Are We Doing the Right Thing?

The movie by Spike Lee, “Do the Right Thing”, relates very closely with Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s Racism Without Racists and Charles Gallagher’s Rethinking the Color Line: Readings in Race and Ethnicity.  For instance, the movie and two textbooks all talk about interracial friendships and relationships.  The only such romantic relationship in the movie is Mookie and Tina who is a black male with a Latina female.  Bonilla-Silva found that his participants were more likely to support interracial marriage if a Mexican was in the relationships instead of a black.  Gallagher argues that white/black interracial relationships are becoming more common in movies; however this movie did not portray any white/black romantic relationships. 

An article written by Sandie Angule Chen entitled “The 10 Most Compelling Interracial Romances” argues that it is rare to see a relationship in a movie that does not involve a Caucasian like “Do the Right Thing”.  She continues on that there are two types of movies involving interracial couples.  Either the movie makes race a big issue, or where it is not that important.  Spike Lee’s movie does not focus on the interracial aspect of the relationship, but the majority of them do.  This movie depicts nearly every race which is uncommon for a Hollywood film.  However, there are limited cordial interactions between all the races. 

            Another area of overlap is Bonilla-Silva’s notion of colorblind racism (covert racism and avoiding racial terms) that plays out throughout the movie.  Two such instances occur in Sal’s pizzeria.  The first occurs when Buggin’ Out points out that only white people hang on the “Wall of Fame” despite the restaurant being situated in nearly an all-African American neighborhood with almost only black customers.  Sal says he takes pride in his Italian heritage and can do what he wants since it is his store.  In a subtle way, Sal is indicating that whites are superior to blacks and thus deserving of being on the “Wall of Fame”.  The other incident occurs when Pino tries to boss Mookie around as soon as he comes in to start his shift at work.  He thinks he is superior to him since he is white and not from the neighborhood.  Pino goes on to criticize his dad for giving handouts to Da’ Mayor.  This illustrates Bonilla-Silva’s “cultural racism” aspect of colorblind racism.

            Race relations serve as another aspect of overlap between the film and a textbook.  Bonilla-Silva says that America has a tri-racial order with an “honorary white” category being created as a buffer zone between whites and blacks.  Pino in “Do the Right Thing” illustrates how black celebrities can be considered an honorary white.  When Mookie points out that Pino likes black celebrities like Michael Jordan, Eddie Murphy, and Prince, Pino responds with, “It’s different… I mean they’re not black, they’re not really black.”  He continues on with, “They’re more than black.  It’s different.”  This shows that just because they are celebrities; it is fine to like them.

Spike Lee recently addressed his thoughts on the film at Eberfest 2014 at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.  He commented that “12 Years a Slave” winning the Oscar for best picture does not change the status of blacks.  This is similar to Obama becoming president; America didn’t become equal as soon as he took office.  He continued on by saying that not much has changed in race relations or race in Hollywood in the 25 years since he made “Do the Right Thing”.  This is evident by Los Angeles Clippers owner, Donald Sterling’s most recent comments about blacks.

The Endless Struggle for Supremecy

            Race still plays just as big of a role politically as it did during the Civil Rights Movement.  More races have an impact on politics now than just blacks and whites.  Although, blacks have the most storied history with struggling for political rights.  According to Michael Dawson in “The Future of Black Politics”, blacks aren't as big of national advocates as they were in the 1950’s and 60’s.  This doesn't mean that all races are equal now; instead color blind racism has become more prevalent as the overt forms of racism have declined.  As a result, Dawson argues that blacks should learn from the movements of past generations, but adapt the goals to current problems such as high unemployment, the amount of minorities in prisons, and the wealth disparity between whites and blacks.

            A great deal was made about how Barack Obama was the first black president in America.  First of all, he is only half black.  While this makes him legally black, he is just as much white as he is black.  More importantly though, Obama has failed to address race as a key issue of his presidency; especially during his second term where he doesn't have to worry about being reelected.  He ran on the premise of wanting to improve the conditions of minorities, but he has only addressed issues of race when it has benefited him in some way.

            Other minorities have a major influence in politics as well.  For instance, Obama was able to secure 60% and 70% of Hispanics and Asians votes in 2008 and 2012 respectively.  Larry Bartels discusses why minorities favor the Democrat Party in his article, “Can the Republican Party thrive on white identity?”  He refers to a study that found that when Asian American’s citizenship status was questioned; they were more likely to favor the Democrat Party.  Another study investigated white, independent voters’ responses when telling them that either California is composed of about as many minorities as whites or saying that Hispanics make up about as much of the population nationally as blacks.  The people who were told of the California situation were more likely to identify Republican afterwards.  Their study illustrated that as the populations of minorities continue to grow; the more whites that will cross over to the Republican Party.

            Population trends show that whites will no longer be the majority in America by 2050.  Ryan Cooper contends in his article “RacializedPolitics, and America's South African Future” that this population shift could lead to increased conservatism among whites just as Bartels pointed out in his article.  If South Africa is any indication, this polarization of races could cause numerous problems.  The party of the majority would be able to become corrupt and make decisions without the checks and balances that a second party creates.

            So, all the races listed above still play a large role in the realm of politics.  Blacks need to be more involved with movements that will help the conditions of their race.  The experiments that Bartels mentioned illustrate that all people can easily be manipulated or swayed towards the values of one party of the other.  Lastly, a couple different studies have found that whites are scared to lose their majority status in politics.

The Emerging Past: How History Repeats Itself

            Eduardo Bonilla-Silva argues in the eighth chapter of his book Racism without Racists that America is turning into a triracial system.  In addition to the previous black and white categories is the new “honorary white” status.  This new order is going to serve as a buffer zone between whites and blacks.  It is also fluid, so some people can be considered an honorary white due to their achievements or social class.  For example, Barack Obama and Lebron James could be considered honorary whites because of their successes.  They receive benefits that aren’t afforded to other blacks.

Presidential Photo

            In the article entitled, “Honorary White Privilege, New Southern Strategies & the GOP”, WFBMM argues that this new status of honorary whites is a historical tactic used by whites.  The author says that dating back to the colonial period; white slave owners created a buffer zone with indentured servants.  These indentured slaves were from Europe, so their skin color enabled them to be higher up in the class system.  Flash forward about 200 to 300 years to when Barack Obama was able to win back-to-back elections with overwhelming support from both blacks and Hispanics.  So, the author contends that the Republicans are trying to entice Hispanics to their party.  This would allow for a buffer zone between the whites and blacks.  As a result, Bonilla-Silva’s “honorary white” category would be created in the realm of politics. 

            Chance Kelsey brings many interesting perspectives to the issue of honorary whites in the blog, “Honorary White Status.”  He highlights that racial statuses are fairly fluid.  This is illustrated with the Europeans who came to America and were considered as “blacks” by the dominant whites.  Numerous Asian and Latinos groups have started out as blacks and worked their way into the honorary white status such as Japanese and Cubans.  Also, he argues that these groups were able to accomplish this honorary white status by showing that they opposed blacks.  This corresponds with Bonilla-Silva’s thought that the system is based on how closely groups can identify with the dominant whites.  The most interesting point of his blog is the notion that intermarriage could change this whole hierarchy system.  There is a possibility that they will become part of the “honorary white” category, but enough people of mixed races could destroy the current racial order.

            When I worked in Chicago, I saw evidence of this “honorary white” class.  Business owners valued having Hispanics as their workers and thought blacks were lazy.  They were readily hiring those who were of Mexican ancestry, but didn’t take a second look at African Americans.  Most of the bosses and managers of the companies were whites.  They seemed to be favoring the Hispanics to keep them as a buffer from working with blacks.

            The emergence of the triracial system may have a profound impact on all races.  It could elevate the status of Latinos and Asians.  It will also cement white supremacy and blacks at the bottom of the hierarchy.  The three order system would be part of the newest forms of racism.  However, this could be a short-lived system if Chance Kelsey is right that interracial marriage and kids is becoming more common. 

The Silent Killers; the Reality of Genocide

The word genocide carries a specific connotation. Most people immediately picture Hitler and the Holocaust during the Nazi regime.  Without a doubt, the Holocaust was the largest in scale and deaths.  However, the last century has seen numerous ethnic cleansings and genocides.  Many Americans would struggle to name any other genocides, but Africa has witnessed multiple in the past few decades.

A sign in front of the Dachau concentration camp. 

Many aspects came together to spark the Holocaust.  Norman Naimark tells how some Young Turks from the Armenian genocide as well as Stalin's ideologies influenced Hitler's policies (2001). Originally, Hitler wanted a pure race so he used eugenics to create the best possible race of Germans.  Eugenics is improving the qualities of a population through selective breeding of those who have desirable traits.  Then Hitler's policy turned towards forced deportation of all Jews out of Germany and surrounding areas if possible.  While others were confined in ghettos to separate them from the rest of the population.  This quickly turned into a policy of complete annihilation of all Jewish people including women and children.  Concentration camps with gas chambers for mass killings became much more frequent in 1941.  Naimark attributes this to the resilience of both the Soviet Union and Britain along with the United States entering the war.  The Nazi party wanted to have one less "problem" to deal with, so Hitler increased the killings to "get it out of the way" (Naimark, 2001, p. 79).  World War II served as the perfect cover for these mass murders.  Other nations were too preoccupied  to notice or realize the true scale of it. This was a relatively silent mass murder of millions of people.  Hitler took a page from the Ottoman Empire who used World War I as an opportunity to slaughter countless Armenians.

Similar trends can be seen in Africa today.  The past decade the genocide in Darfur, Sudan has devastated the region including surrounding countries.  Similar to the situation in Rwanda that culminated in a genocide during the 1990's, tensions escalated in Sudan after becoming an independent country from Britain.  This has largely been a silent issue to the American public just as the genocide of the Jews was during WWII.  An Arab led group called the Janjaweed constantly are bombing and burning villages due mostly to competition for resources and land. Nearly half a million have been killed with another 2.8 million displaced, yet it is rarely talked about.  In fact 15 kids died over this past weekend!

If it wasn't for Ben Affleck and a few other political advocates, the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo would go unnoticed to most Americans.  Affleck, who founded Eastern Congo Initiative, recently testified in front of Congress about the situation there.  It has the makings to turn into a genocide, but hasn't been recognized as one yet.  The World Without Genocide webpage claims that it is the deadliest area since WWII with 5.4 million deaths since 1996.

The Holocaust was revealed too late to save millions of Jews, but we need to make these "silent killings" in the Darfur and the Congo a public issue to stop the death of millions more!


References:

Naimark, N. M. (2001). Fires of hatred. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Worldwithoutgenocide.org. (2014). Democratic republic of the congo | world without genocide. [online] Retrieved from: http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/congo [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014].

Worldwithoutgenocide.org. (2014). Darfur genocide | world without genocide. [online] Retrieved from: http://worldwithoutgenocide.org/genocides-and-conflicts/darfur-genocide [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014].

Yahoo News. (2014). U.n. says central africa, south sudan refugees 'in poor shape', children hardest hit. [online] Retrieved from: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-says-central-africa-south-sudan-refugees-160149193.html;_ylt=A0LEVz1HZRZTPyQAetFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0ZG44cmVwBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1ZJUDMwNF8x [Accessed: 5 Mar 2014].