For my final project, I'm planning on making a piece of video art which explores some of the central questions I've had throughout the class. I've decided to focus on the question of the hypothetical “arbitrariness” of race, which serves as a jumping-off point for many other topics we've been considering. In particular, I'm looking at Cheng's writing on racial melancholia and Fanon's discussion, in Algeria Unveiled, of the superficiality of racial signification (clothing). I've been trying to decide what I think about a post-racist, or indeed post-racial society – what it would look like and mean for social interaction. I talked a little bit about this in my most recent post on Children of Men, and specifically the sociopolitical role that race plays in cinema.
Here's my proposal in more concrete terms: I will film three short vignettes, each of which will present an uncomfortable “racist” interaction:
1) Myself and a Black man. Reenacting the objectification of slave trade. In first segment, I coarsely check the teeth, peer into the eyes, yank on the hair, feel the muscles, etc.. In second segment, roles are reversed, black man engages in the same act, on my body. I want this to be offensive, but only through physical action – no racial slurs, minimal dialogue. I want the viewer to immediately think of depictions of the slave trade they've seen elsewhere – perhaps LeVar Burton in “Roots”. Will be set in a decontextualizing space, e.g. a single chair in a studio in Granoff.
2) Myself and a Hispanic man. In first segment, Hispanic man is abjectly cleaning bathroom floor, I walk in and stop, spit on the floor in a nasty, unfriendly fashion. In second segment, roles are reversed, I am abjectly cleaning bathroom floor, Hispanic man comes in and spits on the floor. Minimal dialogue. Offensive, cold.
3) Myself, and three others. One White man who looks much like me. Two Asians who look similar. In first segment, myself, two Asians – I make an obnoxious scene about not being able to differentiate between the two, both named “Chen”. In second segment, one Asian man makes an obnoxious scene about not being able to differentiate between the two Whites, both named “John”. Also set in decontextualizing space. Feelings of loss of identity.
It's important that these vignettes employ clichés. A strong cliché allows for the presentation of a potent, racially charged image without significant contextualization, and this is important for my project. What I'm looking to do is to make the viewer very uncomfortable about these “racial” interactions, through depictions of objectifying slavery, ignoble service jobs, and de-individualization. But here's the thing – I want them to be, upon further inspection, non-racial interactions, i.e. interactions which reference racism but which do not in themselves necessitate racist explanations. This is accomplished, of course, through the reversal of roles of the 'traditional' subject and 'traditional' object in each of these racist interactions, as well as an absence of any specific racial contextualization.
I think it's going to be challenging to present these images in a successful way. As I was watching clips of Roots while looking for some possible situations to incorporate into the first piece, I found myself really moved when I came upon the classic scene of Kunta Kinte being whipped until he accepts the name “Toby” - mostly by the acting of Louis Gossett Jr. in the role of Fiddler, this noble man who tries to protect Kunta Kinte. I wonder if perhaps my treatment of the subject is too cerebral, in light of the emotional presence there. The thing is, I'm dealing with clichés, which are difficult to manipulate without calling potentially uncritical attention to their manipulation. Perhaps the mechanism of switching roles will be difficult to do tastefully – to make it a real symbolic change, and one which is a zero-sum change at its aesthetic heart, i.e. when the Black man is peering at the body of the White man, it appears equivalent rather than as an obvious, blunt manipulation. I want the video to be very disturbing – to get people emotionally involved – but also clean, in mostly decontextualizing spaces, so that all we see are bodies interacting, rather than Chinese people getting made fun of and Argentinians mopping floors. That's to say, I want the revelation of the viewer to be that race is completely arbitrary – that the ways in which we interact are dependent solely on the enculturation of racism within the individual.
A REQUEST:
I'm in touch with several people who will be able to act in this project already, but I'd be really appreciative if anyone would put me in touch with someone who might be willing to be an actor. It's a big favor to ask, as well as a potentially pretty uncomfortable experience, but also possibly very interesting / fun. The actual time commitment would be pretty manageable, as the vignettes will be short.
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