11/5-Idea-Multiculturalism

The Topic Is Race; the Art Is Fearless

By HOLLAND COTTER

Published: March 30, 2008

"The concept of race in America — the fraught fictions of whiteness and blackness— is not going away soon. It is still deep in our system. Whether it is or isn’t in our blood, it’s in our laws, our behavior, our institutions, our sensibilities, our dreams."-Cotter

This article was really interesting. Cotter spoke about Barack Obama, "presenting himself as a 21st-century postracial leader, with a vision of a color-blind, or color-embracing, world to come." We are a very long way from being color-blind as a nation though. Cotter explained it perfectly in the above quote. It reminds me of class discussions I have in my Feminist Literary Theory class. There is this idea that once we make big progression that the slate is clean. We had the civil rights movement so everything is good now, right? Wrong. This happens often when rights movements make headway. The same thing happens with the Suffrage movement. People think that everything is okay because women are able to vote now....what about the glass ceiling?

The article also brings up the idea of multiculturalism.
Definition:
n

A philosophy that recognizes ethnic diversity within a society and that encourages others to be enlightened by worthwhile contributions to society by those of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

"The African-American search for dignity has contributed much to this politics, yet, ironically, it has shifted attention from socio-economic disadvantage, arguably where African-Americans' need is greatest... The ideas of cultural difference and cultural group have been central to anthropology and other related disciplines focused on ‘primitive’ and non-European societies. The arrival in the metropolitan centres of peoples studied by scholars from these disciplines has made the latter experts on migrants and their cultural needs. They also enabled critics from previously colonized societies, often themselves immigrants to the ‘North’, to challenge the expert and other representations of the culturally subordinated. These intellectual developments have been influenced by the failure of the economic ‘material base’ explanations of the cultural ‘superstructure’" (Source).

"[Some] perceived a lack of a consistent definition of multiculturalism and felt that culture was being made synonymous with race. In addition, they argued, ethnic cultures were fading in the United States."

"Some people have explored a middle ground. They accepted the multiplicity of heritages and cultures and have seen pluralism as a part of the core culture and values, but they deemphasized contemporary ethnicity and have viewed Americans as possessing flexible and fluid identities because they lived in multiple "worlds." That approach prompted an emphasis on cosmopolitanism and universalism over the particularism of ethnicity. The conflicting visions of the nation's mission ensured that the controversy did not end with the beginning of the twenty-first century."

In the New York Times article Cotter discusses artists responding to this sort of movement. Most interesting to me was Adrian Piper, a light-skinned black woman. She sent calling cards to all-white social events reading:

Dear Friend,

I am black. I am sure you did not realize this when you made/laughed at/agreed with that racist remark. In the past I have attempted to alert white people to my racial identity in advance. Unfortunately, this invariably causes them to react to me as pushy, manipulative or socially inappropriate. Therefore, my policy is to assume that white people do not make these remarks, even when they believe there are not black people present, and to distribute this card when they do.

I regret any discomfort my presence is causing you, just as I am sure you regret the discomfort your racism is causing me.

Sincerely yours,

Adrian Margaret Smith Piper

Cotter discussed artists that used whiteness and blackness as a medium in the 70s and 80s. "Race is treated as a form of performance; an identity that could, within limits, be worn or put aside; and as a diagnostic tool to investigate social values and pathologies."