Black and White Thinking
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 06/13/2015 - 17:59Perhaps it comes from a position of white privilege. Perhaps it comes my interest in post structural thought, but I’m fascinated, even optimistic, and not offended by Rachel Dolezal saying that she considers herself black. I’ve been having lots of discussions about this topic, intermingled with discussions about police brutality, on Facebook, and I want to explore these a little more deeply here.
One friend wrote, “We must acknowledge the issues of taking on someone else's race is deeply offensive to some people, and those feelings are valid, especially with the social inequalities that still exist across ethnic and skin color lines.”
This was in a discussion about comparing Rachel Dolezal taking on blackness, with Bruce Jenner taking on femaleness. I acknowledge that some people can be deeply offended by others taking on their race, or gender, and that these feelings are valid. However, I don’t feel any sense of ownership of my race, gender, or culture. Again, this may come from my place of white privilege.
To me, the discussion about the nature of our racial constructs is important and an area where I am most optimistic. What is it that makes someone ‘black’? Is it how you consider yourself? Rachel says she considers herself black. Is it how others consider yourself? I don’t know the details, but it seems like many people considered her black, at least until her estranged parents spoke up. Does it have something to do with a legal definition of being black?
If we go back to famous law cases, we have Plessy v. Feguson which found that if you were one eighth black, you were still black. There were also the cases around the Naturalization Act of 1906 requiring people to be ‘white’ to be eligible for naturalization. This excluded people from Asia and India. Even Rachel’s critics note that she has “traces of Native American ancestry” and isn’t purely white.
My mind goes back to the ‘one-drop’ rule, the idea that having one drop of black blood in you, of having one ancestor from Africa makes you black. If you look at early human migrations, it seems like we all have ancestors from Africa.
Then, there is the famous scene from Show Boat. Steve swallows blood from his wife’s hand. His wife, a mulatto, has been passing as white. The sheriff is coming to arrest him for being a white man, married to a black woman. Yet now, he has more than a drop of black blood in him and dodges the charges.
Does Rachel have ‘black blood’? Perhaps from her ex-husband, who is African American, their son, or her adopted black brother. Is blackness based on experiences instead of ancestry? Like her experiences as a graduate student at Howard University or working for civil rights?
Is blackness something that can be adopted? Appropriated? Is appropriation good or bad?
This brings me to a second issue. We tend to look at things in a binary manner, black and white, as it were. Good or bad, male or female, straight or gay, black or white. Yet reality is much more nuanced. Myers Briggs tests don’t say that we are introverted or extroverted, they say how introverted and how extroverted we are. It is a continuum. Many suggest that the same applies to sexual orientation, and clearly when you consider people of mixed race, there is a continuum there, not to mention the continuum of how dark or light skinned you are.
Perhaps, by getting people to understand that race is a social construct based on many variables, including family history, skin color, shared experiences, we can change the construct, we can get more people to embrace their commonality with others with different skin colors. Perhaps we can bring equity to issues around health, around policing, and around so many other factors that confer privileges on people with lighter colored skin and present challenges to people with darker colored skin.
Trans....
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/12/2015 - 21:21Social Constructs, transgender, transracial, transformational, transcendent, transubstantiation.
for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart
The Old Testament reading, for those following the Episcopalian lectionary for this coming Sunday, is 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13. It is about Samuel anointing David and talks about how the Lord sees mortals.
It is interesting to think about this in light of the big discussions online this week about Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal.
A week and a half ago, a friend posted on Facebook:
I'm wondering if Caitlyn Jenner was to come to your church would she be embraced or rebuked? I'm preaching the Gospel this morning and you don't have to say amen....
I responded,
I know that God loves me more than I can understand or comprehend. I know that God loves me in spite of things I have done that others, and perhaps even God, doesn't approve of. I know that God has commanded me to show that love to all.
I am sure that the church I attend would show the same love from God to Caitlyn, to myself, or to any other Jew or Gentile that comes.
Now, people are arguing about Rachel Dolezal. I wonder what some of my friends are thinking now. Does God love Rachel Dolezal the same way God loves Caitlyn Jenner? How are we called to love one another? If you want to be really radical and really muddy the waters, throw Eric Casebolt into the mix.
Concerning Rachel Dolezal, a friend posted,
Chances are, if she had been honest about her actual race, she would have been sidelined as a candidate for any type of diversity-related positions she applied for. It's a little disingenuous for anyone to say, "She could have done such good work if she'd just been honest with everyone."
For good or ill, my observation has been that white applicants are *never* seriously considered for these types of jobs.
I responded,
As a white male who was named a CT Health Foundation Fellow in the fight against racial and ethnic health disparities and as co-chair of the communications committee of CT Multicultural Health Partnership, I've found that white people are often accepted and welcomed in diversity related positions, at least here in Connecticut .
Another friend posted about being more concerned about Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas saying,
"My sadness is that we are probably today more race and difference-conscious than I was in the 1960s when I went to school. To my knowledge, I was the first black kid in Savannah, Georgia, to go to a white school. Rarely did the issue of race come up."
Here, I go back to some of my experiences with the CT Health Foundation Fellows class and the idea of the Conscious Competence model.
To me, this fits nicely with the Conscious Competence model. For any issue, we start off unconscious and incompetent. Then, we become consciously incompetent. Then, we develop competence and become consciously competent. Ultimately, it becomes second nature and we become unconsciously competent.
The discussions these days seem to be around the painful awakening of our country's history of racism. Yes, in the sixties activists fought for civil rights. Blatant racism such as around segregation and voting rights were addressed, but subtle racism around driving while black and white privilege perhaps wasn't confronted by most people. Now, more and more people are seeing their unconscious racism and getting to the point of struggling with it. That is, with the exception of people like Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
So, where do we go with all of this? I’m not sure. What does it mean to be male, female, black, white, transgender, transracial, racist, sexist, or part of so many other constructs?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
On Being Made Cool
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 06/11/2015 - 19:57“It’s what all the cool kids are doing,”
she said in all earnestness.
“I never tried to be cool.”
I replied.
Although it wasn’t exactly true.
I had tried desperately to be cool
when I was a kid,
but failed miserably.
So, I wondered,
who defines ‘cool’ anyway?
What if me and my friends
could have our own form
of coolness?
So we became conformed
by non-conformity.
Which in the end
wasn’t that cool either.
So, I wondered,
who defines ‘cool’ anyway?
What if the ultimate arbiter of ‘cool’
said we’re too die for.
Coming Out as a Post Structural Christian Mystic Poet
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 06/10/2015 - 20:51As we sat around the dinner table at my college reunion, one of my classmates told the story of a friend who left his wife. My classmate saw what might be described as the friend’s awakening to his sexual orientation. She told her friend and his estranged wife that she thought he was gay. Something both the friend and the estranged wife denied, but soon enough, the friend came out as gay.
Another classmate at the table talked about when he came out, only to find that his friends knew before he knew. It is easy to think about this in terms of concepts like ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ and ‘male’ or ‘female’ are social constructs. It is easy to think about this in terms of others knowing us better than we do.
So, I am struggling with my own identity, not along gender or sexual orientation lines, but more on philosophical and theological lines. We do I believe?
I’ve chosen the title of this post to be ‘Coming Out as a Post Structural Christian Mystic Poet’. A high school classmate of mine who is a writer looking for ideas to write about asked her friends on Facebook for topics, and I suggested Post Structuralist Christian Mysticism.
I don’t know if ‘Post Structural Christian Mystic Poet’’ is really a label that fits me. Each part of the phrase needs so much unpacking. Is my thinking post structuralist? I just participated in #rhizo15 where we explored Deleuze and Guattari. I’m not sure my thinking is any more clearer now than it was before #rhizo15 started, but I found the ideas appealing.
Of course the concept ‘Christian’ is also a social construct. People have been fighting for centuries about what it means to be ‘Christian’. I self-identify as ‘Christian’, even though it seems less as less popular to do so these days. The same can be said about mysticism.
As to being a poet, that is a similarly slippery slope. Who really is a poet? What really is poetry? Can I call myself a poet without being pretentious?
Of course the combination of these nebulous terms creates something even more nebulous. Can some of these terms even be used together or are they contradictory?
With this, I return to the idea of coming out. When my classmate talked about coming out as gay, many people already seemed to know. So, can I call myself a Post Structuralist Christian Mystic Poet? Will some of you say, “Well, of course. That’s what you are. We always knew it.” Will others say, “No, those ideas are contradictory.”
What do you think a ‘Post Structuralist Christian Mystic Poet’ really is, and do you think it applies to me?
Thinking about Racism
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 06/09/2015 - 09:51Earlier today, a friend posted on Facebook
What do you think? Yesterday I said, "racism makes "good" people do "hate-filled" things." I believe there are different kinds of racists -- some are conscious and focused, cruel people (whom I can't do much with) but many are oblivious and unaware. Yes, some of my "friends" are naively racist. They are good people raised in non-integrated environments who go to church, try to do right, but have absorbed dominant culture ways around people of color. They have lived an unexamined life when it comes to race and might hold their purse tighter when the unknown black man gets on the elevator. Do you think good people can be racists? Perhaps I need to hold on to hope.
In my news feed, it came right after a link to an article in the Hartford Courant, 17 Arrested After Blocking Hartford Road During Rush Hour.
Police arrested 17 protesters who blocked Central Row during rush hour Monday afternoon as part of a Moral Monday demonstration.
The protest began at 4 p.m. as protesters locked arms and stood in the street. Many held signs saying "Black Lives Matter."
Immediately following my friend’s post was a link to Texas Cop Caught on Video Going on Violent Rampage at Pool Party.
Here is the comment I left in response to my friend’s post:
I tend to think that racism, and other 'isms' is part and parcel of the human condition. To speak in theological terms, of being sinners, of being fallen people. To speak in psychological terms, the fear of the 'other'. Who is like me? Who is different? Who is a good person? Who is a sinner? Who is a racist? Who is deeply loved by God?
To me, that last question ties it all nicely together. I strongly believe that God deeply loves me, in spite of things I've done. I strongly believe that God deeply loves those I would consider racist. I strongly believe that God deeply loves that that would consider me racist. In that, no matter what your skin color is, your reaction to other people's skin color, your gender, your sexual orientation, your reaction any of this, at the most underlying level, you are no longer 'other', you are just like me, deeply loved by God.
Perhaps, proclaiming this radical nature of God's love is core to combating racism and other 'isms'.
