The "Other" in 21st Century

The question was brought up in class who or what could be the "other" in the 21st century and this question was complicated to me because the 21st century has had a time when women were othered, African Americans and people from the middle east. Women were the other when Hilary Clinton was running for President and this brought out the bias of people who did not agree with a women being president. when 9/11 happened the middle eastern people became a automatic enemy depsite their accomplishments as Americans and them being individuals. When Obama became president of the U.S many people believed the African Americans being an "other" had been erased because he was a good speech maker, but when looking at "racial alienation with economic alienation (Gates 6)" it can be seen that African Americans are still the "other" in the 21st century. I say this because they are still the minority in businesses and they have reserved beds in prisons waiting for them. As a people, they are not respected enough in any industry and it is still believed that "black people are regelated to a lower place in the great chain of being (Gates 8)." Black people are still dealing with this 'trap' Gates discusses as being "inversion 'race' as a term for an essence (Gates 13)" and "indenture (Gates 13)."

language

Gate’s text really hit home on the theme of language function for me. He spoke about the way people abuse of language to create the differences of race. I’d like to dedicate this post to my questions on the functions of language. Prior to this class I thought language was just a way to communicate what already existed, but between this reading and last weeks, I see how to use language to create the world the way we want to see it. If there is no word for something does it still exist? Can we bring a feeling or movement into existence by simply naming it?

Race

I found Henry Gates Jr. to be spot on when it comes to the idea that physical attributes are not the only way people can be classified into a race. Like Burke's terminatstic screens Gates believes that can be created within a text and are associated with people by people. Race is a very ambiguous terministic screen simply because people do not have the same views of others. Race is a social construct since a person can be considered part of certain group by their location that they were born or their religion. I myself have been told hundreds of time that I am not white because I am Jewish. Being Jewish is not a race but to many people it is and with that reinforcement placed on me many times over I have caught myself identifying myself as Jewish when race is brought up in a conversation.

Screens will always play a huge role in "Race"

Gates refers to how language is used to transcribe how we feel about “race” and how the use of language allows us to maintain a biological criteria different than all others. Through our own terministic screens we all look at African-Americans differently, but the common use of derogatory language will always present a sense of a natural difference that isn’t like the differences in sex.

With regards to the use of careless language Gates notes, “To do so is to engage in a pernicious act of language, one which exacerbates the complex problem of cultural and ethnic difference, rather than to assuage or redress it.”

The Racial Trope

As I was reading Gates' essay, his statement, "Race... pretends to be an objective term of classification, when in fact it is a dangerous trope," stuck out to me quite a bit when I was reflecting on the essay. Racism throughout history was and still is just that-- a trope that people use for generalizations, comparisons, and reasoning for arguments. I have never learned about the racism in literature before, so seeing how Gates introduces his point on demonstrating "the emblem that links racial alienation with economic alienation" through literature and the reading/writing abilities of Africans showed how such tropes are perpetuated. 

Gates

"Current language use signifies the difference between cultures and their possession of power, spelling out the distance between subordinate and superordinate, between bondsman and lord in terms of their race." (6)  I believe this quote is worth looking in to in terms of Gates definition of race.  Gates identifies race with tropes, believing race to be a category from which literary works can be understood and judged by.  I believe that though this subject may make some uncomfortable to talk about, it is a factor that remains and must be acknowledged.  Gates talks about "otherness" and how those not in the dominant culture (race) are made out to be "others" who are different or "less than".  Through establishing tropes by using terms such as cracker or nigger these concepts or superiority and otherness are reinforced.

Racial Screens

I believe that Race, as it is presented in "Writimg Race and the Difference It Makes", is an interesting element to examine in literature. I think it ties in a lot of literary tools we have learned about in class, such as genre, terministic screens and author function.

Throughout history, Especially western culture, it is obvious why race mattered, even if it is just a metaphorical idea rather than an actual thing. Because, as a society, we have for the most part played up the role of the author, it is no surprise that the race of this author made a difference. After all, every race has not always been equal in America. Had we all listened to Barthes and paid no heed to the author, instead letting him "die" at the beginning of the text, race would make no difference. But, as I analyzed when we originally read Barthes, I don't think that all authors would want themselves divorced from their text. Some authors, like the example discussed in this article, with an African American poet wanting to be seen just as a poet, would agree with Barthes. But authors who want to speak for their race or for their culture want this identification.

The 'Race' to literary equality

Gate composed a very interesting piece about race and literature. To begin with I could have argued that race was a dying critique had I read this a few months ago but in the wake of such a controversial election I was shown how divided many people are on such an issue. I could have easily thought thy race and literature could be judged on one plane but its evident that today these divisions need to still be in place just as they were when we read the speech written by a white wan and then spoken by a black women which change the entire meaning and rhetoric of those words. Who says what completely reflects on what is being said. The divide between when people of different races speak on the same topics is one that is not going away any time soon, whether between blacks and whites or between middle-easterners as we have seen still have plenty of issues to resolve before them.

Race and Literature

Henry Louis Gates Jr approaches the situation of race within literature and the study of it in the introduction Writing "Race" and the Difference It Makes. He likens any literature other than mainstream literature written be western white people as being "other." In this particular essay, "otherness" refers to sub groups of people other than white and specifically African American. Gates specifically talks about the lack of an existence of "other" literature. Gates claims that race is still an important factor today and has not changed much in post colonial America. An important claim that Gates makes is that "race, in these usages, pretends to be an objective term of classifications, when in fact it is a dangerous trope" (Gates 5).

Gynocriticism-Discussion Term

Gynocriticism

• Refers to feminist criticism (emerged in U.S. around 1970's)
• Focus is on literary works by women 
• "special and explicitly female tradition exists in literature..."
• power is within own female communities and traditions 
• removing the comparison of women to men
• "female language" : empowers females and their writing
• refer to feminine subjects, "such as domestic life, intimate experiences and personal and family relationships"
• separates from men and masculinity

This term can be applied to the reading on Helen Keller. As some may argue that they do not see her as a rhetorical theorist, I think that her own, personal, experiences as a woman and a blind woman at that, give her all the power to be named a rhetorical theorist. She is able to experience her own communities as a woman and a handicapped woman. She was able to create her own language as a female herself and empower other women through her own experiences. Not only does she make use of "female language" but it is also enhanced by her language as a woman with a handicap. She still experience domestic life as a woman and family life as a woman. Her experience with her handicap would have been much different if she had experienced as a man. 

"Race Is A Fiction"

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. writes an impressive critique on race in his essay, Writing "Race" and the Difference It Makes. Within the essay, he points out how race, throughout history, has had an imprint on literature and the way that we view literary society.

On page 4, Gates states, "Race, as a meaningful criterion within the biological sciences, has long been recognized to be a fiction" (Gates 4). He goes on to say that the idealized races that we talk about are generally metaphors in which certain predisposed traits have been assigned. I agree that race is a somewhat social construction, and even though race was not always an issue in writing, I think that cultural differences between the writings of different races are often apparent, especially in fiction writing, since many writers pull from their own experiences. Aside from that, I do not think race has anything to do with literature. Gates states how, in the past, people arrived at the conclusion that "Blacks and other people of color could not write" (9). This obviously shows an ignorance of the times, and a bogus social construction with nothing to back it up.  

Race In Society

After reading I wasn't surprised at all by any of the claims stated in the reading, i was surprised somebody else finally had the same train of thought as I. Gates open a Pandora's Box that is the concept of what really defines a race and takes a step at calling it a trope which i can agree with.

Being black myself I have dealt with this personally on many levels. In Miami, there are people who are black yet don't identify with the society's concept of Black but instead with being Hispanic or of foreign descent. The idea that we let a term represent such an ambiguous meaning is in fact wrong in my opinion. Therefore, this does relate to terministic screens except from a sociological standpoint. However, one more way t relates is through genre.

Writing Race: western/othered literature

I want to engage an early point made in this article. Gates notes that canonized literature is literature written by white people, mostly men, and asks why the literature of other cultures is considered specific to their culture and not part of a universal canon. I think that this is because white experiences are considered to be universal and the experiences of people of color is considered to be other. This is harmful because it sets anyone who is not white as an other, someone that cannot be related to unless they are like you. I also think, though, that in some ways having a distinct branch of literature can be beneficial. For instance, I took a class on Latin American Lit, being Latina myself. Because this type of literature was not absorbed as 'universal canon' I was able to read literature specifically by and about people from similar cultural backgrounds to myself. I think that in order to not other various cultural literature, it should be admitted that what is considered universal canon should rightfully be labeled as white literature, or something similar. Admit that it is what it is.

Race in all.

From Henry Louis Gates to Zora Neale Hurston to Langston Hughes, there have been scores of African American authors that have been designated by those within the African American community and by those outside of that community as the voices of the African American people. It has been written by author Langston Hughes, and recognized, as a very real phenomenon that African American authors are looked to as the "voice" of their race in the 1926 article "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Hughes said he knew of a negro poet that didn't want to be recognized as such, that this poet wanted to be seen as a poet, not a Negro poet. The poet did not want to be seen as a voice for the African American people, restricted to address the plight and struggles of the African American, and seen as someone that has betrayed their culture because of his refusal to act as an advocate for social justice. I believe it is this that Gates references. An author is hardly ever free of race.

s.f.u.. but learning.

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“The poem is about art, figured in the urn, is more vivid than life itself. It is eternal life.. well .. until it burns.. or do ashes burn?(Rivkin/Ryan 6)

“The realm of universal meaning is beyond sensory experience and cannot be analyzed using scientific methods” (6).

“a kind being displaced by science” (6).

I pushed the F11 key on the keyboard three times to turn Mr. Harris’ philosophy down just a little. I needed to finish reading M(r)s. Rivkin and Mr. Ryan, and there just wasn’t enough time left.. right now.. and oh Lord.. that means someone isn’t going to have enough time to read my stuff..

Genre According to Race

Reading Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "Writing 'Race' and the Difference It Makes" made me think about Carol Miller's brief but important introduction to the importance of genres. She claimed that genres could shape an entire interpretation of a reading, and made the argument that for rhetorical theory, genre according to action is most effective. This is because rhetoric is designed to move the will, so we must read according to how the will is being moved/attempted to be moved. When applying this notion to the topic of reading and classifying genre according to race, it may seem to make sense. Epistemological critical thinking tells us that the history and time period is important, and so the race of the writer is obviously important as well. To know the race of a writer seems to aid in understanding the purpose behind a particular text.

terministic screens and the united way

I cannot help but continuing to think about Burke’s Terministic Screens and one of the essays that were read in the first section by Barton entitled Textual Practices of Erasure. The first essay that was read was all about the United Way posters and campaign. Here it depends on which terminsitic screen the viewer has been primed to use that determines how the campaign and advertisements are received.

Race Writing

I'm not gonna lie, originally I was confused, in the sense that I thought of... a foot race or a car race when race came up in the title. It was only until I started reading that I found out it meant ethnicity.

Now that that little cute story is out of the way, what exactly is Gates trying to explore as far as writing about ethnicity is concerned? Well, he seems to think that it is a "fiction." The vibe I'm getting is the sense that there is no race, but rather we are a collective of human being who just happen to come from different places and therefore be different colors.

What does he think of tradition?

The Power of Credibility

I found myself surprised to read that intellectuals such as Kant, Hume and Hegel, philosophers I have read and whom I respect for some of their ideas, held the same misconceptions about race that were commonly believed. Gates, Jr.'s article seem to place cause of this idea in the intellectual sphere on Rene Descartes' thesis that reason is privileged about all other human characteristics, and that writing is the "visible sign of reason" (8). Because Africans did not have a formal literature, they were perceived as lower on the hierarchy of human beings as a species.

Screens

Burke's idea on terministic screens is an ideal that is practiced in our everyday interactions. we unconsciously place ourselves and others into specific categories that essentially determine how open we will be with them. in the case of Burke this means that we assign people terms and based on those terms, appoint specific stereotypes based on what we have heard, seen, or encountered with the group, which ultimately determine if we identify with them or not.

This idea of reference and recollection is consistent as humans because our brains store most new encounters as a extension of our previous encounters with any given person place or thing. this is why word of mouth is believed to be the most reliable form of spreading information or learning about a new place. while our minds love to naturally build  memory and refr to these memories whenever possible, this is actually crippling and limits our level of acceptance of other people and consequently makes humans closed off to certain people or prejudice.

The terministic screen of race

I found within the article "Writing "Race" and the Differences it Makes" that the inclusion of racial identity within literary form is one that has been modified and conditioned throughout historical context to mold a system of classification in which persecution and discrimination for sociopolitical and nationalistic purposes may be justified. It is described that the very form of language itself is one that is built upon and recognized through internalized systems of classification based upon accepted similarities and differences among elements of the natural world, and this system of language is given merit and value within a certain sociopolitical atmosphere. We may then observe that the very use of language in a particular form can be used as a mechanism of discrimination, as seen in the example of the oxford dictionary which is given authority to hold the definitions of words based upon the common historical and cultural associations of the authorship of the dictionary.

Racial Stigma

The quote that stood out to me the most when reading Gates' essay was, "Race has become a trope of ultimate, irreducible difference between cultures, linguistic groups, or adherents of specific belief systems which--more often than not--also have fundamentally opposed economic differences" (5). Gates insists that even though the same biological criteria used to determine 'differences' in sex do not stand when applied to race, we carelessly use this language anyway, in such a way that is has gained permanence in our culture. Repeated racial slurs and stereotypes are grounded in the roots of our culture and as a result, this language "exacerbates the complex problem of cultural or ethnic difference, rather than to assuage or redress it" (5). What I also found interesting was the way in which race coincided with knowledge or power.

Gates and the Election

"Race has become a trope of ultimate and irreducible difference between cultures, linguistic groups, or adherents of specific belief systems- which more often than not- also have fundamentally opposed economic interests." (Gates 5)

The above statement by Gates is a powerful one yet offers a distinct truth, or so it may seem. The idea of race has divided and separated people for many years. While many nations strive for equality of all people, there always seems to be an unfortunate stigma attached to each racial group. I am not entirely sure if I dare to tackle the 2012 election since it is a delicate issue but my blog should taken as part of a discussion and not a political stance. Democrats and Republicans will fight for their beliefs to be in office no matter what it takes however in recent years, our Nation has had to face the concept of race along with the economy headfirst. While politics are far beyond my realm of clear understanding, it is fairly clear to me that the statement above could be seen in the election in this year and past years.

Gates - Racial Slurs as tropes

Gates had some very interesting views on what actually constituted a race. He seemed to dismiss the idea that physical attributes are the only aspects that form a race. He actually furthered this idea by stating that is a gross misconception the call an African black and a European white. These color shades do not represent a skin tone; these color classifications become a trope and arguably the terms gain agency from repetition. The really interesting thing about his explanation of race is that he breaks down the historical and social aspects of the words used to describe races and how they have evolved over the years. 

Gates and Race

In many ways, Gates' essay on race reads like an extension on Burke's concept of terministic screens as race can be a perception-shaping factor within a text. Although its social implications are no doubt very real and prevalent, I am of the view that race itself is an amorphous social concept which is simply an amalgamation of historically relative social and cultural norms. Although essentially every individual is categorized by their culture, there is no such thing as an objectively "raced" person without a social context to predicate a racial framework. The same individual may be classed as a variety of "races" depending on the geographical area and time period in which they are categorized. This isn't strictly problematic from the standpoint of rhetoric, as rhetoric is also an inherently social action whose formulation is also contingent upon relative social and cultural factors. However, this caused me to reflect upon the historiographic potential of particular terministic screens.