Who Are You? Spring 2018

Dear John, I'm not sure when you will read this letter, but I hope you are safe... I heard through the grapevine that there was recently a big protest in Boston. Someone even said that the colonists dressed up like the Indians you speak of. Were you there that day? Is this what they, the Indians - your friends, apparently - are teaching you? How to cut all cooperative ties with England and incite violence and war? How to surely get yourself killed? We all know the colonies will never survive without the support of the King. If you want me to come across the sea, this isn't the kind of news I want to receive. I'm not so sure I understand the kind of person you're becoming over there. You left here a gentleman, but I'm nervous you're becoming a savage. Be careful. Love, Your mother

Dear Frederick Douglass, I am curious to what political advantages African Americans gain in this country from visual productions of "blackness" in any capacity. Extending the production of blackness beyond minstrelsy, are other performances of the African American race acceptable if they seem to pose some kind of advantage for the advancement of the race? The use of performance and blackface haven't seemed to pose any kind of advantages, but rather create and enforce negative stereotypes about African American which puts them in a more disadvantaged situation. Although you didn't directly comment on white performers and their role, it seems that you are arguing that it if necessary, they could potentially be in this position that could potentially provide advantages. Although I cannot definitely say whether this would be cultural domination (in conjunction with appropriation but with far more negative impacts) or showcasing people's culture, I can say that th

Hello curious student! I’m one of Mr. Deloria’s research assistants and I’m writing back to you on his behalf. While he appreciates receiving letters from students and does read them all, he doesn’t have time to respond to each one. I am doing research on Native identity in the 21 st century though, so I can hopefully provide a few examples to help you keep thinking about these issues. One trend that cropped up in the past couple of years was the idea of a “spirit animal.” It spread through internet culture until it became a standard fun fact to be said alongside name and where you’re from. Spirit animals are an idea actually maladapted from many different Native American groups whose belief system includes spirit guides or totem animals. The way it was used in pop culture though was as a type of animal that represented a person and it was quickly trivialized with things like “spirit fruits” or “spirit vegetables,” which took spirit animals from appropriation to

Dear Mother,             I surely do miss you and I hope that life is well in England and that you are carrying on as usual. I’m sure you’ve heard rumors of death and disease in the colonies, but I can assure that my enclave in the Northeast is quite healthy. You may also have heard rumors about Indians. The “savages” and “others.” Many in the colonies view these communities in opposition to our way of life. Outsiders. Nobodies. Us vs. them. People compare our civilization that we have created here in this new land to theirs—which many find primitive—and determine that we are a world away from them. We are different. We are unlike the Indians. How could we ever be like the Indians? It’s strange because I feel a world apart from those that believe these statements. Indians were here long before us, and perhaps may be here long after we are.             I know that in every letter I write to you, I pressure you to come to the colonies. I don’t dare mention this t

Dear Scar, I know you don't know my name, but I know yours.  I am the white man who has been hunting you down and tracking you.  It all began when you killed my Brother, his wife and their son.  You took my closest relatives and destroyed the only resemblance of a peaceful life I had after fighting in the War of Northern Aggression where I gained many skills, including my accurate shot. You ruined my life, so I had to track you down and get vengeance, but honorable vengeance.  I know you too like vengeance and scalp innocent people.  You are no "noble savage", but a savage. But you didn't just kill my closest of kin, you also kidnapped my two nieces.  You took them from their safe home and destroyed any chance for them to grow up a safe life.  You then brutally killed Lucy, the older of the two girls.  Why you did this, I do not know.  But you did, and for this too I must seek vengeance.  I have spent years searching for you, and don't underestimate me.  I will

Dear Mr. Deloria,   I found your description of how white American society has been constantly shifting between positive and negative portrayals of American Indian identity in your book “Playing Indian” to be very enlightening, and it made me think more broadly about American society as a whole.   Specifically, how white American society adopts and champions Other identities only when they view it as beneficial to themselves.   This selective desirability has persisted since the Boston Tea Party and continues to be problematic in our society today.   Picking and choosing only certain elements of a group’s identity as desirable is not only hypocritical, but it is unfair.   This white American practice of cultural appropriation extends across ethnic backgrounds.   A white colonist can dress up as an Indian to (very ironically) feel a surge of freedom one day, but he can take off this costume and violently force the real American Indians off their land in the next.   Similarly, a

Mr. Deloria, Thank you for  this eye-opening account of the appropriation of Indian dress and Indian roles by white Americans. Exploring the ways in which whites have used this appropriation to shape national identity in different eras is very stimulating. I had never thought about the ways in which appropriation could shape one’s thoughts about an ethnic group or even the ways it could be used to create national identities over time. Colonial rebels dressed and imitated Indians at the Boston Tea Party to claim an aboriginal American identity allowing men during the nineteenth century to rethink the idea of a revolution as well as consolidate national power. Appropriation was also used to help city dwellers deal with concerns about nature, anxiety from the Cold War, and relativism. However, you shed light on the facts that playing Indian has been connected with conquest and dispossession of Indians. What was even  more interesting was the account of how Indians have reacted to thes

Dear Zane, Poughkeepsie has been treating me well, as well as any rural place can. It's a lot different here compared to Mississippi. My handyman job at Vassar has been paying me well enough to where haven't really thought about the loot of shine we left. I have set up a still though, a small one, just for me. Speaking of Mississippi, I do have something to say to you. Would like to preface by saying that I am appreciative of what you did to help me. Without you and Carl I'd likely be rotting in some hodge podge ditch, and Michaela'd be sittin fat on the spoils of my death and hard work. I am thankful for that. What I'm wondering about is how you talked to me when I was locked up, joking how I was always the troublemaker, that I'm a jackass. I know that what you do ain't easy but that don't make what I got into my fault. You're doing good work, but watch yourself in what you ask and expect of black people, people who don't pass like you.

Dear Miss Pinky, Are you happy with your choice? Truly? Don't you get tired of the prejudice and ill treatment you receive everyday in the South? I don't imagine the white people in our town accepted the fact that you got the estate even after the judge's orders. I reckon white folks come by to harass and disrespect you any chance they get. Could it have been possible to move West or North and stay true to your identity? I would assume that living your life as a fair-skinned colored woman in the West or North would have been more tolerable than as a colored woman in the South. Leaving your neighborhood doesn't have to mean cutting ties with your family either. See, you could move and visit Granny anytime you want. We love you Miss Pinky, but we see how sad you look sometimes. I see you all alone and wonder if it's possible for you to find love. F inding a husband would be difficult in any location I reckon. If you married a black man and were out in public then wh

Dear Matt Johnson, Reading Incognegro made me think rigorously about how to the act of passing interacts with the fiction of race. We all know that race is fictitious and unnatural — a societal construction. I found myself, while following the journey of Zane, wondering about how the fiction involved in passing heightens our awareness of the fiction of race itself. Zane is passing for a race called white, because society has constructed a fiction of race around his ancestry and society will call him out and tell him who he "really" is once they discover his secret. Thus, the threat of discovery we see hang over both Zane and the character Pinky in the film of the same name must never be understood as a fear of being caught lying. Neither Zane nor Pinky are lying by passing. Instead, the fear of discovery is really the fear that society will realise that Zane and Pinky have called out society's lie. Society's lie is thus challenged by the "fiction" that Z

Dear Dad, I've been in Harlem a year now with Zane. When I first got here, he said that it's the "age of the new negro," that "identity is open-ended." Maybe for Zane, that's true. He's had first-hand experience taking advantage of this truth of his experience, what with his work undercover and all. But brothers as we may be, this dark skin of mine does make a difference. I know he doesn't mean any real harm in poking at me for missing my moonshine brewing or still falling into my southern accent. Even my first day here, Zane said this is no place for a "bootlegging scumbag." But sometimes he makes me feel a little like I'm back-woods, backwards. I know he's spent many more years up here than I have, and he's gotten a lot of experience with classy activities like writing and journalism. I know it won't all happen for me at once. But even with more time, I'm not entirely sure that there's room in these ideas of

Dear Ms. Kendry,   I want to thank you for taking the time to write to me.   I appreciate hearing support from members of my community.   Many critique me for betraying my identity and hiding behind an identity that I am not.    However, I want to say that I am only passing because I feel as though I must.   While indeed it is hard to justify sacrificing one’s morals and identity, I truly believe that the work I am doing is worth the moral compromise I am making.   I take on the role of “Incognegro” purely for the sake of the access that being white provides.   The unfortunate and ironic truth is that passing as white allows me to advance my race in ways that my being black does not.   If I could see the same things and write the same way without having to pretend to be something I am not, I would do so in a heartbeat. I believe we can be more than just one thing and I hope that we will ultimately reach a point where this will not be a foreign idea.   Ms. Kendry, I hope yo

Dear Mr. "Incognegro," Before I start, let me say that I don't want you publishing this letter, or showing it to anyone. It is a risk for me even to write you. But it is one I'm taking, because you, more than anyone, understand what it is to keep a secret. I've seen your articles in The New Holland Herald . Thank you for your work. Thank you for putting your life on the line for those of our people who are being lynched. In some ways, we have a lot in common. I'm "passing," too, but instead of using our light skin to uncover the injustices white newspapers choose to ignore like you are, I've made the decision to be white indefinitely, for my own sake. Still, it didn't always feel like my choice. After my father died, the only stories I heard were the ones my white aunts were telling me, and it made passing seem like the only option. Recently, though, I'm wondering if that was the case. I took another risk, and contacted my old fri

Sadhana, In your response to Wilkerson you note the connection between "the act of leaving and the act of creating newness." You discuss the way that migration and creating a new beginning can become. in and of themselves, acts of resistance. I am similarly fascinated with Wilkerson's preoccupation with these themes. For me, the most provocative argument in the book is Wilkerson's framing of the Great Migration in relation to the "classic" narratives of European immigration and pursuit of the American Dream. As she puts it in the final paragraph of the epilogue, "By their actions, they did not dream the American Dream, the willed it into being by a definition of their own choosing. They did not ask to be accepted but declared themselves the Americans that perhaps few others recognized but that they had always been deep within their hearts." Wilkerson's narratives intentionally resonate with European immigrants' American Dream stories. Why

Dear Mother,             I thought you’d be happy to know that I rescued Pinchy. I hadn’t seen him in years, but when I found out that he was in jail, and not only that but also about to be convicted for a murder he didn’t commit, I couldn’t very well just sit in New York and let him waste away until his imminent death, now could I? Being a journalist is hard work. To be honest, it’s harder than I could have ever imagined. If I thought that my work would lead to people’s death, especially people that I care about, then maybe I never would have pursued a career in this field. Yet these stories, and the atrocities of white violence against blacks in America, need to be told. And right now, it looks like I’m the one to tell them. When we were growing up, I knew that Papa saw something different in me than he saw in Pinchy. I used to wonder why that was. Now I feel like I finally realize it, and maybe I realized it some years ago. Papa treated me differently than P