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“Whiteness has been tended to be approached by anti- racists as a fixed asocial category rather than a mutable social construction…as a statistic, ahistorical…something set outside social change… something that defines the ‘other’ but not itself subject to others’ definitions” (1)
Black in relation to white, black versus white, separation and divide; when the black man has to be black in relation to white, does this not perpetuate the myth of the black man? Who is separating the black man from the rest of culture and what does “black” encompass? Is it simply the case that anyone who is not white is therefore black? ...
With the indiscriminate use of terms such as Ethnic Minority and Racial Minority, it came as no shock when reading the work of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown that the British Black, British Asian and other groups of society have never felt represented in their country;(2) these terms are a way of categorising the social, ethnic and cultural groups within Britain, yet, they are dependent on the assumption that all whites are part of the same homogonous group and that by definition they have a power built on prejudice. ...
As we fight to resolve the demands of a multicultural society, the crux of the matter remains fragmented and unchallenged by most; how do we reconcile the differing stereotypes of the black? ... There are many historical myths revolving around the black community; the notion of the ‘noble savage’, the violent, the ‘Christian slave’ and the ‘happy native’. All of these are acted out in different capacities with equally undignified phrases as their summation; ‘The Tom’ as the socially acceptable subservient and ‘good Negro’; ‘The Koon’ as the amusing black buffoon, the most demeaning of all stereotypes; this character is often lazy and unreliable, ‘the tragic malato’ as the victim of divided racial parentage, suffering the inheritance of mixed blood and the ‘Bad Buck’ as the oversexed, physically strong, violent man with a lust for white flesh. All of these stereotypes have been regularly portrayed in film and literature, yet we have a more worrying portrayal of the black community, disturbing as it focuses on themes of the black image within contemporary society. There is the black youth as the aggressive, anti- authoritarian and an anti- social collective, whose lives revolve around alcohol, drugs, R and B, gangsta rap and general unspecified debauchery. (4) From this, the public conscious has determined that black leisure events are the focus for criminal activity, violence and social irresponsibility; as Claire Alexander notes, the long documented relationship between black leisure, unemployment, drugs and violence has led to the criminalization of black culture through which any group of black youths is seen as a counter opposed to social order and therefore a threat to it.(5)
The threat of black culture to white society are brought to light in the sinister findings of “Bowling for Columbine”; the argument asserted in this film is that there is more gun crime in the United States due the ‘society of fear’ perpetuated by the media and mostly, fear of the black man. ... In a statement from one young woman after the incident she says of Harris and Keble “he shot the girl in the head and he shot the black kid because he was black”,(7) we all have our prejudices, yet to be able to vent those prejudices and wipe them out with a bullet is clearly a society in distress. ... The answer is simple, to be armed is “an American tradition, it is an American responsibility to be armed, if you’re not armed, you’re not responsible”. ... Above all, as the film asserts, it is the fear of the black man. During Bowling for Columbine, they give a superficial yet accurate history of the United States of America, highly enlightening as to the position of the black community; the pilgrims emigrated from Europe after fear of being persecuted, they sailed to the new world, but when they arrived on shore, there were savages and they were again, scared, therefore they killed them all. ... In 1775, they started killing the British so they could be free but they still did not feel safe, therefore passing an amendment stating that every white man could keep a gun. ... The fear continued however, as after two hundred years of slavery, the black slaves outnumbered the white settlers in many parts of the south and the black uprising followed. In 1836, Samuel Colt invented the first weapon that did not need to be reloaded after every shot, this became the staple of the civil war, during which a slave became free after a mandatory period of fighting time, subject to the North prevailing over the South. The southern slaves were free, living in peace rather than seeking revenge for the torment inflicted on them and their ancestors, yet the fear persisted and in the south the Ku Klux Klan was the method by which the white man still exerted their prowess over the black man. In 1871, the Klan became an illegal terrorist organisation, the NRA was also formed, yet a law was passed making illegal for any black persons to own a gun. It is believed the NRA aided the Ku Klux Klan, if not openly; one organisation promoted responsible use of the firearm by the white man; the other shot and lynched the black man. In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black southern woman, tired after a long days work refused to surrender her seat on the bus home to a white woman. She was arrested and with the undercurrent of the black community dissatisfied with their social position, this sparked the campaign for equal rights.
Approximate Word count = 4742
Approximate Pages = 19
(250 words per page double spaced)
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