Race and Popular Culture This Week

Racialicious posted on the Essence magazine controversy regarding interracial dating and Reggie Bush as cover model. Coming out characteristically unscathed is Kim Kardashian, Bush’s white girlfriend, the socetial prism of race and the places people occupy in the context of institutional racism.

What is worth examining in the piece is how Kardashian’s whiteness individually as well as in relation to collective perception is obscured. Thus, people cite Kim Kardashian as having some Armenian ancestry, without really exploring how socially she’s simply white.

How often do people hear the random inconsistency in the racial narrative as a means of defending a relationship to power? No one likely ever honestly classifies Kim Kardashian as a person of color or a minority of any sort — or frankly anything other than white. Last I checked, what one considers oneself in the lens of race is far less relevant to the discussion than the place one actually occupies in the world in terms of race. Thus a biracial man such as Barack Obama may embrace his diverse heritage all he wants, but in the popular consciousness, he’s Black. To people of color as well as whites, Obama’s status is incredibly important for different reasons. Similarly, a white person may date Black people, embrace cultural norms or manner associated as Black, et al., but they’re still white, largely as a function of societal white supremacy. And they can always choose to date different people, change manner, etc. and still have access to the world in ways people of color often rarely do.

Clearly, my interest isn’t celebrity gossip or who either of them are dating — does anyone honestly give a rat’s ass about Reggie Bush or Kim Kardashian? — but rather the tendency to individualize questions of privilege, instead of taking a deeper look at systemic issues. Racialicious laudably tries to take on some of this, though its credibility is vastly undercut by the Kardashian spin.

Avatar continues to start discussions about racism, imperialism and white privilege. Gathering Forces offers a solid film review that addresses theories the film is racist as well as glamorizing Avatar‘s rebellious themes. “[P]erhaps Jake Sully has what W.E.B. DuBois described as ‘double consciousness’: his mind and body are split and there is a war going on between the oppressor and the oppressed for the fate of his body,” the review reads. “In this sense, Jake Sully starts out as the Navi’i equivalent of an Uncle Tom who is trained in the colonizer’s schools and goes back to use the master’s tools to dominate his people. He is a “blueberry”: blue on the outside, white on the inside. Over time, he needs to exorcise and transform the white part of his mind, which means switching sides and joining the revolt of his people against colonialism. In this sense, the movie could actually be read as a parable for the psychological transformation of colonized peoples.”

Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson have generated much controversy for their recent comments on Haiti. Limbaugh and Robertson got this response from Keith Olbermann [h/t Black Fire, White Fire]

Three Way Fight links to one of the many organizations doing relief support in Haiti.