Brian A. Wong PSY 426 Cross-Cultural Psychology Professor Pamela L.

L. Mulder Marshall University Tuesday, February 26, 2013 The Effect of Racial Hostility The film White Mans Burden, Ronald Jacksons (1999) article, and Michael DAndreas (1999) article address issues regarding inequality. Only once in the film is there a specific mention of racial inequalities, not enough to make race an issue throughout the whole film. However, the two articles make the issue of race clear. The thing I find bothering is that neither of them addresses is the victim mentality. I have learned that while we may end up in situations that are completely unavoidable, it is our attitude and mentality that can determine whether we stay in such a situation or leave. While I agree with the two authors about the issues that people let themselves be a victim to, I disagree with their approach to address the situation. Racism is an attitude and a behavior; racism is not a physical barrier. Maintaining such attitudes is similar to a brat in a store throwing a tantrum because he blames this on his mom for not buying him that candy bar; with a change in attitude and behavior, his mom is more likely to reward him with candy. In the film, one scene shows Louiss car stalling and he gets out and sits on the curb, outside a bar. A police car pulls up. Two police officers ask him to raise his hands. Instead of cooperating Louis gets defensive, resulting in the police getting physical with him. Upon looking at his drivers license, the two officers apologize for the inconvenience because Louis met the description of a very dangerous suspect. In the police field, officers do not always know what they may encounter so they were taking safety precautions. The crowd that gathered outside of the bar made the situation worse when one person threw a beer bottle at them. In this situation, Louis and the crowd made the situation worse. In 2002, when my parents and I were flying out of Las Vegas, for the very first time the three of us were pulled out of the security line for additional screening. Maybe in that part of the country, many may not see families whose members are of different races. Maybe TSA thought the three of us were

suspicious. We just cooperated and continued to our flight; none of us thought anything of the additional screening. We did not make a big deal of anything, because we did not want to wind up in the evening news. White Mans Burden, I feel, deals more with socioeconomic status rather than race. My hometown, Washington, DC is predominantly African-American. Many of the police officers races are African-American. My neighborhood has had its share of political figures. My street is home to current and former ambassadors. One of my neighbors is former Oakland, California mayor and U.S. Representative Ronald Dellums (portrayed in the Disney film The Color of Friendship) who was involved in ending the apartheid in South Africa. There are a few other residents whose race is African-American in my neighborhood, The Palisades. In the film I did not see much issues regarding racial inequality. The incident and shooting at the burger shack could be interpreted anywhere as lower class people being angry at a local industrialist whose race happen to be different from them. The store where I worked at during summers as a cashier/barista in Georgetown is owned by Thompson Hospitality, the largest minority-owned food service, founded by Warren Thompson (who I had the honor of shaking hands with once) whose race is African-American. The race of a former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools, Michelle Rhee, is of Korean descent. The race of our current police chief, Cathy Lanier, is Caucasian. Where I come from, it is normal to see individuals of a different race be in positions of authority. In junior high school, my class and I would occasionally volunteer at a local homeless kitchen and I saw several people whose races were non-AfricanAmerican. If you were to ask me if there is a reversal with race in the film, my answer would be that after looking at it through a microscope, so to say, I could see it; but to my naked eye, no. While the film may not show any racial bias or hostility, Jacksons (1999) article sure does. I have learned that when individuals emphasize their racial differences in their lives, that is when they may perceive racism more often. As Jackson matured, he realized he could cope with racism by not letting it bother him. At some point, I actually became immune to these racially charged negative

comments that while the comments still bothered him, he no longer [feels] deflated as a result of hearing them (p. 5). However, he cringes when he hears people say things such as, I dont see coloryoure just human or theres only one race the human race or even My best friend is black (p. 6). There is a paradox: Jackson identifies with his race and says he does not let comments bother him but yet he cringes when he hears comments relating to his race. He also reacts to the stereotypes of basketball players; people ask him if he plays basketball and he reacts by saying Because I am black and tall (p. 6). Over summer 2012 back home, at my summer job, I offered two of our regular customers a piece of watermelon my supervisor was slicing up for us. When I offered a watermelon slice to the one whose race is African-American, he said, Contrary to popular belief and talked about the stereotype of black and watermelons and I offered it to the other customer, his colleague, one and hes South American. I did not know that stereotype until then. In fall 2012, I wrote a paper on marriages of a different race in SOC 311 Deviance and Social Control (Wong, 2012). Couples who do emphasize race in their relationship have a different experience. According to Childs (2005), couples who emphasized the role of race in their own identities as individuals and couples characterized others in society as still harboring negative views of interracial relationships (p. 39). The couples in her research who do emphasize race have received unwanted responses, such as disgust. For example, Jill and Lee recounted incidents of people staring at them, from a white woman who became disgusted when she saw them embrace in a retail store to a black man who taunted them while they ate at an outdoor restaurant (Childs, 2005, p. 39). One of my cousins aunts, Jean Dere (pronounced Deer; personal correspondence Thursday, October 25, 2012), was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area in California and is the daughter of immigrants from China. She was married to Will, who is African-American, who grew up on the East coast. Their marriage of nineteen years ended in divorce. Dere grew up in Chinatown in San Francisco. There, very little English is spoken. Her family later moved to a neighborhood near Fishermans Wharf where she interacted with people of different races. The isolation from other races

was broken, she says. She transferred to another school where there was diversity. The student body was mixed with Italians, Filipinos, Blacks, and whites. Before meeting her husband, Will had dated women who were Caucasian and Chinese and he grew up in a predominately white neighborhood. With Dere and Will, cultural/racial differences were emphasized in their relationship. Both she and Will watched foreign films associated with their respective races. I watched Black movies I would probably not have watched if I was not married to Will. In turn, he watched Chinese movies that he would never have watched if he was not with me. She adds: In the marriage I kept my own identity as Asian but I also considered myself to be multicultural and an internationalist. I think that if Will and I had children then I would take on more of a bi -racial identity since the children would have been bi-racial. The fact that I spoke Chinese and maintained contact with my own family and community made my identity as Chinese and Asian very strong. Again, they emphasized their racial differences. Our marriage was interracial, she says. We both became more multicultural.I [also] think Will was more sensitive about how people viewed him as a Black man, with the stereotype of how Blacks are frequently presented as criminals in the general media. She says Will often talked to her about how others reacted in public to his presence. Dere recounts one time they were in a bookstore. He mentioned to her that one of the employees was following him around, out of fear that he might steal something. She insisted that Will ignore them but he would get angry and leave. I feel that his leaving the store was giving in to discrimination and that he [should have stayed] in the store to look around as much as he wanted, Dere says. For someone like me who loved books, it became a problem in our relationship since he was often uncomfortable about going into any bookstore in general. Dere went to Chinese school, where she was taught the culture and long history of the Chinese. Both her teachers and parents reinforced to her the idea of being proud of being Chinese. She did face bullying and discrimination, which led her to feeling ashamed. However, that changed when she went

to college and got involved with Asian American studies. That helped establish my identity very firmly and in a very positive way, she says. For Dere, she did receive disapproval from her coworkers when she was working in a pharmacy in Oakland, but not from colleagues when she began working on the other side of the bay in San Francisco. Her mom was the most openly opposed to her marriage to Will. Will had also experienced some disapproval at work, she says. One of Wills bosses openly spoke out against mixed marriages when he told her his wife was Chinese. (Note that Will was the one who pointed out the racial differences in this situation that resulted in his bosss hostility.) They would occasionally hear nasty comments when riding the bus together. Jackson refers to code switching, the alteration of behavior out of personal necessity due to some external influence (p. 6). He says that whites have been protected from a code-switching mandate. He writes, I think that because they do notperpetuate it individually, it is difficult to fathom how it takes place (p. 6, emphases added). He also writes that many whites dont claim a specific cultural heritage (emphases added) and whiteness never has to be defined but blackness must be defended (p. 6). I do not claim a specific cultural heritage; I do not think my culture needs to be defended and I hardly ever feel that people are racist toward me. Remember what Childs writes about those who emphasize race in their identities. Jackson does not realize what he is saying. He writes, As we professionals become aware of how our own biases contribute to a racially hostile social climate, then we are moving that much closer to eliminating these biases from the human equation (p. 6). Again he writes many whites dont claim a specific cultural heritage (emphases added) and whiteness never has to be defined but blackness must be defended (p. 6). I see biasness. Jackson did record how he reacts when people ask him if he plays basketball: Because I am tall and Black. I interpret that as racially hostile, since he brought up race, and he reacted to a simple question with biasness from his point of view. Dere and her marriage to Will emphasized their racial/cultural differences in their marriage. Will was bothered in

that bookstore, and to me he was letting that image of black people as criminals perpetuate in his mind. I also interpret this as racial hostility and bias. From Childs research, when couples that did not emphasize racial differences would hear racist remarks from others, they did not interpret those remarks as being directed to them or their relationship (Childs, 2005). When Jackson heard the basketball comment, he interpreted that comment as being directed to him or his race. Emphasizing race can lead to hostility. Recently, at Duke University, a fraternity was hosting a party and advertised the party with an advertisement that showed Asian stereotypes (Parke, 2012). The Asian American student group on campus was outraged. It is my theory that if these students did not obsess over or perpetuate the cultural/racial differences, then they might not have had the level of outrage they displayed. My race is Asian and I do recognize the racial differences at times. However, I do not culturally identify with the Asian culture. The recent reality show of West Virginia people have several West Virginians upset (many whose race is Caucasian) that it does not accurately represent them. Now, would a Caucasian in New England be upset? Probably not because they are not from West Virginia. So the incident at Duke University does not affect me because it affected people of a different culture. DAndrea (1999) talks about how his racist attitudes were socialized from childhood. He grew up during the 1950s, during a time when the rate of immigration was not what it is today. He remembered his uncles attitude of African-Americans. His uncles views were similar to others in their working-class community. Due to the constant mingling with individuals who shared this view, DAndrea began to believe those of his race were superior. With these views, his family was also against dating and marriage with African-Americans. In his childhood, anti-miscegenation seemed to him a reasonable life lesson (p. 39). Like Jackson in high school, DAndrea became aware of racial issues during high school. From making friends with schoolmates of different races, he began using what he learned from his family to evaluate his heuristics of people of different races. In these situations with these schoolmates, he was

accused of not comprehending the impact of oppression and racism. His friends were also racially hostile, when they asked him, Why do you think that your White friends and you were able to get those summer jobs? (p. 40; emphasis added). (In my experience race had nothing to do with my getting my summer job as a cashier. I noticed I was the only one who came to the job interview in a suit. My dad did the same when he got his summer job at a gas station.) Both Jackson and DAndrea both focus on awareness of racism. Both of them focus on defensiveness and hostility. The bias and hostility resides around the differences. With Jackson, it is with blackness needing to be defended and DAndrea it is from his familys views that led to see that racism is a big part of oppression or unfairness. However, I have seen that race is not the issue as to why people stay oppressed or in a bad situation. My paternal grandparents were immigrants from China and were Chinese refugees from communism, as my dad has told me. They settled in Belmont, MA (a town associated with people of the higher class) and started a dry cleaning business. My grandparents also changed their last name on paper to avoid issues with the government regarding immigration, which made them very skeptical of the government. My dad is the youngest of four children. Neither my grandparents had any academic education and could hardly read English. They did face some oppression due to the racial differences and they did not live in a Chinese community. However, they did not let that bother them and they did not blame others for their problems. My grandparents encouraged my dad and his siblings to work hard in school. In elementary school, teachers would hit children who were slow or who could not read so my dad and uncle and aunts just worked hard so that wouldnt happen to them. They all worked hard in school and went to great colleges for undergrad and graduate: University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Bryn Mawr College, Tufts University, Stanford University, and University of California Los Angeles two of them now tenured professors. At the last high school reunion my dad attended in summer 2008 in Belmont, he realized that a fellow church member (whose race is Caucasian and grew up in the wealthy part of Belmont) went to Belmont High School, too. This classmate works for the

Department of Defense in a very high-ranking position; my dad and he would often have lunch together when my dad was working for the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon. It was the attitudes of my dad and his siblings that got them out of the poor living situation that they grew up in and to where they are today. My mom, who was Caucasian, was raised in southern rural Minnesota in Mankato, the older of two daughters. My maternal grandparents were not supportive of college and desired for my mom to marry out of high school and follow in her moms footsteps in being a homemaker. My mom did not want that. However, my mom did not let my grandparents attitude keep her from getting out of that situation. In 1974, my mom got her Bachelor of Music degree from Mankato State College and in 1974 joined the U.S. Army Band Pershings Own, which paid for her tuition at Catholic University where she earned her Master of Music degree in 1983. My moms motivation and attitude helped her leave the life she did not want. Both my parents ended up in situations that were better than before. My paternal grandparents may have been oppressed by race but that did not stop my aunts and uncle from overcoming their issues. I can also provide an African-American example. My school, The Lab School of Washington (LSW), is a private grades 1-12 school for students with learning differences. Each year the school features and awards notable people who had to overcome their learning differences and these Outstanding Learning Disabled Achievers come to the school for a large Q&A panel Football great Neil Smith, and actor Harry Belafonte, a past awardee. These people grew up before there was special education program and had to get through school on their own. I remember meeting Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, who is well-known for separating Siamese Twins. He worked hard in college and in medical school, overcoming the attitude by others that because of his race he couldnt do well. He proved the school and professors wrong. Carson was raised by a single mom, who encouraged his learning and helped him overcome his academic

struggles. Carson went on to attend Yale for undergrad and then University of Michigan for medical school. Another example is Christopher Gardner, founder of stockbrokerage firm Gardner Rich & Co. The film The Pursuit of Happyness showed his struggles with homelessness. He worked hard each day and never let himself become discouraged. He even motivated his son to strive for the best. It was his attitude and motivation that overcame class barriers and maybe even racial barriers. At both my high schools, I was exposed to people of different cultures and races. At my first high school, LSW, diversity was very much appreciated and celebrated. It was also part of the curriculum. I learned about racism. One time during student council elections, a student drew a swastika on a poster of the student who was running, and that student was of the Jewish faith. The high school division coordinator saw this and said all campaign pictures and posters were to be taken down and no election until further notice. He also took away a few other privileges. He said that regardless of who the swastika was targeted to, it would not have impacted his decision. Some of my good friends during my time at LSW were African-American. I agreed that racism was historically an issue for them. But I took away a part of that racism by being their friend. When I was applying to colleges, I knew my academic and test scores were not really that great. However, my dad encouraged me to use my talents as an accordion player to show my uniqueness. If I had let my low scores keep me from applying to colleges, I would not be here. If I let my Aspergers diagnosis keep me from being officers of two student organizations, I would not achieve anything outside of academics. If my dad and Dr. Carson let the racial attitudes of others keep them from achieving their goals, I do not know where they would have been. I recognize we have racial differences. I agree that that there is some racism in our world. I realize my views might mirror DAndreas views when offering alternative explanations. But the experience of my parents has confirmed my views. It is attitude and a victim mentality that keep people from overcoming their situations. When I attended the Vagina Monologues, I learned that some

in the cast had been sexually abused or raped during the childhood. However, what I do admire in them is that they are not blaming what happened to them or letting their experiences control them. They didnt adopt the victim mentality. If we focus on the racial differences, I feel we are bound to perpetuate the problems that still exist. From my SOC 200 class in Fall 2009 with Okey Napier, I learned that to an extent, we will never fully eradicate racism. Racism is an attitude and behavior. Racism is not a physical barrier. We have control over our emotions and thoughts. We need to stop adopting the attitude and mentality that racism is a physical, tangible barrier. It is time to stop acting like a loud brat begging for candy from his dad in a store, blaming dad for our tantrum because he wont buy us that candy bar, and begin behaving like adults.

References Childs, E.C. (2005). Navigating interracial borders: black-white couples and their social worlds. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. DAndrea, M. (1999). The evolution and transformation of a White racist: A personal narrative. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77(1), 38-42. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02414.x Jackson, R.L. (1999). Mommy, theres a nigger at the door. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77(1), 4-6. doi:10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02401.x Parke, G. (2013, Tuesday, February 5). Duke Kappa Sigma party ignites firestorm of criticism. Duke Chronicle. dukechronicle.com/article/duke-kappa-sigma-party-ignites-firestorm-criticism Wong, B.A. (2012). Couples and marriages of a different race. Academia.edu.

http://marshall.academia.edu/BrianWong