In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by philosophers Subrena Smith and David Livingstone Smith to discuss the challenge and necessity of abolishing race. Subrena tells her story of moving from Jamaica to the deeply racialized culture of the USA and explains why she is Race Queer instead of Black. We discuss the many ways the ideology of race obscures actual human diversity, the difference between race and ethnicity, the similarities between race and witchcraft, and much more.
OMG. I'm also reminded that this also goes hand in hand with illness. Specifically the AIDS epidemic. I was working with a customer and out of the blue she said "My husband died of AIDS years ago. It was heartbreaking to go through and watch him die slowly and painfully. What was even more heartbreaking was to watch absolutely everyone distance themselves from him and I. Friends, family acquaintances all gone because of what they perceived as a pariah's disease." Then she said "I lost my faith in humanity. That was 30 years ago." Humans can be savages when they are subconsciously triggered.
I'll never forget my hit-home experience of how my melanin is experienced in the U.S.. I was quite young and using my real Mexican name on my resume. I sent out about hundred resumes over a couple of months. I did not get any callbacks or responses. My white friend reviewed my resume and the first and only thing she said was "You need to change your last name to "Charles." Your current last name sounds way too Mexican.
I made no other changes to my resume besides changing my last name to "Charles." I sent out 10 resumes the next week and I got 4 responses back.
I remember my tenth-grade, white teacher saying "Sorry but if you are a brown and female in a America, life is going to be harder for you. Period. He didn't even say anything else. At the time I felt hurt about that comment in some way. Now I look back on that comment and remember if fondly. He just put that comment out there to let us brown girls know. As if to say "This is how it is. Fucking deal with it. Work it out."
Oh and another thing. In the book House of Leaves, pg.161-162 MZD describes Johnny meeting a woman named Tatiana. He mentions her, they meet and they have sex. He describes Tatiana extremely well and it's not until after Johnny has sex with her that he mentions that her skin color. Black. I was ashamed at how much my mind skipped a beat at the idea of her not being white. I think he did this deliberately and it was an interesting experience for me.
You'll notice racism in video games too. When she talks about Oooga Booga tribes the article on racism in video games completely popped into my mind. The article talked about how the white hero of the game is often met by thinly vailed monsters or aliens on other plains or worlds that are thinly vailed racist characters of other races. Example: An alien with slanted eyes and a kimono or some reptile in feathers and war paint. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/21/confronting-racial-bias-in-video-games/
Absolutely. You'll get to my discussion about race in fantasy in sci-fi later in the interview, and how when they even try to be anti-racist they fall flat on their face, because they reify races as essentialized others.
OMG. I'm also reminded that this also goes hand in hand with illness. Specifically the AIDS epidemic. I was working with a customer and out of the blue she said "My husband died of AIDS years ago. It was heartbreaking to go through and watch him die slowly and painfully. What was even more heartbreaking was to watch absolutely everyone distance themselves from him and I. Friends, family acquaintances all gone because of what they perceived as a pariah's disease." Then she said "I lost my faith in humanity. That was 30 years ago." Humans can be savages when they are subconsciously triggered.
I'll never forget my hit-home experience of how my melanin is experienced in the U.S.. I was quite young and using my real Mexican name on my resume. I sent out about hundred resumes over a couple of months. I did not get any callbacks or responses. My white friend reviewed my resume and the first and only thing she said was "You need to change your last name to "Charles." Your current last name sounds way too Mexican.
I made no other changes to my resume besides changing my last name to "Charles." I sent out 10 resumes the next week and I got 4 responses back.
Holy shit. Thanks for sharing. American society is fucked.
I remember my tenth-grade, white teacher saying "Sorry but if you are a brown and female in a America, life is going to be harder for you. Period. He didn't even say anything else. At the time I felt hurt about that comment in some way. Now I look back on that comment and remember if fondly. He just put that comment out there to let us brown girls know. As if to say "This is how it is. Fucking deal with it. Work it out."
Oh and another thing. In the book House of Leaves, pg.161-162 MZD describes Johnny meeting a woman named Tatiana. He mentions her, they meet and they have sex. He describes Tatiana extremely well and it's not until after Johnny has sex with her that he mentions that her skin color. Black. I was ashamed at how much my mind skipped a beat at the idea of her not being white. I think he did this deliberately and it was an interesting experience for me.
https://ia802506.us.archive.org/10/items/house-of-leaves-by-mark-z.-danielewski/House%20of%20Leaves%20by%20Mark%20Z.%20Danielewski.pdf
You'll notice racism in video games too. When she talks about Oooga Booga tribes the article on racism in video games completely popped into my mind. The article talked about how the white hero of the game is often met by thinly vailed monsters or aliens on other plains or worlds that are thinly vailed racist characters of other races. Example: An alien with slanted eyes and a kimono or some reptile in feathers and war paint. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/21/confronting-racial-bias-in-video-games/
Absolutely. You'll get to my discussion about race in fantasy in sci-fi later in the interview, and how when they even try to be anti-racist they fall flat on their face, because they reify races as essentialized others.
Oh Im there now. That type of story framework is ever present and it would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.