Rant on Overdog racism

[Tabouli]

Ooo, extensive replies to my post!  Always gratifying.  Thanks guys.

Ebony:
> I liked *Gone With The Wind* very much until someone (my mother IIRC, 
and then Grandma jumped into the discussion) sat me down and pointed 
out all the reasons why I should not like it.  I'm just strange, I 
guess... I don't think I've ever met a black American in RL who has 
anything but contempt for both novel and movie.
(...)
> I'm no authority on this but I do think that 
readers and writers of color often find themselves on the fringes of 
metanarrative.  As readers, we run into identity issues<

I don't think liking GWTW makes you strange at all, but then again, I wouldn't.  Perilous thing to say, especially for someone with my job and background, but reading a story presented from the wealthy white South's perspective, I have no trouble at all in identifying with it.  This does not mean that I endorse it, just that I understand it.  One of the things that really needs to be hammered home in the cross-cultural area is the difference between *understanding* something and *justifying* it.

If it's any comfort, Ebony, I have spent over ten years arguing on behalf of no less than Afrikaner South Africans, to the horror and disbelief of all and sundry, who think that understanding their perspective is tantamount to promoting Apartheid (and yes, I would have been classed as coloured under Apartheid).  Let me explain, lest people are flinching already.  At 15, I started writing to an Afrikaner guy, and my merry classmates screeched that this was despicable, shocking, how could I, I should stop at once, because even writing to such a person was supporting racism.  I would vainly try to argue that being a white South African did *not* necessarily mean he was evil, and that yes, I had detected some (fairly subtle) "racism" of sorts in his letters, but it was the sort of sub-conscious, taken-for-granted racism you would of course have if you'd been raised in a society with those values!  (are you *defending* him not questioning those values?  Any nice white South Africans would have LEFT South Africa!  they shrieked).  But he *does* question Apartheid, and of course Apartheid is abominable, but does that mean we shouldn't understand both sides of the story when finding a way to end it?? After all, who has the power, who has to be convinced to negotiate??  I would protest in despair.  The cries of horror only grew louder.

Ten years later, on my way around the world, last stop South Africa, the chorus of protest continued.  Time and time again I had the same conversation.  "South Africa?  Why are you going *there*?"  people gasped.  You'd have thought I was going to a Pornography Convention or something.  "I'm going to meet my South African penfriend," I would reply.  And their immediate question was inevitably "Is he black or white?"  When I replied "white", the more knowledgeable of them would add "British or Afrikaner?", and the less knowledgeable would just cut to the chase with "Is he racist??" or even "Well, won't that be a problem??" Occasionally there'd also be a "Well I suppose everything's all right there now" (the Bad Guys have been overthrown, the Good Guys are now in charge, ahh, all nice and simple).

Honestly!  Now, if I were to tell them I had an American penfriend, do you think they'd have asked if he was black or white?  And assuming they did, if I'd said "black", do you think they would have said "Does he sing gangsta rap, live in a ghetto and deal drugs?"  Of course they bloody wouldn't, that would be racist!  Yet somehow it's OK to make sweeping negative assumptions about a South African purely on the basis of his skin colour, because that skin colour is white.

It's the Overdog Syndrome at work yet again!  I've noticed that a lot of people have this view that it's OK to be racist about white people.  You should (or rather shouldn't) hear some white Australians on the subject of America.  Americans are Our Race, so they have free rein to be as rude about them as they like.  I don't want to imply that it's really nasty (more of a resentful undercurrent in a minority of people), but I have counselled a couple of (white) American exchange students who were getting very upset about this, and even more so because people weren't taking them seriously, because intra-racial prejudice doesn't count.

My ability to explore and identify with one person's perspective and then turn around and do exactly the same thing with the person having a non-reconcilable argument with them (honed through my role as go-between in cross-cultural cross-religious parental wars from a young age, as I once mentioned) is both my greatest blessing and my greatest curse.  Someone once told me that I was so busy looking at things through other people's perspectives that I didn't have a perspective of my own, one of those comments that shock you with their brutal insight.  I've of course since turned this ability into a selling point by becoming a cross-cultural trainer, where it's *very* important to be able to present a neutral, value-free, non-judgmental explanation of cultural values on both sides of the fence.  Especially when mediating between people of different culture.  If you personally find some values objectionable, fine, but your clients must never know!  Suspend, suspend those values...

Err, right, after all that, I think I'll discuss other issues in a separate post.  Ahem.

Tabouli.

(for the record, South Africa was a disturbing but fascinating place, which gave me much food for thought on the above issues, though that's another story...)


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