Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series -

dear kissi

On 8/5/12 7:05 PM, Kissi, Edward wrote:

Would that be racist if a white commentator felt the same and uttered the same words as I would have or that outburst would not, at all, be  racist if that came from a black commentator?

 

this is a tricky question. not a trick question, but a tricky one. i think there is a difference between bigotry and bias; between belittlement of people, because of their nationality or race or gender, and preferences for one's own.
the baseball song goes,"Root, root, root for the home team." and maybe we shout, "Kill the xxxxx," about the other team.
but a team is one thing; it is another to shout imprecations about the race of one's opponent.
i feel that way on this list some times. as africans, or people like me who associate with africa, the horrors of the past cannot be forgotten.or the anger. but that doesn't mean we should warp our judgments into absolutes of good and evil, black and white,  distorting things.
yet maybe some do so.
how can we manage this? aye kwei armah's depictions of whites and arabs take us to an absolute of evil--in most of his novels anyway. how can we read them?
and a tiny example is in the homophobia that mars soyinka's depiction of the gay character in The Interpreters.
how can we read that?
not always clear who is the home team?
yet when i read King Leopold's Ghost, it is pretty clear.
easier to root for a baseball team and not worry?
ken

--   kenneth w. harrow   distinguished professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  east lansing, mi 48824-1036  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu