As of Monday, we will have finished reading the The White Boy Shuffle. I thought I would take this time to summarize what my thoughts about the book, namely the minstrel dynamic I noticed throughout. He starts off as a smart, yet still pretty naïve child, and over the course of the book we see him realize his "purpose" in life. No matter what he does, white people are always there to look at him in awe. They fail to see him as an individual, and prefer categorizing him as a black person and leaving it at that. The first chapter of the book shows us the history of Gunnar's ancestors, all who are portrayed in an eerily minstrel light. Gunnar takes this as a guide to how to not behave. However, on several instances in the beginning and more constantly later on, Gunnar starts to realize his unintentional minstrelsy.
Gunnar's upbringing is an interesting one, probably not one other kids have. He is a black boy growing up in a white, relatively accepting society, though he is still seen as "different." He is dubbed the "funny, cool black guy," already a sign of his disconnection from his white peers. He is invited to parties, but in class we mentioned that this may just be the kids wanting a "black guy," not necessarily Gunnar Kaufman. At this point, while he kind of realizes his difference, he simply sees himself in the position he's assigned. It's not until he moves to Hillside that he begins to realize his life in Santa Monica was almost a surreal one. He soon makes black friends and becomes a basketball star. While his innate talent helps him rise to popularity, he starts noticing that he is seen as more of a "basketball machine" than an individual by the white coaches and fans. His final performance at Hillside shows us what he's learned--he comes out in black face and even makes a point of sitting down on his old school's bench.
By the time he gets to college, he's started to more fully understand where he stands in society. He is a pretty well-known poet, and he realizes that whatever he does, his fans idolize him. Even upon taking off all his clothes in public and parading down the street, police officers don't arrest him because of his poetic credibility. This makes Gunnar realize that whatever he does, people will judge him for what they portray him as, not for who he actually is. I think this is the cause for his outlook on life. He doesn't really care so much about pleasing his white audience, per say. Rather, he does the exact opposite of what he would assume they would want to see. His acting this way, though, and realizing it has no effect on the crowds' delightedness, makes me realize that he really is a minstrel figure, despite his unwillingness to be one. It's almost as if the white people see him as "something different," and even if they try to be extremely accepting, they are subconsciously incapable of viewing him as anything other than a performer.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Monday, November 10, 2014
The White Boy Shuffle
Chapter 4 was an especially pivotal point in the novel. We see Gunnar transition from being the "whitest black kid in town" to discovering his innate basketball talent and joining a gang, among other milestones. One thing we considered in class today was the symbolism of this new assimilation, and what kind of theme Beatty is going for--it is definitely no longer the realism Richard Wright presented in Native Son. I think we all came to the general consensus that Scoby is Gunnar's portal to the rest of his life.
The first big thing that was Gunnar's gateway to social accommodation was when Nick Scoby called him the n-word. An interestingly pivotal point in the novel, Gunnar took this as a compliment and sign of acceptance rather than an insult. Even though he was the same color as the people of Hillside, he felt like a total outsider before this moment. It was as if Scoby was saying yes, you are black enough. Gunnar's newfound friendship with Scoby is a fruitful one--within this chapter we see him blossom from a nerdy misfit to one of the most popular kids in town. I think it would only be fair to credit Scoby with this growth.
In this chapter, we noticed that everything seems to be linked in a chain of events. Soon after Gunnar befriends Scoby and realizes he is a pretty cool yet intellectual guy, the class sets off to the Shakespeare competition. This scene is pivotal in that it is the first (and so far only) time we've seen Gunnar be superior to Scoby. Here, we see him sacrifice his attempt at winning the competition for making a simple, yet powerful, point. Scoby is in awe, and later that day on the bus ride home he calls him a "crazy n-----" and invites him to play basketball. When Gunnar picks up the sport and is automatically a basketball prodigy, I couldn't help but wonder if this had some racial connotations. I also found it interesting that, as we see becomes a trend in the book, Scoby is the one who, in a way, christened him into the sport.
However, just as he commits a jaw-dropping slam dunk and gets his spankings for doing so, he heads off to class where he has an epitome that his poetry is still an important part of him. I like Gunnar so far because it seems like both poetry and basketball play an important role in his life, and he hasn't dropped his "nerdier" poetry skill in an attempt to being a more macho basketball player. On the contrary, I don't think Gunnar has found himself yet. He mentions several times that he doesn't even really like basketball--he just does it because he's good at it. I suppose this leads me to wonder what exactly Paul Beatty's intentions with crafting this character are. So far, Gunnar doesn't seem to possess the typical "black boy" mentality. Also, he is found to be ironically bad at dancing, inspiring the white boy shuffle Beatty named this book after and hinting at the bigger theme of this story.
The first big thing that was Gunnar's gateway to social accommodation was when Nick Scoby called him the n-word. An interestingly pivotal point in the novel, Gunnar took this as a compliment and sign of acceptance rather than an insult. Even though he was the same color as the people of Hillside, he felt like a total outsider before this moment. It was as if Scoby was saying yes, you are black enough. Gunnar's newfound friendship with Scoby is a fruitful one--within this chapter we see him blossom from a nerdy misfit to one of the most popular kids in town. I think it would only be fair to credit Scoby with this growth.
In this chapter, we noticed that everything seems to be linked in a chain of events. Soon after Gunnar befriends Scoby and realizes he is a pretty cool yet intellectual guy, the class sets off to the Shakespeare competition. This scene is pivotal in that it is the first (and so far only) time we've seen Gunnar be superior to Scoby. Here, we see him sacrifice his attempt at winning the competition for making a simple, yet powerful, point. Scoby is in awe, and later that day on the bus ride home he calls him a "crazy n-----" and invites him to play basketball. When Gunnar picks up the sport and is automatically a basketball prodigy, I couldn't help but wonder if this had some racial connotations. I also found it interesting that, as we see becomes a trend in the book, Scoby is the one who, in a way, christened him into the sport.
However, just as he commits a jaw-dropping slam dunk and gets his spankings for doing so, he heads off to class where he has an epitome that his poetry is still an important part of him. I like Gunnar so far because it seems like both poetry and basketball play an important role in his life, and he hasn't dropped his "nerdier" poetry skill in an attempt to being a more macho basketball player. On the contrary, I don't think Gunnar has found himself yet. He mentions several times that he doesn't even really like basketball--he just does it because he's good at it. I suppose this leads me to wonder what exactly Paul Beatty's intentions with crafting this character are. So far, Gunnar doesn't seem to possess the typical "black boy" mentality. Also, he is found to be ironically bad at dancing, inspiring the white boy shuffle Beatty named this book after and hinting at the bigger theme of this story.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Challenging Racism
In response to today's movie night, I thought I would write a blog post addressing how racism is still prevalent today. However, I've noticed that the criticism of all things remotely racist probably isn't the way to go, either. While overexposure of racist occurrences succeeds in criticizing them for the time being, it also makes racism a commonly talked about topic, which I'm not sure is a good thing. This topic has succeeded in thoroughly confusing me, but here is my take on it.
Upon watching the documentary, I learned that a few of my innocent childhood memories have racial roots. I found this quite unsettling, as even the seemingly nonsense "eenie-menie-miney-moe" has chain gang connotations. I also found it interesting that while this is definitely something that has an uneasy past, I don't think we're going to drop the phrase anytime soon. The meaning has obviously been reduced to a game of random selection, and I feel like the main connection people have with this phrase is simply a reminder of their younger years. I wondered if alienating the phrase altogether would make it less of a problem, "one less thing to worry about," so to speak, but I've decided that doing so may simply cause more harm than good. Similar to the controversy over cuss words (namely the n-word), I feel like "banning" something intangible can potentially cause it to carry more weight than it originally did. There is something about labeling something as taboo that makes it even more taboo, if that makes sense.
While I do agree that we have come a long way over the past century, I feel like it would be colorblind to assume that racism doesn't exist today. I've found that anywhere I turn, one form or another of racism can be found. In the documentary, we witnessed black people performing in minstrel shows, degrading their race and further enforcing their stereotype. Reflecting on modern day entertainment, one example I forgot to mention in class is Key & Peele. While I and millions of other viewers have watched their videos and found them rather entertaining, this class has made me rethink the concept of their videos. From portraying contemporary black people to recreating slave auctions, they have risen to fame by using race as their main punchline. On one hand, this reminds me of minstrelsy, but on the other I wonder if I'm over thinking it. In today's society, calling this racist would be considered racist, in the way that constantly bringing up racism is unnecessary. This leads me to concept of colorblindness, as introduced to us in The White Boy Shuffle, and whether trying to achieve it is ideal.
As we exhausted in class today, shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody portray a rainbow of characters each with very specific anti-stereotypes. The Asian girl is the dumb and rich, the white girl is smart but poor, and the overseer of all of this is a well kept black man. This made me wonder whether blatantly flipping the racial roles is a good idea or not. I feel like it is definitely a much better alternative to satisfying the stereotypes, but this seemingly purposeful portrayal can cause some people to question its legitimacy. Meaning, is Disney Channel trying a little too hard to get as racially diverse as possible. This made me realize that colorblindness in society is basically unachievable (much to the disgrace of Gunnar's teacher), yet constantly challenging the racial aspects of everything isn't helping things, either. In conclusion, I'm not exactly sure what a probable ideal is, and whether we will see it anytime soon. I definitely think people are trying, though I wonder what the world will look like a century from now.
Upon watching the documentary, I learned that a few of my innocent childhood memories have racial roots. I found this quite unsettling, as even the seemingly nonsense "eenie-menie-miney-moe" has chain gang connotations. I also found it interesting that while this is definitely something that has an uneasy past, I don't think we're going to drop the phrase anytime soon. The meaning has obviously been reduced to a game of random selection, and I feel like the main connection people have with this phrase is simply a reminder of their younger years. I wondered if alienating the phrase altogether would make it less of a problem, "one less thing to worry about," so to speak, but I've decided that doing so may simply cause more harm than good. Similar to the controversy over cuss words (namely the n-word), I feel like "banning" something intangible can potentially cause it to carry more weight than it originally did. There is something about labeling something as taboo that makes it even more taboo, if that makes sense.
While I do agree that we have come a long way over the past century, I feel like it would be colorblind to assume that racism doesn't exist today. I've found that anywhere I turn, one form or another of racism can be found. In the documentary, we witnessed black people performing in minstrel shows, degrading their race and further enforcing their stereotype. Reflecting on modern day entertainment, one example I forgot to mention in class is Key & Peele. While I and millions of other viewers have watched their videos and found them rather entertaining, this class has made me rethink the concept of their videos. From portraying contemporary black people to recreating slave auctions, they have risen to fame by using race as their main punchline. On one hand, this reminds me of minstrelsy, but on the other I wonder if I'm over thinking it. In today's society, calling this racist would be considered racist, in the way that constantly bringing up racism is unnecessary. This leads me to concept of colorblindness, as introduced to us in The White Boy Shuffle, and whether trying to achieve it is ideal.
As we exhausted in class today, shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody portray a rainbow of characters each with very specific anti-stereotypes. The Asian girl is the dumb and rich, the white girl is smart but poor, and the overseer of all of this is a well kept black man. This made me wonder whether blatantly flipping the racial roles is a good idea or not. I feel like it is definitely a much better alternative to satisfying the stereotypes, but this seemingly purposeful portrayal can cause some people to question its legitimacy. Meaning, is Disney Channel trying a little too hard to get as racially diverse as possible. This made me realize that colorblindness in society is basically unachievable (much to the disgrace of Gunnar's teacher), yet constantly challenging the racial aspects of everything isn't helping things, either. In conclusion, I'm not exactly sure what a probable ideal is, and whether we will see it anytime soon. I definitely think people are trying, though I wonder what the world will look like a century from now.
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