FACEBOOK DEBATES
CULTURAL SELF-IDENTIFICATION IN 21ST CENTURY AMERICA

I was particularly articulate tonight on a facebook thread dealing with issues of ethnicity and pluralism that I don't talk about much here. So I figured, this is a decent post for Real Art.

Background: I work with two individuals who have more than a little Hawaiian blood running through their veins. And when I say Hawaiian, I mean the indigenous people of Hawaii. One takes her heritage very seriously; the other doesn't. Apparently, she's taken him to task for this a bit, and the feud spilled over onto everybody's favorite social networking site.

As usual, I just couldn't keep my mouth shut:

If it's possible to put aside the bad blood, so to speak, for a moment, this is a really fascinating and important topic: how we ethnically define ourselves in an overall culture that is, at this point, corporate driven and rammed down our throats by mass media. It's not even about whiteness anymore; white culture in the US used to be subdivided regionally, and even that's disappearing. So being a Southerner means a lot less than it used to mean--indeed, the bizarre fits and stops of the GOP primary this year are something of a last gasp for white Southerners.

I learned a Cajun English dialect a few years back for a play I did at LSU, and in my research I learned that not only has Cajun French disappeared almost entirely, but that the Cajun way of life is nearly as dead. So what does it mean to be Cajun in 2012? I don't know. I have enough Choctaw blood in me to be recognized by the Choctaw nation; indeed, my uncle, who long ago changed his name to Lucas Greywolf, has spent many years living on a reservation. But I was raised as a white suburbanite. What does my Choctaw heritage mean? I have no idea. On the other hand, I've known about my Indian roots all my life, and it has been a semi-important part of my personal identity, just because.

For that matter, is our President black or white? I mean, he obviously identifies as black, but he was raised by a white mother, and is clearly very comfortable within white culture. And is Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who may very well be the most conservative member on the court, and who has for years consistently ruled in ways that hurt African Americans, really a black man? I mean, sure he is, and he self-identifies that way, but a lot of people, black and white, take issue with that.

In the end, ethnic self-identification is in great flux right now, and sometimes a dangerous mine field because shit like this MATTERS and there's a lot on the line for pretty much everybody. There are no easy answers here. Culture and ethnicity are IMPORTANT. And we, as a society, continue to be pretty bad in our ability to discuss it constructively.

At this point, my buddy who was under attack for not being Hawaiian enough chimed in:

Exactly. I think it's fair to say that those who cling tightest to these things are well....the most backwards.

To which I responded:

I agree with your last statement to an extent, but I don't want to delegitimize $$$'s sense of valuing her culture, either. I think fucking with you for how you self-identify is unfair; this is ultimately a matter of deep individuality. But I also think, if we can remove the personal attacks, that $$$ has a point, that has less to do with you as a person, and more to do with American society more generally.

My buddy again

We're taught as children to be "colorblind". But nobody actually "walks the walk". Well, I choose to actually see it that way. I want humanity to be ONE people so that we can move forward. Evolve.

Me again:

Ah, but colorblindness is virtually impossible, which creates a massive paradox in the general understanding of how we're all supposed to get along. I prefer diversity and pluralism, an overall culture composed of many cultures, such that we can value our differences while celebrating our common humanity. That's one people, too.

And there you have it, some of my thoughts on pluralism and culture. I think it's safe to say that, as the white demographic gradually becomes only the largest American minority among many minorities, this issue is going to become more, not less, contentious.

Get your thoughts in order now. Otherwise, you'll be debating without a net.

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