Racism, Costumes, Halloween and YOU! To All who receive this correspondence: The Purdue University Black Cultural Center held its “Difficult Dialogues on Race and the White Gaze pt. 1: Blackface, Minstrelsy and the Hollywood Indian in 2013?” on Tuesday October 29, 2013. The program is a collaboration with American Studies. Our guest speaker was Adryan Glasgow, a graduate student whose research includes race relations and ‘whiteness’. We scheduled this session to address what we knew was coming, racist costumes during Halloween. As we expected, the day before our event a photo of a white male dressed as Trayvon Martin began circulating via Facebook. Dave ‘Davey D.’ Cook posted the photo with a caption that said , “Black pain and suffering has always been entertainment for White people [paraphrased]”. During Difficult Dialogues, a White female, spoke about ‘Whiteness’ at a Black Cultural Center. She and I went back and forward about this because she did not feel comfortable. She felt that it should be Black voices speaking out about this issue, and you know what, she was right. Then I thought, Black voices do speak out, especially mine, especially at the Black Cultural Center and EVERYWHERE I happen to be breathing at the time, but something kept tugging at my spirit about the whole thing. Adryan teaches about ‘Whiteness’ all the time in her classes. She has passion and fire about this topic and really wants to see herself and others do the necessary self-work required to deal with racism in the United States; and eventually, tackle how racism morphs into other isms globally. I see this in her because that is what my graduate work is all about. I absolutely loved when she got deep into her presentation and dropped the ‘s-word’ on the audience. She officially became a ‘mini-me’ (I have her by a few years) at that point. Most importantly, there was something in that room. There was an energy that I had never felt before present in that space. There were grad students, faculty, staff, community people of all backgrounds and orientations and various colors of experiences of pain. There was no waiting for the Q and A. Hands began to raise, hands were acknowledged, questions asked and answered in the moment because that is what people needed. Aria Halliday (my other mini-me) brought up this point, “As a Black woman, I can give the exact same presentation, use the exact same tone of voice, say the exact same things and get a totally different response from students, from people period.” I saw heads in the audience bobbing up and down in non-verbal agreement. Adryan agreed as well, but why is that and what do we do about it, I wondered. Then, I felt a chill run through my body. I was dumbstruck by some unknown feeling. What is going on here? Then it hit me. After the program, grad student, Naeema Webb said we need to have this program in Loeb (Auditorium) so more people can hear this, more people can have conversations like this on campus.” You see, I realized, at that moment, that White folk look to us, Black folk, to try understand who they are, and Black folk, look to White folk to try to understand who they are because at some point, after we have defined ourselves and given ourselves permission to be pissed off, to grieve the losses, to confront the trauma and the pain we all were born into, the pain and shame of history in the United States, we –on both sides, Black and White, must humble ourselves, look each other into the eye, listen and do battle with what we have been taught to believe about ourselves and other people. In short, we needed to hear a White woman’s voice at a Black Cultural Center. We needed to be in a space that was welcoming, that encourages free expression of ideas, that allows folks to disagree so we can hear both sides of the story, the history, and most importantly a place where folk know they are safe because disrespect is this space is NOT tolerated. I grew intellectually and spiritually that day. I realized that day that although it SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY- CHOOSING WHAT WE HEAR AND AGREE WITH ABOUT RACE BASED ON WHAT THE TEACHERS’ SKIN COLOR LOOKS LIKE – my voice and her voice are both needed to do this level of work, Race Work. Both voices are needed to make the necessary transformations that will change society for the better. Her voice should not cancel out mine and mine should not cancel out hers. Be it known, if not for this building, the immediate and lasting impression it has on people with the images of Black people, Black culture and Black thought and the manifestation of those things through the Difficult Dialogue on Race program that is part presentation and part workshop, this experience, this lesson would not have been possible (special thanks to all who made the BCC possible). There is so much more to say, but I must respect your time so I will share a few things that came out of the workshop portion of “Difficult Dialogues on Race and the White Gaze pt. 1: Things you might say to someone wearing Blackface and other offensive Halloween costumes: 1. Wow, do you know how you’re being perceived by other people when you wear a costume like that? 2. Okay, so, is this really how you see me as a Black (or other racial or ethnic identity) person? 3. Dude, what you are wearing is wrong. 4. KNOWLEDGE CHECK! Blackface is a symbol that was born out of slavery, you offend Black people (and their ancestors) when you dress up like that – and you make your own people look really bad in the process. 5. When you left your house with this costume on, were you hoping to get a certain kind of response from people? 6. Dude. Really? 7. Uh, do you have friends? If so, they should have told you not to wear that costume.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 17:22:45 +0000
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