'Everyone's A Little Bit Racist'

I am currently choreographing a musical theatre production, a very modern musical called Avenue Q that speaks (and sings) about very relevant issues in contemporary society. So i know it's not a news report but I think it's still expressing what I've been thinking about. One of the songs that comes up in this show is called ‘Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist’. Here’s the link, it’s funny and exaggerated satire but you should listen to it before reading the rest of this post. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM

In light of what we've been talking about it lectures and tutorials, it made me wonder if racism has actually become a part of our culture and whether or not it is in some part accepted in society depending on the context and basis of comments or actions during a particular interaction. By culture and society in this post I am referring to a western, white context, and particularly schooling environments. However, there is a common conception of racism coming strongly from other cultures towards white or Caucasian people, subverting the idea of white supremacy and power in our multicultural society. What I've come to notice is that particular groups of people who collect together and are of the same race, religion or even socio-economic status, (really any common factor that unites and divides people in society), tend to voice and share their opinions on ‘opposites’ more strongly than if they were in a mixed group. (By opposites I mean any one or thing of the other kind, e.g Christianity and Muslim faiths). This may be given a pretext such as ‘I’m not intending to be racist, but…’, and the opinion is generally heard and understood because this group of people share the same values. For example, if a group of African-American students collated together and came upon the discussion of the numbers of white professional basketball players (a crude stereotype I know, my apologies), and were passing derogatory comments about their skills being unequal to their African-American comrades for the sole reason that they are ‘white’, would this not be considered a racist comment? By an onlooker, it would appear so, but within the group at that particular time and place, slander is able to occur without any consequences because, in my opinion, the familial grounds in which they are laid tie so strongly to stereotypes characterised by both parties that the comical edge that may be placed upon the comments allow them to be disregarded as unjust and expressed easily between the people in the group. However, it is different if there is a person in the party who is 'the other' and the target of either the comment or associated with it. In this instance, the action would be what Minikel-Lacoque (our week 8 reading), calls a microaggression, meaning that the connotations behind the comments being made about white basketball players have an effect on the second party person in the group and therefore, while possibly being shrugged off as a joke, has a lasting impact on the persons’ sense of identity and self within that group.

In this way, we can see how context and personal and collective opinion can influence the judgement and expression of particular thoughts towards other people. When these views are expressed in a homogeneous group of a particular factor, the comments or actions may not be perceived as racist. But when engaging with another defensive party directly, the connotations of the behavior have a different effect on all those involved. All in all, the conclusion can be drawn that such behavior has just become a part of our life. When living and socialising in particular groups that carry the same values as us in any area, it is easy to let these things fly around without consequence and the realisation that what is being said or done could be inappropriate in a different context. It is the comfort provided by homogeneous groups that allow for these actions to occur and be accepted in our society, this doesn't mean that it is the right thing to allow to happen, but racism certainly has become a custom that is accepted in particular circumstances.

References
- Minikel-Lacocque, J. (2012). Racism, College, and the Power of Words: Racial Microaggressions Reconsidered, 50(3), 432-465. doi: 103102/0002831212468048
- Avenue Q (Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx). 2012. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM