Blogging and Identity, Part 2

22 Sep 2003 By

I mentioned before that the subject of black bloggers is going around. It’s morphed into more of a “blogging and identity” discussion. As an offshoot of that ms lauren at feministe has written an essay entitled Whiteness, As I Know It. The idea here is that if black people can explain what it is to be black, can white people do the same? It’s long, but it’s good. Really good. That is one smart woman.

UPDATE: I’m moving this back up top because I feel really strongly that these should be read. I’m adding aldahlia’s essay. It’s every bit as interesting as ms lauren’s.

Interestingly, the more I read, the more people seem to say that their economic status had a bigger impact on their identity. I’ve heard it proposed that using socioeconomic status is a better way to ensure “diversity” on college campuses than using race.

  • http:///home.html JenBen

    Without actually reading what you’ve linked to (which I will do…eventually) can anyone say what it is to be anything but an individual? If I blogged about being a white female, am I not creating stereotypes? (Or feeding stereotypes) All I can say is my own experience and I would never try to tell someone what their experience is. That would do no one any good.

  • http://www.funkalicious.us Funkalicious

    That was an awesome essay. I saw a lot of myself in it, especially when she was saying what it meant to be white. I don’t consider myself to be better than ANYONE in any way (except maybe morons, but that isn’t a racial issue) but if someone were to ask me if my life has been easier because I am white, I’d have to be honest and say yes.

    That was a real eye-opener. Thanks for posting the link.

  • http://www.swirlspice.com Erica

    JenBen, I don’t know if you can really say what it IS to be white/black/latino/etc. But you can certainly point to what aspects of your life are shaped by the presence/absence of white/back/latino/etc. culture. The point of the exercise is to examine how that works. And I would fully expect that everyone’s answers would be different.

    The challenge to write the essay came from a discussion of black bloggers (and bloggers who are black), how they represent themselves and black culture in the blogging world, and whether or not they even need to do so. Sort of. It’s getting kind of complex.

  • http://feministe.us/blog/ ms lauren

    i wanted to approach it from a broad angle. if people of color are always asked to explain and justify their opinions and decisions based on their skin color (the blogging question), and thus are required to write on what it means to be a person of color, what happens when you ask the same of a white person?

    i didn’t expect any “answers” but maybe some thought and insight – especially reading the responses of others.

  • http://www.funkalicious.us Funkalicious

    This may seem stupid, but the phrase “people of color” makes little sense. We are ALL some color or another. If people truly didn’t have a color, we’d all be invisible or something. Wouldn’t you think?

  • http://www.swirlspice.com Erica

    I don’t know how I feel about the phrase “people of color.” Technically you’re right. But it has a clearly different connotation. I kind of write it off as a semantic issue and avoid using it myself (and use the oh-so-PC “brown folks” instead).

    (This comment was corrected for grammar, because I can!)

  • http://feministe.us/blog/ ms lauren

    the problem is what to say in lieu of “people of color.” i hate using “non-white” because it connotates that there is something lacking. i also hate the hyphenates because if you want to lump all “minorities” (another term i hate) into one category for the purpose of discussion, you have to list a shitload.

    i prefer “people of color” because it doesn’t allude to something lacking and allows for the lumping.

    i’ve spouted off so much rhetoric today between this and attempting to write a paper i just can’t write, words just aren’t coming to me.

  • http://girl.aldahlia.net aldahlia

    Ditto what lauren said about the use of “people of color.”

    I don’t feel right using “brown people.” Yet, I have no problem with Black.

    I guess that “color” alludes to a variety that “brown” just doesn’t.

  • http://www.swirlspice.com Erica

    I strongly prefer “black” to “African-American.” Not until this discussion started have I seen the use of “brown” to mean “non-white-or-black.”

    Is “people of color” different from “colored people”? One emphasizes people and the other emphasizes color. Is that the only diff? Because that seems like a fine line between the two, where one is PC/okay and the other is not.

    And I don’t even know what I mean by “okay” because it would have to be an egregious misuse for me to really be pissed off by the use of “colored people.”

  • http://feministe.us/blog/ ms lauren

    sometimes language totally rules, and sometimes it just sucks. admittedly, that was another problem i had with writing this – figuring out how to address other races and ethnicities without reverting to language that might have been demeaning, without me meaning to be demeaning.

    thanks for the love, by the way. i’m still hoping to hear about what you have to say, especially being a biracial gal from detroit, of all places.

    isn’t detroit the most racially segregated area in the united states? (heard that one from a prof. a few years ago)

  • http://beenie.highlymoody.com/ Kat

    I’d definitely say I’m more defined by my economic status than my skin color.

  • http://www.sealdaze.blogspot.com Malia

    As I was reading your “whiteness” answers above, my thought was that I think more about economic status than race. Like you pointed out in this post. I’m most comfortable with people who appear to be of the same group as me – similar quality living arangements, clothing, entertainment choices, etc. I’m not afraid of people who seem to be on my level. But I do give second glaces to people who look like they might hurt me because I have more – be they white, black, anything…

    When I try to define whiteness, the characteristics that come to mind are more about being middle class. The only time I think about bing white is in comparison to others – in situations where it’s mostly non-white, if someone’s looking at me as a “white rich girl who thinks she’s sum’n.”

    Two of my closest friends were the black girls who hung out in the white cliques. They also had parallel groups of black friends but I always got the feeling that the black cliques thought less of them for “trying to be white.” That bothered me but I don’t know how to address it. It’s one of those things that’s difficult to discuss and doesn’t come out until “honesty circles.”

    Anywho, I’m rambling. This has given me something to ponder…