So the stuff I was writing about here has mainly been excused by the fans of that vile cartoon by the idea that it wasn’t intentionally racist! Just like that New Yorker cartoon was excused because it was SATIRE, man! Satire!
This is the thing: most of us are not intentionally racist. Most of us are not intentionally sexist. Yet these things still exist. (Yes, some people are gleefully, openly racist and sexist, but we’re not talking about them here. Don’t derail me.)
M. LeBlanc at Bitch, Ph.D. wrote an excellent post about racism and sexism a while back that I think you should read. Really.
Racism isn’t only about burning a cross on your lawn or about saying that you wouldn’t vote for Obama because he wants to enslave white people. It can be as simple as locking your car door when you drive through a black neighborhood, or assuming in your head that the black woman you see walking down the street with her kid must be unmarried. Or saying that the men in that cartoon don’t have the right hair texture to be black.
Sexism isn’t only about telling your wife to quit her job and get back in the kitchen, or jerking off to really offensive porn (whatever your idea of that is). It’s assuming that a woman who looks a certain way is stupid. It’s perpetuating a false dichotomy between “male” and “female” characteristics and according only the male ones value. (Why do you really think you value not wearing makeup and not shaving? Is it because doing those things makes you less a tool of the patriarchy, or because not doing them makes you less feminine?)
We all do a million little racist and sexist things every day. I do. You do. Barack Obama does and Hillary Clinton does and Noam Chomsky does and Beth Ditto does.
I love to harp on the fact that people are not either good or evil. There is not a line between the good guys and the bad guys that we can see. This isn’t a Batman movie (and hell, even that recent Batman movie played with those lines in a way that made me quite happy).
I’m not saying that there aren’t people who cross lines that make me unwilling to forgive them. Dick Cheney? No matter how much he renounced, I don’t think I’d ever be cool with Dick. Jesse Helms? Jerry Falwell? I did not cry or pronounce one word of regret when they died.
But having it pointed out that you unwittingly participated in something racist or sexist should not be a call for a huge defensive freakout designed to point out that you’re one of the good ones and therefore what you did couldn’t possibly be wrong or bad, because you didn’t intend for it to be!
In literary criticism, we don’t worry too much about the intent of the author. We look at the signs and signifiers, and interpret the message based on those.
This is a long-winded way of saying if someone calls you out on racism or sexism, the best thing to do maybe is give it a couple of seconds of thought, at least, and decide if they’re right. Then, the proper response is, if the questioner appears to be even remotely in good faith, “I’m sorry I offended you. I didn’t mean to be racist/sexist/ableist/whatever.”
Then you learn from it and get over it. It doesn’t make you the devil, or discount the good things you’ve done in the past, or even make most people hate you. It makes you human.
This is an awesome post! I can’t stress enough how everyone says/does racist things all the time. Whenever I bring that up in the comments section on major blogs, I’m usually dismissed (as in “I’m sure you are honey, but speak for yourself”), so I’m glad that other voices are starting to wake people up. Have you checked out the video over on Ill Doctrine?
I don’t remember how I stumbled on your blog, but I’m glad I did!
“Racism isn’t only about burning a cross on your lawn or about saying that you wouldn’t vote for Obama because he wants to enslave white people.”
True that. But racism is also saying you’ll vote Obama, JUST because he’s black and for no other reason. Of course, pointing that out to people has earned me the ‘racist’ label. Ah well.
“I love to harp on the fact that people are not either good or evil. There is not a line between the good guys and the bad guys that we can see. This isn’t a Batman movie”
I completely agree with this. Have thought the same way for a long time but never been able to get it across quite so succinctly.
“True that. But racism is also saying you’ll vote Obama, JUST because he’s black and for no other reason.”
That’s an interesting point. By analogy, what about those who support Hillary JUST because she’s a woman? I swear, some of the more militant “Feminists for Hillary” border on this – Clinton is in no way radical or even that much liberal on social issues, but she is, if nothing else, a woman, and that inspires some pretty fierce loyalty. I suppose you could cut women some slack in this regard the way you can cut African-American’s similar slack vis-a-vis Obama – seeing the possibility of one of your own finally get the highest office after this has been denied to you for so long has got to be inspiring. But some of the Hillary supporters really went off the deep end with this, even saying they’d vote for McCain if the Democrats didn’t pick Clinton.
I would first off be reallllly hesitant to assume that anyone who was voting for Obama or Clinton was doing so purely because that person is a black man or a woman. If someone literally tells you that that is the only reason and in all other ways they agree with the other candidate, well, even then I’d still say it would be racist if they were voting for Obama because they hate white people (the way some white people told reporters they were voting for McCain because they don’t like black people).
If all things were equal and one candidate was a black man and one was a white man, I’d vote for the black man because we’ve given white people enough privilege in this country.
If all things were equal and one candidate was a man and one was a woman, I’d vote for the woman because we’ve given men enough privilege in this country (and world).
Does that make me a “racist” or a “sexist,” to recognize that society’s been biased in favor of white men and to do what little I can to right the balance?
And in any case, the situations are almost impossible to compare because there are never going to be two candidates exactly equal on the merits. And it wasn’t the point of this post.
Also a question: where should satire back off from what is offensive?
I see the problem with this cartoon but I recently discovered a right wing site that was really, really offensive - towards pretty much everyone. After being shocked anyone could hold those views I dug around a bit and realised it was actually completely tongue in cheek (or at least I assume so). Does the fact that they aren’t serious excuse what they’re saying or does it make it worse? It irritates me when I imagine the creators as being first year university students, having a good old laugh about the hurt they’ve caused.
Particularly in the example of this website that is so very deadpan that most commenters were sure it was serious - and responded angrily.
Ha. I was actually just referencing Flynt v. Falwell in the other comment thread, so I’ll use it here too.
That Supreme Court decision (not that I always agree that the Court is right on such matters or any others, mind) said that a public figure, in particular, did not have the right to be free from ridicule. A higher level of protection is afforded to people who usually are not seen to have sought out the public eye and thus serve no public purpose in being lampooned or even humiliated. (Like the basketball players Don Imus insulted).
I think there are two questions there–does the satire work? Or is it just reproducing an image? Like, there was no way anyone realllllly believed that Jerry Falwell had sex with his mother in an outhouse, or even that Jerry Falwell endorsed a liquor. (Though people probably would believe that of Larry Flynt, but that’s a totally different story.)
My problem with this cartoon was the racial stereotypes that served absolutely no purpose in the satire intended, which was directed at the “empowerfulled hottie” as some other bloggers would say. It was still offensive, annoying, and stereotypical of the woman as well.
But satire needs to offend, quite often, to be useful. Again, my problem with the New Yorker cover was that it failed to “hold up a mirror” as Spiegelman said–it didn’t lampoon anything, it just depicted what the worst of the rumors about the Obamas said. So it failed as satire.
It’d be hard to judge the site you’re talking about without seeing it, but I’d say that the question has less to do, for me, with the intent of the creators, whether it was to point out serious political issues or just to make someone (like Falwell) look like an asshole and a hypocrite, than with whether or not it succeeds at satire. But then, I was an English major.
Hmmm, like I said the impression I get is that the website was just an exercise in offending people by a couple of first year uni students. I suppose I don’t think that just not actually holding prejudicial views doesn’t make it okay to disseminate them, even in jest.
I agree with you on the cartoon, it isn’t really saying anything of importance. And I think if you’re trying to make a point you don’t need to offend large chunks of society to do so. Well, not if you’re clever. Especially if by doing so you’re not actually making much of a point.
Now I’m just thinking out loud more than anything, so I’ll stop.
Yeah, and as an exercise in offending people, well, see the below post in which I offend radical feminists by posting a picture of my ass clad in Hustler underwear. I occasionally see the point in that as well, though generally not through racism and sexism.
if someone calls you out on racism or sexism, the best thing to do maybe is give it a couple of seconds of thought, at least, and decide if they’re right. Then, the proper response is, if the questioner appears to be even remotely in good faith, “I’m sorry I offended you. I didn’t mean to be racist/sexist/ableist/whatever.”
No matter how well intentioned we are, none of us is perfect. At some point we will screw up and owning that is part of growing. This is especially true if we are speaking as an ally and are not intimately familiar with all of the issues at play. Unpacking privilege is a job that never ends, but if you are committed to social justice it is a labor of love.
Renee said it.