chibicandy01's Diaryland Diary

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Black and White Thus Kept an Imagined Slight

Candice Williams
English 101
Prof. Lardner
Critique
February 11, 2005

Black and White; thus kept an imagined slight.

After re-reading the article several times, I am still pondering the meaning of Lena Williams article. It's like she's offered a tantalizing, provoking tidbit of wisdom that she fails to adequately portray or bring to cultivation and leaves the reader to come to their own conclusion; a conclusion that is formed from the pages of the black perceptions and less so from the white.
Lena Williams, a black reporter, article was published in 1997. The article cultivates the scientific term, micro-aggressions and how they function on both sides of the black and white interracial divide. Overall, her article shows the subtle grievances felt between blacks and whites.
Lena Williams begins her article with a personal perspective on a time she felt ‘the little things” over a racially perceived slight. She recalls the time her brother and her felt a shared sense of annoyance over the simple actions of a white woman raking her fingers through her golden locks. The key word being golden, a color that Lena Williams could not naturally have because she is black; she felt micro-aggression as she perceived the woman’s actions as a white sign of preference as portrayed in the media. Lena Williams, also, relates this incident to the broader picture of the interracial division between black and whites due to these “little things.”
After a white male colleague asked whether there were ordinary things that white people did and said that blacks found offensive, Lena began to actively pursue a line of questioning of both black and whites. Lena Williams uses her reporter's nose to ferret out and document the reactions of several black and white people on "the little things,” micro-aggressions, or racially perceived slights. Micro-aggressions mean racially perceived slights that buildup over time.
Lena Williams article goes on to portray similar racially perceived slights, which everyone already knows but dares to confront in terms of racial tensions. This concept of micro-aggressions allows one self this rationale, to be angered at imagined slights. Simple everyday actions can be deemed the, "little things", as Lena’s article shows with the use of something like her description of "the look,” an expressionless stare that white people get. On the white side, "I remember once, a black friend complained about a white sales clerk in a grocery store putting his change on the counter instead of in his hand," Ms. Lewis said. When I said, 'she did that to me, too,' he said it wasn’t the same thing and stormed off." Lena Williams points out the micro-aggressions that are subtle enough to be not noticed by the person doing them, but picked up through an innate sense that picks up such racial slights.
Also, her article is set up in a catalogue fashion. (For this instance the meaning of catalogue is akin to something showing an idea in a favorable light, or a product that appeal to the reader in subtle trends.) Her article shows both the black and white side in different sections. Sections of her article are separated themselves in a logical development of the overall issue of micro-aggressions applying to the black and white divide. Also, her article uses several quotes to show the overall existence of micro-aggressions. Lena Williams does not confront how whites and blacks should solve the imagined slights, but she does offer the subtle outlook on the interracial divide.
At first reading of this article I felt a shared indignation over these 'micro-aggressions', and felt ashamed for the times I've unknowingly done such an action that could have been perceived as such. Then I came upon the half-page of what Lena Williams categorized as "Everyday Slights: The White Take" and suddenly Lena’s article lost credibility to me. Is she using the same subjective approach in her interviews for both sides? Or is she objective at all times? Her article can aptly be described more or less as a catalogue, akin to something showing an idea in a favorable light, or a product that appeal to the readers in subtle trends.
I find fault in Lena’s fieldwork approach and her method in cataloguing the black and white sections, and therefore the credibility of her article is lacking-- the objectivity needed to adequately shed light on sides of the black and white interracial divide is missing.
I could relate Lina's words to an overall address of both sides and provide quotes approach to the concept of micro-aggressions. But as soon as I read her words "In fact, they were not at a loss for words or examples of ordinary interactions with blacks that left them feeling slighted." (They, being the white side of the inter-racial divide.) Is it me or does Lena Williams’s tone seem to spit the above sentence out as though she does not agree? Am I reading in her words a subtle shift in tone that put me, the white reader, up against a wall, over this imagined infliction or slight, intentional or not in her take of the white side issue? Thus she gives a lack of credence to the white side, on the white interviews and the information gathered. Did her lack of objectivity cloud the article, biased it to seeing only one side-- black? She confronted the black persons with a more understanding tone, using words to relate to the reader that she relates to this side. For example Lena Williams says, "Truth be told, some blacks, myself included have jokingly played the stereotype to their advantage."
Also, take into consideration her fieldwork methods. Also, it seems to me that this article applies to mainly black new Yorkers, and white new Yorkers. Perhaps she meant to show the subtle parts one might find between whites and blacks. But where did she conduct her searches? New York? Queens? Where else? Yet, Lena Williams does conduct interviews with influential black and white people on an equal level (credible people like psychologists and fellow colleagues.) Also, she is subjective to the black side already because she herself is black, and even uses her own experience, the first instance with the woman with golden locks and later on with the colleague, to further cultivate and endear her point to the reader. Also, she spent (3) or more pages portraying the invisible black man or black woman, the look and etc… Lena Williams uses the example, "So what do you do for a living?" to show another racially perceived slight on the black side. Also, Lena states, "Among my people….” Why the distinction among my people? Perhaps to show that she too has no idea of an ideal of that old concept of a melting pot being merely idealistic and thus she is entitled to her use, of such sentences like "it starts with an expressionless stare." If Lena picks a part such a simple phrase like that, than doesn't the phrase also apply to both sides? ; Whereas with the whites she took on a racial tone of simple ambiguity.
Lena is subjective in this aspect by focusing on the black side more than the white. By spending less than a page and a half and by using sentences in a similar subjective fashion she is showing her catalogue, in the ‘black sides’ favorable light. By even applying this subtle separation within her own article she is drawing a separation between what she considers to be important and what she feels is needed to give her article the appearance of validity, just as tangible as the concept of micro-aggressions. In retrospect her article gives little credence to the white side of this interracial divide.
Also, is Lena making a mountain out of an anthill? Or is it just unraveling the threads of the past that grip, some mainly those of the 'generational gap', on the interracial divide. Perceived slights are just that perceived and are easily changed swayed through manner of words, tone, the simple conveyance of a quote used adequately can sway the reader to think more or less anything the author desires. The different age group factor I feel she completely leaves out modern people, instead focusing on the 'gap' just amounts to nothing unless she had backed it up with more objectivity to both sides. Lena Williams uses such methodology aptly with just such infliction in her words. "Blacks talk out loud in the movies, and that really annoys me,” Slyvia Lewis said. "What they do is talk back to the screen. They'll just provide the dialogue or react to something they've seen,’ Lena says that Ms. Lewis believes that blacks who behaved that way were 'flouting the rules of white etiquette (Sylvia Lewis)." This is the reaction of an obvious stereotypical view of a person’s mind still griping tight to the past. This is the idea of a generational gap. Yes, Sylvia is in her 50’s, one who grew up in a time when such a thought was appropriate, but this is the year 2005 where such a comment as that only shows ignorance. Those modern trends, as depicted by Farai Chideya, show the change in the modern generation being closer with interracial marriage, dating, and similar togetherness. Sylvia’s quote just portrays that generational gap, not the concept of micro-aggressions as I had perceived them thus far.
Overall, this term micro-aggressions become an excuse that is used to explain away unreasonable anger by civil and modernized people who are not looking at the bigger picture. There are six degrees of separation between us all. Why would an intelligent person reason away there illogical annoyance at such an imagined slight? I'm walking out on a limb here but why not tell the lady in elevator with the golden locks that her fingering her hair brings up an age-old hatred that is really not understood anymore because blacks and whites are still focusing on these imagined slights. I mean its human to use a scapegoat separating oneself from which what one in fact fears. So, why not forget this concept of race for a moment and focus instead on coming to terms with these micro-aggressions.
Why do whites, myself included, feel these micro-aggressors still today, when we've been taught the concept of forgiveness? Reflecting over a grudge is a lonely path that nothing short of forgiveness can one ever hope to abridge such a gap. Forgiving this skin difference, letting go the chains bound tight around everyone in fear of such difference. Forgiving the past, and focusing on the future together. "Blacks tend to see history as currently relevant and echoing into the present,” (David K. Shipler.) On the subject of whites he says that "whites tend to see history as the past and therefore irrelevant and not governing the present at all. That is one of the major fissures between blacks and whites, and it results in lots of misunderstandings." No, ideally, humans learn from the past as so not to repeat it, and focus on living their life in the present together. And in a perfect world my idyllic sentiment would be right.
Lena Williams does not show this notion of forgiveness in her article. In truth, her article barely grazes the surface of this racial division and does not shed much light on what direction blacks and whites should go to abridge the gap. Hooray, for micro-aggressions and the use of similar terms to offer ‘race’ another way of explaining ignorance. Lena ends her article with, “Sometimes it has nothing to do with race, but no one believes that, she concluded.”
Black and white, thus kept an imagined slight.

2:22 p.m. - 2005-02-23

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