Thu, 22 Jul 1999 23:11:52 -0400 (EDT) smd34-AT-columbia.edu (Suzanne Daly)
>>wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >To return to the original question: "not quite/not white" is from Homi
>> >Bhabha's essay "Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial
>> >Discourse," and refers to no specific group. The essay's final paragraph
>> >reads, in part:
>> >
>> >In the ambivalent world of the "not quite/not white," on the margins of
>> >metropolitan desire, the *founding* objects of the Western world become
>> >the erratic, eccentric, accidental *objets trouves* of the colonial
>> >discourse -- the part-objects of presence. It is then that the body and
>> >the book lose ... their representational authority. Black skin splits
>> >under the racist gaze, displaced into signs of bestiality, genitalia,
>> >grotesquerie, which reveal the phobic myth of the undifferentiated white
>> >body."
>> >
>> >I've seen the term "not quite/not white" cited many times, but I couldn't
>> >tell you whether it has been used to refer specifically to the Irish.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >Suzanne Daly
>> >smd34-AT-columbia.edu
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>>
>>
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>
>
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