It's Not Just a Costume

It’s that time of year when kids get dressed up as their favorite characters from movies, television, and books.  They descend on America’s neighborhoods with parents and guardians in tow in the hunt for the perfect stash of candy.  I fondly remember dressing up and doing the same thing with my parents.  As this cherished tradition comes around every year we see some very creative costumes emerge.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the way the innocence and fun that Halloween brought us as kids, now contains a sobering reminder of a social ill that plagues our society.

I won’t sit behind a keyboard vilifying those who have decided to don blackface as a part of their Halloween costume because there are countless other blogs you can go to if that’s what you want to read.  While I believe that it is offensive for people to dress in blackface I also believe that there is a larger picture that needs to be viewed.  Also I believe that there is a more fruitful approach that can be taken before we simply attack those that are ignorant of the ramifications of their costumes.

I’ve done a lot of trainings, and led many discussions about diversity and cultural sensitivity.  Through these experiences I’ve come to find that many people (of all ethnicities) believe we live in a post racial world.  We don’t see the things in our day-to-day lives that we see when we look at newsreels of the 60’s and 70’s so there are many people that believe that we are somehow safe from racism now.  It’s far from the truth, but it’s from these beliefs that people choose blackface as part of a Halloween costume because “it doesn’t matter anymore”, or “I’ve got (insert any ethnicity here) friends so what I do can’t be seen as racist”.

These thoughts are proof that we ALL, not just white people, not just blacks, etc. have failed to educate our society and that we have a lot of work to do.  We tell people it’s wrong, and jump on a bandwagon about how they should be sorry for their costume by saying it’s racist and offensive, but often I don’t believe we go deep enough into why.  Despite the inevitable that some people will do it for mal intent, we all as a society need to continue the conversations beyond it being wrong and educate people on why it’s wrong.  Engage people who aren’t aware of why it’s so wrong in a meaningful dialogue about what blackface is, what it was historically and why it is still offensive today. 

Quite often people are scared to engage in meaningful dialogues so it’s a challenge, but it makes it that much more crucial to have them around these topics.  People are afraid to reveal what they don’t know and sometimes we aren’t even aware what we don’t know; this is true for all people of all ethnicities.  That is why when issues such as blackface costumes come up we must use them to come together and use it as an opportunity to learn from each other and talk about why it is offensive. 

Embracing a solution-oriented position I can only hope that the knowledge shared will spread.  In doing so I’m not encouraging people that are offended to negate the gravity of the situation, nor downplay emotions about it.  Instead I’m encouraging them to channel it all to do something positive to help prevent it from happening in the future and raise awareness.   If you aren’t aware of why it’s so offensive, hopefully the links below can shed some light on the topic and help you have your own informed conversations about blackface.   

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/sfeature/sf_minstrelsy.html

http://blackhistory.com/content/61585/blackface

What's all the whining about? She is American

So in case you haven’t heard, there’s a new Miss America, Nina Davuluri.  Admittedly, I was hesitant to write about the topic in this week’s blog for multiple reasons, but primarily, due to story fatigue.  It’s the reason I’ve avoided comments on topics like Miley Cyrus twerking at the VMAs, or Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines being labeled misogynistic.  Those articles have flooded the internet and the last thing I ever want you to do as my reader is say to yourself, “Ugh, another blog about that!?!”  I could probably spin some intricate opinionated tale about twerking to fit my blog site’s purpose but I didn’t start my blog as a venting session on pop culture, so you won’t get that here.

Yet as I was working on what was supposed to be this week’s blog, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ‘non-controversy, controversy’ surrounding the new Miss America because of her Indian descent.  Through the years I’ve done numerous training sessions on diversity, inclusion, and cultural sensitivity.  I’ve taught that a constant commitment must be made to do something instead of remaining quiet when things like this happen.  So I decided to indulge the muse, put what I preached into action, (press save on the other blog) and go with it.

You may or may not be outraged at the inundation of derogatory comments on social media outlets regarding her and her ethnicity after she won.  I won’t judge you either way because this is not my pedestal to go on a tirade about how narrow minded these people are, or sit on my self-righteous high horse to cast judgment about those who have decided to use social media to out themselves as culturally ignorant.

So what’s the point?  The point is, this is yet another sobering reminder that we have a very long way to go in our country before we fully embody and live out the principles that our nation has been founded upon.  We also have a long way to go in educating quite a few of our common collective about being culturally aware of other people’s ethnicities, knowing the differences of ethnicities, and being able to celebrate them.  This outpouring of insulting and offensive comments is the manifestation of a sector of self-proclaimed “true Americans” who don’t know a “true American” when they see one. 

So let’s start there.  It is comical that someone would challenge that she isn’t a real American.  If anything she IS a real American.  Our nation was created by people coming to a new land in search of new opportunity and a new life.  I don’t know her family’s entire story, but I’d guess that someone in her family came here in search of new opportunity and a new life so she is a great representation of America.  You and other pageant winners represent what America is about too, it just might have been a few more generations prior, or it’s actually you who came here in search of new opportunity and a new life.  When you read what is inscribed at the feet of the Statue of Liberty (FYI Lady Liberty came here from somewhere else so detractors might not consider her American) it’s an inscribed welcome mat saying "America is the land of opportunity, come here and prosper".  Therefore it’s almost perfect that Miss New York is our new Miss America and the source of creating a dialogue about what a true American is.  Not only that, but her platform is “celebrating diversity through cultural competency”, and cultural incompetency was the basis for the hateful statements. 

The new Miss America, Nina Davuluri did a Bollywood dance during her talent portion, exhibiting and exposing a wide audience to an aspect of her cultural heritage, Miss Florida wore a knee brace, and Miss Kansas had tattoos and was in the military.  Admittedly I don’t typically watch the pageant but I would be willing to bet that this was the closest that the Miss America pageant has ever come to truly showcasing what American women are, diverse, beautiful and with imperfections.  It finally feels like we’ve moved at least one step in the direction of not making women feel that any sort of blemish or not fitting a cultural mold has damned them to the basement of beauty.  We’ve brought these women to the forefront and said look they’re culturally diverse, get hurt, and get tattoos, and they are still beautiful.  Have you walked around our cities in America?  These are our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, and nieces.  I’m not ignorant to the discourse of body image surrounding pageantry because we still have a ways to go in that department with these pageants, but still this ultimately is a step in the right direction.

We are a culturally and ethnically diverse America.  It’s important that we move away from defining Americans as if there is one true phenotypically and culturally describable person of what makes a true American.  The problem with trying to define it as a specific entity is to ignore how culturally rich our nation is, and has been, and put people in boxes that none of us fit in.  I applaud Miss Davuluri for expressing an aspect of her culture through her talent portion and for being gracious enough to respond to the detractors with saying “I have to rise above that [comments about her]”, “I always viewed myself as first and foremost American”.  I’m also grateful for her winning the pageant and serving as someone who is challenging the stereotypes of defining an American and serving as a catalyst for discussion about this topic.