Inner thinking of blood and race!
I have just seen the fascinating programme by channel 4 titled "100% english". Basically the programme tackles the preconcieved perceptions we all have about race and ethnicity. It does so by interviewing a group of rather ordinary "english" people on their perceptions on what being english is about. I must say, i whilst i wasn't particularly surprised at the replies given; i was taken aback by the outcomes of the programme.
One of the characters included was a bigoted so called english woman who runs a charity of ethnic english people. Turns out she has romany gypsy ancestry. Perhaps if she had not threatened to sue channel 4 the whole episode would have gone away!! Then there was the lady from kent who sighed with relief when she found out she didn't have any genetic references to sub-saharan Africa. How do we see ourselves? How do we see race? In retrospect, i see how easily i have fallen prey to this essentialist thinking on race and identity. I remember coming across Jeremy of Naijablog's web page and finding it difficult to reconcile his caucasian picture to his identity stamp of english/yoruba hybrid! Of course most would react that way; perhaps this explains why he is often misrepresented as racist or imperialist when he voices his views on the shortcomings of Nigerian soceity. Is his being white a hinderance to his being Nigerian? Is being Nigerian being black? Does it work the same way with Immigrants in this society; voicing their views and their rights? With reference to blogging, does it in anyway explain my preconcieved ideas of my fav blogs..ie everchange as a young black woman and eshuneutics as a distinguished older black male?
My brother is mixed race. Up until univerisity, My brother might have been black in my eyes. Why? Is his being Nigerian/yoruba contrary to our stereotypical image of a mixed race kid? In retrospect, there are two types of mixed race kids in Nigeria. There are the ason (ie yoruba word for posh) ones who assume their white identity and accentuate it by speaking in a certain way, growing their hair and associating with only a certain kind of people. Then there are the kpaki ones(more hardcore and more fun really) who could not care less about their heritage; and in most cases are more localised than "ethnically pure" people. I notice how the ason ones come across as better at eveything. Better spoken, rich, better looking, etc...is that how we as a people see the other side? Does this explain the failure in our system? Perhaps for our leaders, the west is prosperous and white, Africa is poor and black? food for thought?
I was recently engaged in a class discussion on race and ethnicity. My tutor, the African American GJ i blogged about earlier posed the question, how would you deal with it if you suddenly found out that you were not so ethnically pure? Of course all the white students all declared that they would not care less...which somehow did not ring true. How would you deal with it if you suddenly found out that you had chinese or Iranian heritage?how?
One of the characters included was a bigoted so called english woman who runs a charity of ethnic english people. Turns out she has romany gypsy ancestry. Perhaps if she had not threatened to sue channel 4 the whole episode would have gone away!! Then there was the lady from kent who sighed with relief when she found out she didn't have any genetic references to sub-saharan Africa. How do we see ourselves? How do we see race? In retrospect, i see how easily i have fallen prey to this essentialist thinking on race and identity. I remember coming across Jeremy of Naijablog's web page and finding it difficult to reconcile his caucasian picture to his identity stamp of english/yoruba hybrid! Of course most would react that way; perhaps this explains why he is often misrepresented as racist or imperialist when he voices his views on the shortcomings of Nigerian soceity. Is his being white a hinderance to his being Nigerian? Is being Nigerian being black? Does it work the same way with Immigrants in this society; voicing their views and their rights? With reference to blogging, does it in anyway explain my preconcieved ideas of my fav blogs..ie everchange as a young black woman and eshuneutics as a distinguished older black male?
My brother is mixed race. Up until univerisity, My brother might have been black in my eyes. Why? Is his being Nigerian/yoruba contrary to our stereotypical image of a mixed race kid? In retrospect, there are two types of mixed race kids in Nigeria. There are the ason (ie yoruba word for posh) ones who assume their white identity and accentuate it by speaking in a certain way, growing their hair and associating with only a certain kind of people. Then there are the kpaki ones(more hardcore and more fun really) who could not care less about their heritage; and in most cases are more localised than "ethnically pure" people. I notice how the ason ones come across as better at eveything. Better spoken, rich, better looking, etc...is that how we as a people see the other side? Does this explain the failure in our system? Perhaps for our leaders, the west is prosperous and white, Africa is poor and black? food for thought?
I was recently engaged in a class discussion on race and ethnicity. My tutor, the African American GJ i blogged about earlier posed the question, how would you deal with it if you suddenly found out that you were not so ethnically pure? Of course all the white students all declared that they would not care less...which somehow did not ring true. How would you deal with it if you suddenly found out that you had chinese or Iranian heritage?how?
posted by internationalhome @ 1:29 pm
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