In class this past week we read about the Diaspora, to me it has always been something I have been interested in learning about. Back home in Rwanda when the word diaspora is used it means something totally different, there diaspora means any Rwandan living abroad. Hence, when I thought of the diaspora I usually thought of populations of people who live away from their countries of origin usually this being a choice they made. So one of the things I had to relearn when I got to the US was the meaning of what it means to be an African diaspora in the states. For example. now I know I would never be able to call my aunt who has lived here for 30 years an African diaspora. I must admit that I am still confused on who gets that title in America and who doesn’t. For example, are you among the African diaspora if you are an immigrant from a country in Africa or if your parents immigrated here from Africa. And does that mean in Rwanda when we use the term diaspora is it wrong or is it just a matter of the social context in which it is used.
Page 7 of 8
To this day, I do not understand why there is still a lack of diversity in American popular culture, more specifically, the film industry. Sure, there are diverse backgrounds represented, but most of the times these people aren’t given lead roles. The United States is a country where people of all identities contribute socially, economically, and politically. Statistics show that Latinos buy 1 in 4 tickets every single weekend. In 2016, Latinos also bought 21% of movie tickets, but in 2016’s top 100 films, only 3.1% of speaking characters in films were Latinos. Similarly, black actors and actresses aren’t rare in films, however they still don’t often obtain lead roles as much as they should. This past weekend, Marvel’s FIRST black superhero film, Black Panther, premiered. It has been a success, and it has been so hyped up for the reason that it is rare when a black person is the face of a movie. Not only did it star a black person, but Ryan Coogler also directed it. Coogler was also Marvel’s first African-American director. One film isn’t going to solve any racial issues or satisfy the need for diversity, but with more films like these, we’ll get somewhere. However, it should not be once a year when a person of color is given a lead role.
Pallotta, Frank. “Black Panther.” (n.d.). Black Panther is heading for a blockbuster weekend. Here’s why that matters. Retrieved February 18, 2018, from http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/16/media/black-panther-opening-box-office/index.html.
Moreno, C. (2018, January 22). Gina Rodriguez Slams Hollywood For Lack of Latino Leads. Retrieved 18, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gina-rodriguez-hollywood-latino_us_5a65fdbce4b002283004d524.
Jasmine, a novel by Bharati Mukherjee, tells the story of an Indian woman’s journey to America and her experience becoming an American. The protagonist, Jyoti (aka Jasmine, aka Jane) endures microaggressions and discovers the horrible truth of America as she realizes the country is not as welcoming as the brochures in India made it seem. In a quote from the novel, Jasmine describes how she is physically characterized in America. “They want to make me familiar. In a pinch, they’ll admit that I might look a little different, that I’m a ‘dark-haired girl’ in a naturally blond county. I have a ‘darkish complexion’ (in India, I’m ‘wheatish’)” (Mukherjee 33). Reading this novel, and especially this quote, reminded me of the tendency Americans have to classify people by skin tone and the desire to see everyone as either black or white. In India, Jasmine is seen as a lighter skinned woman, but in America they categorize her and label her “dark-skinned” and “different.” This idea was also mentioned in class when we watched the film “An Island Divided,” where the narrator Professor Gates comments, “in America all these people would be black” while walking down a street in the Dominican Republic, even though most Dominicans identify with Spain rather than Africa. It’s strange that in America we are told to “never judge a book by its cover,” yet people are still constantly classified by their physical appearances.
Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. Virago Press, 2014.
Haiti & Dominican Republic. Dir. Ricardo Pollack. PBS, 2011. Kanopy. Web. 18 Feb. 2018.
Slavery. This word gives me chills. I find it incomprehensible that the ownership of other human beings was justified not all that long ago. I came across a very disturbing article, It’s the 21st century. Yet slavery is alive and well. Although the title is pretty self-explanatory, I felt obligated to read on. The article begins with a reference and a link to the State Department’s “Trafficking in Persons Report”. I encourage everyone who reads this post to please check it out. Although it is terrifying, it gives readers a glimpse at the large gap that still exists today between laws prohibiting slavery and the actual enforcement of them. There have been great strides in the effort to free those who are captive, and prosecute slave-owners. Organizations such as The International Justice Mission (IJM) focuses efforts on freeing women and children enslaved to brothels in Southeast Asia. “The prevalence of minor girls in the sex industry plummeted by more than 80 percent” (Burkhalter, 2017). Global grant-making foundations, funded by private investors and donor governments are being created. In doing so, the United States creates an opportunity for collaboration with governments in which slavery is still prevalent to rescue victims and put a stop to modern-day slavery.
“Where are you from? We have been here for 200 years. Our blood, our sweat is in this land, and we will not allow you to take it from us…Who sent you here? The white man. You came here to destroy us…We will defend [this land] with our very lives” (Guiana 1838). This powerful quote from the film Guiana 1838, The Arrival encompasses the enragement felt by the emancipated Africans at the arrival of the Indian indentured laborers. This enragement was towards the white man, and the Indians, and stems from the fears and doubts that were felt after emancipation. From the second that the African slaves found out that they were “free,” there were uncertainties.
Many believed that this was too good to be true; after centuries of abusing slaves, why then would Britain turn against slavery? One possible reason was the arising sense of social humanitarianism due to religious beliefs. A growing middle class that felt it had an obligation to right past wrongs, and there was also a sense by the English population that plantation owners were flaunting their wealth, which was brought to them by the forced labor and torture of humans.
Of course, the actual enactment of abolition of slavery was not as righteous as it should have been. Under the terms of abolition, the British government paid the British slave owners 20 million pounds as compensation for putting an end to slavery. The slaves received no compensation, but instead were forced back into the fields with the new title “apprentices,” and faced the same treatments, but this time around, with low wages.
Works Cited
Jagessar, Rohit. Guiana 1838, The Arrival . RBC Radio, 2004.
In watching the film “Haiti & Dominican Republic, An Island Divided” in class, one scene in particular stood out to me. It comprised of a man from the Dominican Republic, who basically admitted to not realizing nor accepting his blackness until traveling to New York. This connects to the identity and race issue that divides this island, as the Dominican Republic has traditionally pushed back from their African heritage and identity. However, the simple notion of this man seeing himself as one thing rather than what he truly is, is something I personally can relate to. The majority of my life I saw my Grandmother as simply a white American, and similar to the man in this film, I believe the culture around me accustomed me to think in this way. In actuality my Grandmother was born in raised in Barbados, but is of a lighter complexion which would make many people who saw her quickly assume she is just white. It took me visiting Barbados and also entering college and learning more about race and other cultural issues, to figure out that I should also accept and appreciate the true identity of my Grandma. I think in The U.S. I am expected to see her as white, as in the Dominican Republic the man is expected to see himself anything but black. However, I know I must appreciate and understand that my Grandma is a West Indian Woman from very mixed and diverse ancestry, and does not adhere to the norms of the United States or even more specifically, white America.
“Man is more than white, more than mulatto, more than black. Cuban is more than white, more than mulatto, more than black.” -José Martí
How would life be if race was not a vital component to someone’s everyday identity? I can not help but put myself in this mindset when appearance is the first impression someone perceives you as. I walk around campus with my white friends and me as a brown girl. What people do not know about us is that we are all Mexican but I am the only recognizable one. José Martí statement in his writing is powerful for humankind. Society wants to order people in a category and sometimes that makes everything unorganized than structured. My life is not a box, I wish man was more than race. I am more than race. I am Bryana.
José Martí was a leader in Cuba but his message resonated with other islands like Hispaniola. When I was learning about the Dominican Republic and Haiti’s relationship in my first-year of college, I did not know about the brutal history that island had. As a person with Mexican descent, the Caribbean were only perceived generally as a multi-mixed region that looked normal. I was unaware that there was such a thing as limpieza de sangre that meant a blood cleansing which the Dominican government wanted its people to clear any Haitian blood. This is problematic in so many ways because it represents an attempt to erase the black race and the history attached to the enslavement of a people. It ultimately leads us back to what is race and why it is important to our society? It only adds to people having to choose what they are in terms of race rather than who they are as a person.
So when I was 5 my family moved to South Africa, that was the first I had ever seen white people in real life. I remember being amazed by their skin color and hair texture, but then I learnt about apartheid in SA. I mention my time in SA because as I was reading about race politics in the Caribbean I could not help but be amazed at some of the similarities between these two places. White minority in parts of Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and South Africa) and the Caribbean is what first stood out to me as the most striking similarity. Whenever I learn about all these racial inequalities it is hard for me to separate my emotions because I always think to myself that these are my people who have been so unfairly treated. So back to white minority rule, it baffles how foreigners can come take over a people’s land and then end up governing them for centuries. Not only governing them but setting up policies that are meant to strip them of their humanity (SA and Zimbabwe). I find it interesting how this is something that is so common to all the places that white people decided to “settle in”. I remember last semester I was taking an international relations class and one of the presentation in class was on Robert Mugabe the former president of Zimbabwe. He is credited with ending white minority rule in Zimbabwe however he was also a dictator that had been in power for more than 30 years(let’s not go into that). However, my point is that the whole class presentation was on how he was such a horrible president and I sat there thinking well darn is no one going to recognize what this man did for black Africans in Zimbabwe in 1980? My question after the readings on race in parts of the Caribbean that are still under the rule of white elites, who is going to be their Mugabe and will there ever be end to white minority rule in some of these places?
In the New York Times article, it is mentioned that President Trump has pointed out that the unemployment rate for black Americans has been the lowest since 1972. Trump has used Twitter to state the fact, but he does so in a way to brag that it is because of his presidency and policies that the rate has lowered. Trump has addressed this racial issue as if it is one of his main concerns to help increase the black employment rate. Meanwhile, there is no mention of any other race. It is as if only two races exist in the United States. I personally believe no one deserves credit for the recent statistic, but the hardworking people obtaining the jobs. In addition, it is quite clear that the unemployment rate for blacks has been in the work for years due to past history, however there is no need for Trump to act as if it is a celebration that he is responsible for.
“They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds” -Mexican Proverb.
I resonate with this quote deeply and and it ties into my class of Race, Ethnicity, and Hybridity concepts because even after all the oppression, we are still thriving as marginalized groups. I hold myself to a higher degree especially being at a predominately white institution (PWI) where the system favors the superiority of white people. I always try to reward myself however, when I have achieved a certain level of difficulty or fear of reaching a goal at college. I recognize like DuBois that the resources I have been exposed to growing up, I am not going to win the war but I will win battles. In a W.E.B DuBois piece he says, “particularly the Negro race-have not as yet given civilization the full spiritual message which they are capable of giving” (112). His recognition of what the world may never experience due to other factors of discrimination towards the black race as its full contribution to humanity. It is almost crazy to think what could have been if major and minor instances of people’s ideologies never existed?
Leopold Senghor’s writing in “What is “Negritude’?” had an impact on me in so many levels. He touches upon some of the anxieties I have had with the hegemony of white America in trying to assimilate but always preserving one’s own culture. He comes to an understanding of how one must assimilate but for the sake of their own well-being. If a person is regarding or is a erasing their culture in an effort to seek acceptance then they will never truly be successful. At this point, I must add race is part of culture. “We could assimilate mathematics or the French language, but we could never strip off our black skins nor root out our black souls” (Senghor 136). I cannot and will not hide who I truly am as a brown Chicana but even when I am feeling frightened by society, I will never lose who I am.
http://jhfearless.com/2014/11/they-tried-to-bury-us-they-didnt-know-we-were-seeds/
- E. Burghardt Du Bois. 1897. The Conservation of Races. The American Negro Academy
Occasional Papers, No.2. Washington, D.C.: Published by the Academy.
Recent Comments