African American Lives 2

Hey guys,

Pedro here. As my first post I decided to introduce a cool show which i came upon by luck on saturday afternoon. I found it interesting and coincidential that it aired just as we were hitting the whiteness and race topic. Just to wet your beaks a little it is hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr., if i recall correctly is a harvard professor, who is on the journey to find his ancestry. He is joined by a cast raging from comedians, actors, athletes and bussiness elites, who also want to track their African roots.

The show goes on to demonstrate many genealogical techniques used to find African ancestry before the civil war, where there was no detailed record of African-Americans. Also it goes to show the circumstances and standards of life a slave would be held to. It also goes to debunk many myths and assumptions about the period.

I posted up the link which goes straight to the thirteen section of the show. I tried to embed some videos from youtube but they are too short to embrace the content of the show, plus the quality of picture is incomparable and even jolting for thirteen. Thanks guys, hope you enjoy the videos.

Click the title of this post and also check out the Chris Rock segment

From Exploring Culture to Exploring Language and Communication

In class last week (2-21-08), we began to unravel the slide show I created in an earlier post on whiteness and we were supposed to share what each group came up with relative to the specific sections of the chapter on CULTURE in the Kottak. We will complete this on Tuesday (especially looking forward to the poem created by Natalie's group!).

From our round-robin impromptu exercise--standing in a circle free associating about "Culture is__________" one by one, we learned a lot about culture with 100% participation in the class. Great teamwork and great being in the moment to make it happen. Thanks!

So ultimately you should be noticing how culture is shared, symbolic, all-encompassing, and integrated. We should be sure to explore how culture is maladaptive and make sure everyone gets that. Here's a question to begin that inquiry and the group that had this section can chime in on the blog and in class:

Is culture always helpful?
Answer: No. Cultural practices can be maladaptive in the long-term. One example is that our own culture prizes consumerism and consumption, the use of the automobile, and climate-controlled living spaces. However, the technologies used to achieve these comforts may be causing environmental damage which is detrimental to us in the long-term. (see The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard).

Some things about the modern classroom can be maladaptive in the long run. Can you think of any? Here's a quote that suggests perhaps an alternative for the classroom:

We aim for a broadened view of cultural socialization that considers its mechanisms and implications for education. Here, we follow the observations of Moll (2000): 'We are moving toward a more dynamic, processual notion: that cultural life consists of multiple voices, of unity as well as discord, including an imperfect sharing of knowledge; of intergenerational misunderstanding as well as common understandings; of developing both adaptive and maladaptive practices while discarding others—in short, of human actions that are always creative in the face of changing circumstances. . . . [I]t might be more realistic to say “that people live culturally rather than they live in culture.' (p. 330) Cultural socialization can be defined as how people learn to “live culturally.” (Italics added). From “Every Shut Eye Ain’t Sleep”: Studying How People Live Culturally by Carol D. Lee, Margaret Beale Spencer, and Vinay Harpalani in Educational Researcher, Vol. 32, No. 5, pp. 6–13

How do you think certain practices we have used between teachers and students for a long time might be maladaptive?

How has our avoidance of talking about whiteness contributed to both an adaptive and a maladaptive practice over time?

Culture, Race and Universal Human Rights

Hi Folks,
Over the weekend I have been thinking about our conversation about whiteness and my slide show and thought I needed to sure up my awareness of what the American Anthropological Association is providing on its website about the issue of race as a social construct. I found some invaluable links. [CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR MORE ABOUT IT]

One is to the PBS website for the video we've been watching a segment of over the last two weeks: Race: The Power of Illusion. We've been watching the episode titled "The Difference Between Us" talking about genetics and difference. On that site was a great site I expect you to visit. It is called IS RACE REAL? Read the ten facts there and check out RACE - The Power of an Illusion . Race Timeline | PBS to see how the definitions of whiteness, Indianness, Asianness, and Blackness have changed since the 1700s. Check out this part of the site recreating the "doll test" among black children about their racial preferences.

Kottak's Chapter 3 on Culture reveals the complex ways anthropologists view the concept and practice of culture. On p. 52-53, Kottak discusses Human and Cultural Rights. I took a few of the items in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the U.N. that I thought might be interesting inside our ongoing conversation about whiteness, culture and the practice of doing anthropology--namely participant-observation (I'll say a bit more about Malinowski than how I left it "useful failures"), ethnography, emic-etic approaches, and working with cultural consultants.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

For more on white privilege from whites themselves take a look at this blog

AAA STATEMENTS ON ETHICS

Principles of Professional Responsibility

Adopted by the Council of the American Anthropological Association
May 1971 (As amended through November 1986)

Note: This statement of principles is not intended to supersede previous statements and resolutions of the Association. Its intent is to clarify professional responsibilities in the chief areas of professional concern to anthropologists.

Preamble

Anthropologists work in many parts of the world in close personal association with the peoples and situations they study. Their professional situation is, therefore, uniquely varied and complex. They are involved with their...

PLEASE READ THE REST OF STATEMENT FOR TUE FEB 19th at http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/ethstmnt.htm

Photo is of Shauna LaTosky doing fieldwork on transcultural understanding in Southern Ethiopia. Click photo for more on Shauna's work.

Prof. G's Whiteness as Social Construct Slide Show

I know this exercise in creating a white museum (see previous post) has been difficult, uncomfortable and a bit baffling for many of you. As I reflect on how it is going, I am realizing that my presentation of it (as a professor who is not white) and the way I set you up (not as well as I would have liked in hindsight) was filled with troubling concerns. It looks like I am trying to entrap you into racist ideas and thinking. This much be disconcerting so early in the semester for many of you.

I promised this class would be a safe space to learn and grow in. I want you to be ready, willing and able to embrace and be empowered by ANY communication by the end of this course. Perhaps I've failed at bit at preparing you just yet. In any case, this is an important exercise that will set us up our conversations not about whiteness but about the nature of culture found in Chapter 3.

Yes, we need a definition of whiteness to complete this exercise though there are perhaps many we can come up with. That's the art of exploring the unknown, i.e., learning. To get to the unknown, we must empty ourselves of all we already know. Then discovering new things becomes available rather than replicating the past as if that's learning (sharing what you already think is known or true--that's just the first step). Additionally, we also need to define CULTURE to get at the heart of what this course in cultural anthropology is about and how it will become useful for you in the future. I gave you one definition--the learned ways of thinking, feeling, believing and behaving and now you've read about the value of working with a key cultural consultant (formerly called "informants" but the term evoked spying on your own culture/community).

So, I invite you to check out my emic slide show, my virtual white museum. I invite you and your group to create your own emic collaboration on whiteness as a slide show. That way we'll have 6 slide shows from the body of the class to compare. What different stories of whiteness can we tell or will the be the same? You game?? You can tell it from ANY perspective, from ANY point of view, from how far we come, what is no longer, from the view of minorities or from people considered white but view themselves as a particular ethnicity, or from religions, from sports, or from eye color and shape. Anything that tells a story about what we already know about whiteness. A local view of whiteness. We will explore and distinguish the difference between emic and etic in class. Prof. G

Creating a Museum of White Culture in America (Thu Feb 6th)

Imagine we are the board of trustees for a museum tenatively titled the White American Museum (WAM). Maybe it should be another name??

- Do some background searching on the web about whiteness (make sure you record the sources uses such as Google, Wikipedia and others from the web or print materials). Find icons we could use, websites, who are the experts we should consult or hire?

Andres Serrano, "The Interpretation of Dreams (White Nigger)," 2001, cibachrome/ silicone/plexiglas/wood frame, 60 x 49 1/2"

- What model of a museum would work best? Consider museums you know like a wax museum, science centers (hands-on), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Sex, etc. Should it be a virtual museum, a learning museum or a marketing museum? Search for an appropriate model online and consider which might work best.
Here a source to start with but find your own too.
http://fno.org/museum/museweb.html

- We would need to create some exhibits around themes and issues. What are the themes and issues and imagine a main exhibit for the main hall. There are artists and scholars who've already done work on such themes and issues. Find some established and new artists/teachers/musicians/performers/scholars/issues etc. to feature. (i.e., Jena 6?, Kara Walker? Michael Moore?)

- A simple way to do this same project is to ask 5 people. As a study of race in our anthropology course, we are assigned to create a museum of White American culture. There are museums for all other ethnic/racial makeups. We wondered what should be exhibited in our collection. Could you list the first 3-5 themes or issues we should include. Or five objects or events we should feature to be representative of whiteness in America.

We can discuss the process here til Thursday and beyond.