Who Are You? Spring 2018

Dear Claudia Rankine, The visceral experience of reading your book has been quite powerful. I was especially struck by the overarching sentiment; the feeling most colored when you are thrown against a sharp white background. This imagery has stuck with me as I have considered your painful meditations on self, body, and history. I am curious what it means to be also an American, although I Asian and a recent immigrant, thrown against a stark white background. While examining my own background, immigrant culture and Asian values of harmony and no conflict comes up but your paper has led me to believe much more examination is possible in the relationship of Asian bodies to black bodies to white bodies in a white landscape. Toni Morrison is illuminating in her examination of the deep links American immigration and subsequent assimilation has to anti-blackness, and I hope to add onto this thought and literature in the future. This backdrop of whiteness and all it encom

To whom it may concern, We appreciate your efforts to talk about racism and immigration in the states, but we do not hate immigrants. And immigrants should not despise us. Yes, it is true that immigrants are hired  for jobs before and African American is hired. Yes, immigrants and the children of immigrants do get better grades than black individuals in the United States. But let’s talk about why this happens. Let’s not forget to talk about the systemic and institutional oppression that has kept blacks and Latinx immigrants in the gutter for years. You should talk about Jim Crow and government policies that were used to hinder the advancement of blacks. This view of blackness and dirty and unacceptable that permeates this society is the real problem. When black people take a step forward, white America pushes us several steps back. Blacks and immigrants should not have to fight for job opportunities. So in the future let's focus on the issues that keep us in this cycle of oppr

Dear Professor Anderson, I can't help but feel rage.  I'm so mad at the discrimination, violence and virtual enslavement that people of color have felt in the United States, especially after the Civil War and the passage of the 13th Amendment.  I am white, so I guess it could be described as White Rage, but probably not the anger you so eloquently write about in your book.    The terrible acts you describe, like the incredibly violent and indescribable lynching of Mary Turner and the systematic efforts by the government to deny basic rights like a decent education to millions of black children, left me so mad.  I had of course read about lynchings before, and knew about various actions by the government that were extremely discriminatory, but I had never been faced with it so forcefully, as I think all white people should be on a daily basis.  I know it is easy for me to wade back into an ignorance, but this isn't something I want to do.   How do you think it is best for s

Dear Ms. Rankine, I haven't stopped thinking about the quote you drew upon in Citizen: An American Lyric from Zora Neale Hurston: "I feel most colored when I am thrown against a white background." Together, I believe our books convey the personal and the political worlds of the fraught race relations we find ourselves in today.  As black women authors, we both achieve this by inserting ourselves into the too often "white background" of historiography and literature. I want to congratulate us both on this feat and let you know how meaningful your book was for me. I spent many years researching how white rage turned every sign of progress in the black population into a violent program of oppression, from reconstruction to education to the Civil Rights movement to Obama's Presidency. While I do a convincing job of providing evidence for this evolution of oppression (if I may say so myself), one thing I can't do is what you achieve in Citizen : arti

Dear Ms. Morrison, I recently read your article in TIME Magazine, “On the Backs of Blacks”.   Though you wrote this piece in 1993, the points you raise remain true today in 2018.   It is terrible that we have not progressed in the 25 years since your article’s publication, and in some ways we have taken steps backward.   From the election of our current president to horrific events like those in Charlottesville this past summer, a future of improved racial relations in the United States does not seem to be on the horizon. You bring up the concept of “race talk” as an enduring “rite of passage into American culture”.   I found your quote “only when the lesson of racial estrangement is learned is assimilation complete” to be a powerful description of how this prejudice is maintained and passed on over generations of new Americans.   This learned racism is incredibly problematic because it has created the idea of “American blacks as the common denominator in each conflict

“Hey Patsy, Hey Laura,” you say. Patsy looks at me. She knows I’m always up for a fight and I am normally, but today, I’m tired. Patsy says, “Her name’s not Laura.” You’re immediately apologetic. “I meant L au ra,” you say, satisfied now that you remembered the difference between Law-ra and Laou-ra. “It’s Jennifer, actually,” I say. Your face falls with an, “Oh.” I want to question your surprise, but I don’t. It makes sense. Laura and I are both short and dark haired and friends with Patsy. Even though we all took chemistry together last year and were lab partners at one point, it makes sense. Laura’s hair is black and cut into a bob and her skin couldn’t be lighter. My hair is past my waist with light brown highlights right now and I’m several shades off-white, especially compared to Laura. But it makes sense. Or was your surprise because of what my name was? “Jennifer” is Welsh in origin, derived from Guinevere, and means “Fair Phantom.” Just for fun, m