Questioning Race and Culture

During class today, we strayed far from the story and ended up on the subject of culture. The discussion raised many questions, "Is there a "White Boy" culture?", "What is black culture?", and "Are satirical blogs like Stuff White People Like, which is run by a white man, racist?". These are all difficult, but good questions, and I'll try to answer them in an unbiased way, so you can form your own opinions.

First, and foremost, how do we define culture? Culture is a broad and hard to define term, and Merriam-Webster defines culture as: "The customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group and the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices [of a group]" Of course, no individual will likely embody all the characteristics of their culture, since there are many subcultures even within a larger culture, but that does not mean the person cannot be a significant part of a culture, just because they do not possess all the traits of the culture.

Is there a "White Boy" culture? In the broad sense, yes, but it's not as clearly defined as other cultures, and within it there are many subcultures. It's broadness may be a result of the dominance of Europeans from the early days of the country. Within the larger culture, there is also suburban subculture, surfer subculture, redneck subculture, along with many others. Each of these has their own taste in music, literature, clothing, often have different educational backgrounds, and different ways of speaking. Does this mean there's no such thing as a redneck who listens to classical music or a surfer who says "Y'all", or that they are not a part of the culture if they do? No, but they are likely few and far between, and probably embody most of the other traits of the culture.

What is black culture? African-American culture is hard to define, especially since much of it has become mainstream after the Harlem renaissance. Jazz, Blues, and African-American art and literature became mainstream directly after the Harlem Renaissance. Rock and Hip Hop were later contributions to mainstream music from African-Americans. Soul food has also become popular, with foods like hush puppies, cornbread, and fried chicken becoming commonplace, especially in the south. Hairstyles like dreadlocks and the Afro (derived fom "Afro-American") are also hairstyles used mainly by African-Americans, though they have been adopted by others.

Is the blog Stuff White People Like racist? It's easy to see how it could be seen as racist, it is making generalizations about a group of people, defined by race. It also gives only a narrow view of white culture, focusing on typically wealthy, environmentally and socially conscious, anti-corporate, white Americans, especially those with liberal arts degrees. This is a complex issue, but, especially due to the fact that it was authored by a white man, it seems hard to call it a racist blog, rather than an almost self-deprecating good-natured satire. It's hard to call Jon Stewart an Anti-Semite when he, as a Jewish man, makes jokes about his Jewish heritage almost every night on The Daily Show, and in the same vein, it's hard to look at Stuff White People Like as a racist work.

Do you agree that there is a white culture in America? Is my assessment of Stuff White People Like horribly misguided? I'd love to hear in the comments whatever you have to say about this post.

Narrative Voice and Humor in White Boy Shuffle

One thing that immediately struck me in The White Boy Shuffle was the language. There's an odd contrast between these beautifully crafted sentences and sentences that use a crude street language, sometimes even in the same sentence. One example that comes to mind is when, at dinner his sisters ask if they are adopted, and he comments, "Then Christina, whom I lovingly rechristened with the Native American Fingers-in-Both Nostrils-Thumb-in-Mouth-and-Snot-All-Over-the-Fucking-Place, would pull on the heartstrings and tighten the filial ties." This sort of language is both immensely beautiful and oddly humorous at the same time, which is a testament to his skill as a writer.

Another way the voice strikes me is in the humor of the novel. The entire novel is a weird mix of depressing imagery, flat out funny passages, and dark humor. Through the Prologue and Chapter 1, I see darkly funny passages that I laugh at, and I immediately feel bad for laughing at them. They're the sort of laughs that are made when someone tells an especially racist or sexist joke, and for good reason; the book highlights Gunnar's ancestors, who while they end up in hilarious situations, act as almost a minstrel show, and Paul Beatty almost seems to be daring us to laugh at his characters.

That's not to say that these passages aren't funny, on the contrary, many of them are incredibly ironic and humorous, such as when Swen Kaufman goes and accidentally becomes a slave again, happily dancing and enjoying the space, although he ends up being one of the few men whipped on the plantation, but he continues doing ballet, only to suffer more lashings. On the one hand, it's funny that a free African-American at the time finds a "better" situation in becoming a slave, joyfully working in the fields, yet I feel horrible for laughing at this passage which makes a mockery out of the situation of African-Americans at the time. In the prologue, the narrator describes his planned mass suicide saying, "In glorious defiance of the survival instinct, Negroes stream into Hillside, California, like lemmings. Every day they wishfully look heavenward, peering into the California smog for a metallic gray atomic dot over our natural and processed heads. It will be the Emancipation Disintegration." I admit, I laughed at the Emancipation Disintegration line, which is clever on many levels: the jab at the Emancipation Proclamation, which really didn't free any slaves, how this comments on the situation for African-Americans at the time, the possible prod at segregation and integration, and the obvious pun. At the same time, it feels like a laugh with an asterisk; while it's a funny joke, a large part of me feels terrible laughing at a mass suicide.

At this point in the novel, do you feel the same way about the humor? Do you think I'm a terrible person for laughing at these jokes, or do you think I'm too critical for reading too much into what the author intended to be funny passages?

Does Janie Marry Too Quickly?

One thing I keep noticing as I'm reading Their Eyes Were Watching God is that Janie seems to keep rushing into marriages with people she hardly knows, and they never turn out well. Obviously she didn't rush into the first marriage by herself, and she never wanted to marry Logan, which especially at her age was understandable. However, she meets Jody and quickly falls for him and after only a short time she just leaves Logan and marries Jody. 

Janie and Jody, at least for a short time, seem happy. After a while though, they both get old, the spark falls out of their marriage, and Jody becomes increasingly abusive and stubborn. I can't help but think that if Janie hadn't rushed into the marriage as a solution to her current marriage, she wouldn't have seen some of Jody's poorer traits. I also cannot fathom why she would choose to marry someone else as a solution to her problem, being that she's unhappily married. It seems like the better solution would be to just leave her husband and continue being single. 

After Jody's death, Tea Cake comes into Janie's life. He's goofy, handsome, and charming, and he seems to treat her well, so it makes a lot of sense that she'd fall for him. Yet, after two failed marriages previously, it doesn't really make any sense to again rush into a marriage with a man she barely knows. Sure they get along well now, and he's much better than her previous two husbands, but she only knows him for a few weeks or so before she marries him. That's hardly enough time to decide to spend the rest of their lives together, and they really don't know much about her. In fact, for the first few weeks of the marriage, until the day he brings back the guitar, she doesn't really even trust him, as we see when she's worried he left her. He also doesn't know much about her, as he doesn't know how just how wealthy she is, or that she really would have enjoyed the party, rather than leaving her behind because she's too "high society". We again see lack of trust later when Nunkie blatantly flirts with Tea Cake, and Janie immediately assumes that Tea Cake is cheating on her despite his numerous protests, only much later, and after a fight, convincing her that (truthfully) he wasn't. While their marriage seems fine now, her two failed marriages seem too similar to ignore completely. 

Janie, the Unlikable Protagonist

I have a confession. I don’t like Janie. It seems like a crime to write negatively about an English book, but I just don’t find her an appealing character. I do feel sympathetic to her at times, but, at the same time, I really don’t like her as a character.

            After the scene under the pear tree, Janie is quickly married off to a wealthy, middle aged landowner. I feel sympathetic to her here, especially because of her age. Not only is he much older than her, but she obviously finds him extremely unattractive, and doesn’t love him. I don’t think she should have been forced to marry him at such a young age, when she was still trying to understand her feelings.

Despite the fact that Janie shouldn’t have been married off in the first place, the way she treats Logan right from the beginning is incredibly rude. She starts by calling him names behind his back, saying he looks like “some ole skullhead in de graveyard”. Later, after he calls her spoiled when she won’t work, she says “Ah’m just as stiff as you is stout.”

            Logan’s assertion that Janie is spoiled, while indelicate, seems to be true. While she didn’t love him, after the idea of marriage settled, she was perfectly happy, until she noticed that he stops pampering her by doing all of the work himself, speaking in rhymes to her, and complimenting her hair. She’s only been asked to work, and not been asked to do any more work than she does, yet this is one of the main reasons she tries to get out of the marriage. She seems to have an odd idea of love, in which she doesn’t have to work for anything and she can do whatever she wants. While that sounds nice, love doesn’t pay the bills, and if neither her nor her husband works, they would starve. Logan offers her an opportunity for some luxury at the expense of work. Her other options are less appealing, she could live and work by herself, or she could become a trophy wife, which we later see isn’t as great as she thinks.

            After Janie meets Joe Starks, a rich, young, handsome man, she quickly runs off with him under the promise of marriage, and that he’ll pamper her, and she’ll hardly have to work. She neglects to even tell Logan that she’s leaving him, and for all we know, he never is told. Joe quickly rises to the top of the town they move to and becomes the mayor. Janie tries to speak shortly thereafter, but Joe silences her, claiming women shouldn’t make speeches. I again feel sorry for her, as Joe turns out to be increasingly abusive and sexist. However, Janie’s only job is to work the store, and while this is not a demanding job, she hates the job with a passion.

            Janie’s new husband is much crueler than Logan. The irony is that she would have probably been in a better position with Logan, who, while old, didn’t force her to stay in her “place” or beat her, like Joe. It’s especially hard to feel sympathy for her after hearing her Granny’s story, where she was raised in slavery, worked for no pay, had no land, and was raped by her master. Janie would have had an easy life, and wouldn’t have been treated as poorly if she stayed with Logan. Maybe I’m too quick to judge Janie, as the character we meet at the end is much different than the Janie we know now. But, as it is now, I don’t like her.