[1497] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What We May All Have Missed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ariel Rideout)
Wed Oct 8 20:03:29 2003
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 18:29:44 -0400
From: Ariel Rideout <arideout@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <200310081936.PAA16223@coup-detat.mit.edu>
Is anyone still reading this thread? If so, I too feel a need to
explain why I didn't object to the ghetto party.
I went to high school in an all black neighborhood. It wasn't a rich
black suburb. It was pretty much undeniably a black southern ghetto.
The school itself was a sort of nexus, where the poor black kids of the
neighborhood mixed with kids of other races and economic standings. We
studied together, we played sports together, we ate together. We all
suffered the difficulties of a very underfunded school environment. It
was of course not idyllic. But we did find common ground and get
along. One of the most important recurring bonding experiences was when
we could all dissect a stereotype and make it harmless by mocking it.
Often this took the form of telling racist jokes, but it was always
clear that we were laughing at the stereotypes themselves. To my
diverse group of friends, the stereotypes were seen as relics of our
parents' and grandparents' time. Our generation's task was to bring
everyone together by destroying the false ideas that seperate us. The
best way to conquer an emotionally charged idea is to explore it and
laugh at it and take away its emotional power. To some older white
people racism is a secret shame, which is perhaps why it touches a nerve
when these stereotypes are spoken of. To those who have themselves
suffered racism, it is understandable that joking about it seems
insensitive. But from my experience the only way to get over the
horrors of the past is by bringing them out in the open. The only way
to prevent racism is to make racism into an absurd anachronism.
The ghetto party invite struck me as a little tacky, but the fact that
it existed said to me "look how far we've come, that we can laugh at
these things that used to be unspeakable." In that context, it seemed
good and almost necessary that such an email should exist.
When humor uses a stereotype to take aim at a group, that is a sad step
backwards. But when a group uses humor to take aim at a stereotype,
that is entirely the opposite.
Therapists often counsel that a good way to deal with trauma is to laugh
about it. Intelligent young people joke about racism because it is too
horrible and sickening to approach any other way.
Or perhaps am I too idealistic to believe that our generation is moving
away from racism?
--Ariel Rideout
Jen Selby wrote:
>>Just a note to explain why my generation reacts so strongly
>>to this issue. I am not trying to convince you of anything,
>>I just want to give you some perspective.
>>
>>
>
>In a similar vein, why people of my generation might react less
>strongly:
>
>I went to elementary school and junior high in a district that was
>mostly middle class, children of blue-collar workers, though there were
>some moderatley rich and very poor people as well. My school's racial
>makeup was, as far as I can remember, such that the white kids were
>only somewhat in majority. There were a lot of African Americans, a
>decent amount of Latinos, and some Asians. There were often
>interracial couples at the school, and, in fact, when someone made
>derogatory comments about this, they received on the order of 50 death
>threats. Which is not to say that it was an idyllic picture of race
>relations, but there was certainly plenty of mixing of people of
>various races. That non-white people should have the same rights as
>white people wasn't even a question (though I will admit that, sadly,
>there were people that thought that perhaps other races of people
>weren't as good as white people -- but these people were almost
>exclusively adults; very few people my age held any such beliefs).
>
>To be cool at that time, you had to do, well, some of the things that
>were mentioned or hinted at in that invitation -- speak poorly, dress
>like a slob, disrespect any authority at the school, get into trouble.
>We had people that would do all manner of stupid things to make
>themselves look cool. This was not a one-race or one-class thing.
>This was something that almost everybody at my school did (including
>me, to some extent). So when I read that party invitation, I did not
>think that they were making fun of black people. I did not think that
>they were making fun of poor people. I thought, ha ha, yeah, I
>remember how stupid I was in Junior High, trying to fit in. To me,
>they were making fun of stereotypes that have been portrayed
>incorrectly in the media and copied by confused adolescents,
>stereotypes which, while they may be more associated with a particular
>culture or class, are certainly not limited to them nor
>all-encompassing of them.
>
>I have no idea what the party organizers were thinking when they wrote
>the invitation, though, knowing some of them, I imagine it was
>something along the lines of "MTV stereotypes are funny". Possibly
>some of them were trying to make fun of themselves.
>
>I think the important thing is context. When my friends make fun using
>derogatory stereotypes about groups that I am a part of, I think it's
>funny because I know that they don't actually believe any of the things
>that they're saying. I thought the party invitation was funny because
>I personally know some of the people involved and know that they are
>not racists. On the other hand, when MIT offered special programs for
>women that seemed to suggest I couldn't get by on my own *because I was
>a woman*, I was offended. If someone I didn't know were to send me an
>AA flier because I'm Irish, I'd be offended. I don't know these
>people, so I can only assume that they actually think that I fit those
>stereotypes. I can therefore imagine why people that did not know the
>authors of the party invitation might find it horribly offensive.
>
>I'm not sure what the "right" thing to do now is, but I wanted to offer
>a little bit of a reasoning as to why people wouldn't have seen this as
>wrong in the first place.
>
>Jen
>
>
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