One of the Most Bizarre Cultural Practices in All of Human History

"Going White” (6/16/11) so far has received the response I expected – next to none.  I put myself out there to spark a discussion about race and culture, but shockingly folks are leery.  Maybe people don’t know how to deal with my ambiguity.  Pointed discourse has its purpose, and I love it too, but I occasionally break from it so as not to forget that the human brain needs freedom to wander.  I think that what distinguishes us from animals is not rational thought but imagination.   Eating food when and where it is available demonstrates rational thought, but meticulously planning an imagined future for an idea of “progress” is not.  But let me attempt to be less contradictory/circular and more to the point on this post. . . .

The idea of white supremacy is a major bowel unleashed by the structure of modern discourse, a significant secretion generated from the creative fusion of scientific investigation, Cartesian philosophy and classical aesthetic and cultural norms.  Needless to say, the odor of this bowel and the fumes of this secretion continue to pollute the air of our postmodern times.

-Cornell West “Race and Modernity” 1982

The issue I address in “Going White” is White supremacy.    Today race struggles are more about cultural determination and class than skin color, which is how it began in the first place.  For those of you who think that racial identity politics is passé, I agree.  Race politics is for kids vying for pecking order on the playground, and as a nation we're past that, right?  “Yes”, says the bully on top of the sand pile, “the race discussion is all over.”  We may be done with policies of slavery and extermination, which ended 150 years ago (except there was slavery and Indian Killing in California until the 1900’s http://www.nahc.ca.gov/califindian.html ) and there is only the “isolated” cross-burning, dragging/beating-to-death or accidental shooting(don’t you feel safe?).   America has come a long way from slavery and racial holocaust, but the good ole days still serve their purpose.  Whether the person on top of the sand pile is black or not (who can tell anymore?), the sand pile is a product of White American ideology, and part of that ideology is the idea of White male supremacy . No, not every white male is a racist, but every white male benefits from a system of white supremacy.  And to anyone that has a set of eyes it is obvious that racial inequality is alive and well.

Power struggles in America have always been about belief systems more than race, but racism continues to be the most effective tool for maintaining White power structures. When the Papal Bull was issued in 1493 ( http://www.manataka.org/page155.html ),   the Pope and King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella thought that the Indigenous population could be converted and subjugated just like anybody.   The whole purpose was to claim the land and its riches for Spain, and the Natives’ heathenism was used to justify horrific slaughter.  Race came in to play when exploiters found it too difficult and time consuming to convert the  Indios, so they began to argue that the heathens were innately inferior and could never truly be fully Christian (of course there were many missionaries who continued and succeeded in converting many Indios, God bless em’). 

The Colonizers of North America couldn’t afford to be in constant battle with the Indians and they couldn’t manage to subjugate them as efficiently as the Spaniards had, so they tried something else. In the 17 - 1800’s theories of White supremacy based on empirical science like classification and phrenology (the study of skulls) began to take shape, and the subjugation blacks and Indians could be justified by nature.  The story we are told as children of course is that America began as a refuge to those who had been persecuted for religious beliefs, i.e. the “Pilgrims”, or those seeking better, freer lives.  What my teachers failed to mention was that America’s history of raced-based violence in the name of progress (profit) came along with the Pilgrims, and that folks are still reaping the benefits of ethnic holocaust and slavery in America.  That is the context in which America was built, and it worked.  And it transformed the world.  For more on this, I love Jack Weatherford’s Indian Givers, one of the most concise and convincing arguments I have read about the formation of the middle class. Nonetheless the debate on whether people of color are inferior because of race or because of their beliefs continues on.

  “Going White” is about the subtlety of White supremacy and paternalism that says, “We gave you a job mowing the lawn and you are standing out there bitching.”  What they (the ones with the burden) forget is that their ancestors all but destroyed our ancestors’ way of life, which can’t be forgotten because the intergenerational trauma and racism still affects us daily, and their answer is that we should throw our hands up, quit complaining and accept their way of life and our role in it.  It’s true many indigenous people have accepted the dominant American culture of consumerism, but that doesn’t mean squat.  It doesn’t mean that they are fully accepted as equals, and doesn’t mean that when the going gets tough they won’t be squeezed out.  Also many go along with the dominant culture because it is easier to go with the current, but it does not mean that that is the life they imagine for their children.    The dilemma whether to fish or mow the lawn is an attempt to illustrate how these conflicts (AKA walking in two worlds) play out in daily life.

I also attempt to illustrate the ingrained associations between race and culture that we are supposed to believe no longer exist (they can now claim “colorblind”.  .  . do they really think they can get away with that?).  The example in “Going White” is the automatic assumption most White people have that the higher one’s Indian blood degree one is, the more ethnically Indian one is. And with blood quantum requirements for tribal membership we go right along with this race-based system even though the concept of race didn’t exist for Yurok before the White man came.  Traditionally being Yurok wasn’t determined by race or ethnic origin; one was just required to follow the ways of the village/house in which one was living and that made one Yurok.  Imagine that.  Race still has a lot to do with how one is perceived in American society, which is why I know my darker brothers have it harder than me, but it has nothing to do with one’s world view, except for the effect of others’ perceptions of him on his world view especially in a racist society . .  .  shit there I go in contradictive circles again! 

Ahem -back to a pointed, focused argument:    when people infer that I’m not a real Indian because I’m only a quarter (kids thankfully blurt out what their parents won’t say in public), what they are saying to me is:  1) Being Indian is about race     2)    Why would you want to behave like an Indian if you are not a real Indian because white society is superior    3)  Just give up and die already we are tired of dealing with the burden of you.  If you just accepted being white then there is one less of you to worry about.     We worked so hard to exterminate your people, and we are okay with just a few rare/exotic  birds left over, but don’t complicate things by suggesting that being Indian is more about world view and culture than race –

The dominant cultural discourse in America continues to function as it always has - perpetuating the idea that race, culture and intelligence are intertwined as to ensure the continuation of a system that rewards the wealthy elite.  Today it’s called the American way.  The racist system of oppression is on auto pilot, making it so much easier to deny its existence, and so much harder to change.  With a flailing economy (because it’s based on an ideal) things will get worse and resemble the good ole days again, as evidenced in resurgences of White pride movements, i.e.  the Tea Party.  Look what just happened in Oslo.  That middle-lower class White citizens fall back on White supremacy is by design and evidence of a well-oiled racist machine.

So, enter the lawnmower – to me it is symbolic of everything that is wrong with this country.  My dilemma about whether to fish or mow the lawn is a dilemma about whether to go along with the American economic system, inherently racist and profit driven, or to be a free American.  The green, well -manicured lawn is a throwback from feudal European society that we are still strangely obsessed with.  In most suburbs in America if you do not mow your lawn in a specific way you are seen as a pariah because it brings property values down.  It is something that is so ingrained culturally that we are willing to sacrifice the future of our water supply just to have lush green lawns and golfing in the desert.  

Audubon International estimates that the average American course uses 312,000 gallons per day. In a place like Palm Springs, where 57 golf courses challenge the desert, each course eats up a million gallons a day. That is, each course each day in Palm Springs consumes as much water as an American family of four uses in four years. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91363837

Don’t forget the impact of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on our watersheds – imagine what they do to the fish – and the air and noise pollution caused by lawnmowers, leaf blowers, trimmers hedgers, etc.

Manicured lawns are one of the Whitest things about America, and one of the most bizarre cultural practices in all of human history.   I know, there are more Indian casino/resorts with golf courses in the desert than I care to count, but remember, race has nothing to do with culture right?  (My bro’s tell me that bicycling is pretty white, but golf? – c’mon!)  I have a hunch that casino golfer-Indians don’t fully embrace nobility culture – it might just be a front to make money so their people can have health care, and when that well dries up, well . . .

On the greener side of the fence, the Great Recession presents an opportunity for broad social change.  It seems that there will be a lot of middle class folks out there saying, “Hey, I have a well-manicured lawn but I’m still not financially secure.”  Maybe as we are forced to conserve costs more of us will realize that the pursuit of happiness doesn’t necessarily mean trying to emulate nobles.  Maybe this time around as lawns begin to brown and blow away, the poor get hungry and the rich get richer, we will finally realize that European nobles were assholes who lived a lifestyle unsuitable for long term survival on this planet.  And maybe the struggles of indigenous people to hold on to traditional beliefs and practices are worthwhile after all. 

 Whew! That will be the last time I post pointed discourse on this blog.  I just wanted to prove that I could do it (I didn’t say I could do it well).  I will return to being ambiguous from now on, it feels more honest.