I enjoy reading. Reading and listening are among those literacy practices that I love the most, but that does not prevent me from enjoying the other aspects of literacy: writing and speaking. All literacy practices are participatory, requiring time and an adherence to rules. Literacy is an ongoing practice.
In The Trouble With Diversity by Walter Benn Michaels, Michaels uses “negrophobia” to describe what a character in a novel may have not struggled with, while introducing her parents to her roommate in college (p. 92). According to Michaels, Charlotte Simmons, who I assume is a white female, may not have struggled with the idea of race, but Ms. Simmons appear to struggle with social class. Ms. Simmons is ashamed of her parent’s social class.
The blog entry is inspired by this.
Being born in Mississippi in the 1970s, the state recorded my birth as “male” and “Negro”: an identity I have struggled to construct a social meaning for, particularly in an era of politicizing ethnic and racial differences. Biologically, I am male, but the identity marker of “Negro” continues to challenge what or how I view myself socially and how to negotiate a social reality of being a Negro in America. Social class is understood. Poverty details my existence until the age of (27) twenty-seven. The working class informs the latter years and informs my immediate present. Unlike the character in the novel, I am not ashamed of social class. I truly embrace what poverty did or did not do, as well as what being apart of what the working class does and will not do. Examining reality through this lens is daunting, yet I remain optimistic in a land of opportunity.
Nevertheless, how might the racial identity of Negro compare with those of African American or Black? Do I assume that these other racial or ethnic identities are the same? Unlike the character in the novel, I struggle with racial meaning and with how to negotiate race, and in some instance gender, among members, perceived to be in one race, and among others who appear to struggle with race or perhaps gender.
Did the racial marker of Negro include my Native American ethnic heritage? When one examines how Negro is socially defined in the U.S., Negro is Black or African-American, not multiethnic. Does race matter? If I were not racially marked at birth, how might my current existence appear different? Well, these questions fall short of reality. The fact is we are defined through a narrow social lens that disappoints.
Where does the disappointment appear? Tragically, in the inability or the difficulty of the Negro to negotiate opportunity through hard work and equal laws. I assume most work hard and believe equal laws equal better social outcomes. Whether unintentional or through negligence, the Negro continues to struggle socially, as well as economically and academically. Why does this struggle continue? What is more important, who is responsible? What is the role of poverty in social, economic, and academic reality of the Negro? What is the role of poverty in social, economic and academic reality of all children?
I accept the current social reality of the Negro: good, bad or indifferent; yet, when I couple the current social reality of the Negro with a the history of injustice in this country, what Ms. Simmons may have not struggle with, may potentially equate what others may struggle with: Negrophobia.
If I were rich and non-Negro, I do not engage in the topic. I am not interested in the topic. I was poor. I am in the working class. Socially, economically and academically, I will not disengage. Using an analogy of President Obama during his campaign, when he mentioned politics was a “full contact sport,” our current social reality requires the Negro to treat opportunity through hard work and equal laws as a “full contact sport.” Fair working salaries and participatory actions require, as its prerequisites, hard work and equal laws: opportunity through degree attainment, working salaries and wealth.
Race may or may not matter, but better social, economic, and academic matters do and an adherence to the latter contributes, potentially, to better social outcomes for all, particularly the Negro. To some, President Obama is hope, but to others, President Obama is fear. How did President Obama ascend to the White House? Did social, economics or academics have a role in President Obama’s ascension to the White House? Yes, so it is plausible to conclude to prevent this from happening again, as a Negro, I expect reasonable instability in better social, economic and academic realities or attainment. Negrophobia suggests no more Obamas without access, so engage.
