This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/31/black-writers-courageously-staring-down-the-white-gaze-this-is-why-we-all-must-read-them
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Black writers courageously staring down the white gaze – this is why we all must read them | Black writers courageously staring down the white gaze – this is why we all must read them |
| (less than a minute earlier) | |
| The white gaze – it is a phrase that resonates in black American literature. Writers from WEB Du Bois to Ralph Ellison to James Baldwin and Toni Morrison have struggled with it and railed against it. | The white gaze – it is a phrase that resonates in black American literature. Writers from WEB Du Bois to Ralph Ellison to James Baldwin and Toni Morrison have struggled with it and railed against it. |
| As Morrison – a Nobel Laureate – once said: | As Morrison – a Nobel Laureate – once said: |
| Our lives have no meaning, no depth without the white gaze. And I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books. | Our lives have no meaning, no depth without the white gaze. And I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books. |
| The white gaze: it traps black people in white imaginations. It is the eyes of a white schoolteacher who sees a black student and lowers expectations. It is the eyes of a white cop who sees a black person and looks twice – or worse, feels for a gun. | The white gaze: it traps black people in white imaginations. It is the eyes of a white schoolteacher who sees a black student and lowers expectations. It is the eyes of a white cop who sees a black person and looks twice – or worse, feels for a gun. |
| Du Bois explored this more than a century ago in his book The Souls of Black Folk, reflecting on his conversations with white people and the ensuing delicate dance around the “Negro problem”. | Du Bois explored this more than a century ago in his book The Souls of Black Folk, reflecting on his conversations with white people and the ensuing delicate dance around the “Negro problem”. |
| Related: Toni Morrison: ‘I’m writing for black people … I don’t have to apologise’ | Related: Toni Morrison: ‘I’m writing for black people … I don’t have to apologise’ |
| Between me and the other world there is an ever unasked question…. All, nevertheless, flutter around it ... Instead of saying directly, how does it feel to be a problem? They say, I know an excellent coloured man in my town ... To the real question … I answer seldom a word. | Between me and the other world there is an ever unasked question…. All, nevertheless, flutter around it ... Instead of saying directly, how does it feel to be a problem? They say, I know an excellent coloured man in my town ... To the real question … I answer seldom a word. |
| Baldwin was as ever more direct and piercing, writing in his book Nobody Knows My Name. | Baldwin was as ever more direct and piercing, writing in his book Nobody Knows My Name. |
| I have spent most of my life ... watching white people and outwitting them so that I might survive. | I have spent most of my life ... watching white people and outwitting them so that I might survive. |
| The flame has passed to a new generation. | The flame has passed to a new generation. |
| In 2015 three more black writers have stared down the white gaze. In their own ways Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine and George Yancy have held up a mirror to white America. | In 2015 three more black writers have stared down the white gaze. In their own ways Ta-Nehisi Coates, Claudia Rankine and George Yancy have held up a mirror to white America. |
| These are uncompromising and fearless voices. | These are uncompromising and fearless voices. |
| Coates’ searing essay Between The World And Me critiques America against a backdrop of black deaths at the hands of police. He says the country’s history is rooted in slavery and the assault against the black body. | Coates’ searing essay Between The World And Me critiques America against a backdrop of black deaths at the hands of police. He says the country’s history is rooted in slavery and the assault against the black body. |
| In the form of a letter to his son, Coates writes: | In the form of a letter to his son, Coates writes: |
| Here is what I would like for you to know: In America it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage. | Here is what I would like for you to know: In America it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage. |
| In Citizen – An American Lyric, poet Rankine reflects on the black experience from the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or Trayvon Martin, a 17 year-old black youth shot dead by a neighbourhood watch volunteer who was acquitted, or black tennis star Serena Williams. In each case Rankine sees lives framed by whiteness. | In Citizen – An American Lyric, poet Rankine reflects on the black experience from the victims of Hurricane Katrina, or Trayvon Martin, a 17 year-old black youth shot dead by a neighbourhood watch volunteer who was acquitted, or black tennis star Serena Williams. In each case Rankine sees lives framed by whiteness. |
| She writes: | She writes: |
| Because white men can’t police their imagination, black men are dying. | Because white men can’t police their imagination, black men are dying. |
| Philosophy Professor George Yancy just last week penned a letter in the New York Times addressed to “Dear White America”. He asks his countrymen to listen with love, and to look at those things that might cause pain and terror. | Philosophy Professor George Yancy just last week penned a letter in the New York Times addressed to “Dear White America”. He asks his countrymen to listen with love, and to look at those things that might cause pain and terror. |
| Related: How Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son about being black in America became a bestseller | Related: How Ta-Nehisi Coates's letter to his son about being black in America became a bestseller |
| All white people, he says, benefit from racism and this means each, in their own way, are racist. | All white people, he says, benefit from racism and this means each, in their own way, are racist. |
| …don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism…practice being vulnerable. Being neither a “good” white person, nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook. | …don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism…practice being vulnerable. Being neither a “good” white person, nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook. |
| Their unflinching work is not tempered by the fact a black man is in the White House – that only makes their voices more urgent. | Their unflinching work is not tempered by the fact a black man is in the White House – that only makes their voices more urgent. |
| Coates, Rankine, Yancy – each has been variously praised and awarded, yet each has been pilloried as well. This is inevitable when some people don’t like what the mirror reflects. | Coates, Rankine, Yancy – each has been variously praised and awarded, yet each has been pilloried as well. This is inevitable when some people don’t like what the mirror reflects. |
| It takes courage for a black person to speak to a white world; this world that can render invisible people of colour, unless they begin to more closely resemble white people themselves – an education, a house in the suburbs, a good job, lighter skin. | It takes courage for a black person to speak to a white world; this world that can render invisible people of colour, unless they begin to more closely resemble white people themselves – an education, a house in the suburbs, a good job, lighter skin. |
| In Australia, too, black voices are defying the white gaze. We may not have the popular cut through of a Morrison or a Baldwin or a Coates, but we have a proud tradition – Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Kevin Gilbert, Ruby Langford or more recently Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Anita Heiss. | In Australia, too, black voices are defying the white gaze. We may not have the popular cut through of a Morrison or a Baldwin or a Coates, but we have a proud tradition – Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Kevin Gilbert, Ruby Langford or more recently Kim Scott, Alexis Wright, Anita Heiss. |
| I have spent some time recently reading some of the most powerful works of Indigenous writers. Their styles and genres are many and varied but there is a common and powerful theme of defiance and survival. | I have spent some time recently reading some of the most powerful works of Indigenous writers. Their styles and genres are many and varied but there is a common and powerful theme of defiance and survival. |
| This is a world so instantly recognisable to us – Indigenous people – but still so foreign to white Australia. | This is a world so instantly recognisable to us – Indigenous people – but still so foreign to white Australia. |
| Related: Alexis Wright: 'it was like writing a story to the ancestors' | Related: Alexis Wright: 'it was like writing a story to the ancestors' |
| Natalie Harkin’s book of poetry, Dirty Words, is a subversive dictionary that turns English words back on their users: A is apology, B is for Boat People … G is for Genocide ... S for Survival. | Natalie Harkin’s book of poetry, Dirty Words, is a subversive dictionary that turns English words back on their users: A is apology, B is for Boat People … G is for Genocide ... S for Survival. |
| “How do you dream,” she writes, “When your lucky country does not sleep”. | “How do you dream,” she writes, “When your lucky country does not sleep”. |
| Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu challenges the white stereotype of the “primitive hunter gatherer”. He says the economy and culture of Indigenous people has been grossly undervalued. | Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu challenges the white stereotype of the “primitive hunter gatherer”. He says the economy and culture of Indigenous people has been grossly undervalued. |
| He cites journals and diaries of explorers and colonists to reveal the industry and ingenuity of pre-colonial Aboriginal society. He says it is a window into a world of people building dams and wells and houses, irrigating and harvesting seed and creating elaborate cemeteries. | He cites journals and diaries of explorers and colonists to reveal the industry and ingenuity of pre-colonial Aboriginal society. He says it is a window into a world of people building dams and wells and houses, irrigating and harvesting seed and creating elaborate cemeteries. |
| Pascoe’s work demands to be taught in our schools. | Pascoe’s work demands to be taught in our schools. |
| Tony Birch is an acclaimed novelist and his latest Ghost River is remarkable. It is the story of two friends navigating the journey into adulthood guided by the men of the river – men others may see as homeless and hopeless. It is a work infused with a sense of place and belonging. | Tony Birch is an acclaimed novelist and his latest Ghost River is remarkable. It is the story of two friends navigating the journey into adulthood guided by the men of the river – men others may see as homeless and hopeless. It is a work infused with a sense of place and belonging. |
| Ellen Van Neerven’s Heat and Light is a genre-busting mystical journey into identity: sexual, racial and national. It is provocative and challenging and mind bending, and altogether stunning. | Ellen Van Neerven’s Heat and Light is a genre-busting mystical journey into identity: sexual, racial and national. It is provocative and challenging and mind bending, and altogether stunning. |
| You won’t find many of these titles in the annual best book lists. Occasionally they pop up, but not as often as they deserve. You probably won’t hear much of Samuel Wagan Watson’s Love Poems and Death Threats, or Ken Canning’s Yimbama, or Lionel Fogarty’s Eelahroo (Long Ago) Nyah (Looking) Mobo-Mobo (Future). | You won’t find many of these titles in the annual best book lists. Occasionally they pop up, but not as often as they deserve. You probably won’t hear much of Samuel Wagan Watson’s Love Poems and Death Threats, or Ken Canning’s Yimbama, or Lionel Fogarty’s Eelahroo (Long Ago) Nyah (Looking) Mobo-Mobo (Future). |
| Related: How can I feel Australian when this country has told me I don't belong? | Stan Grant | Related: How can I feel Australian when this country has told me I don't belong? | Stan Grant |
| That these works are not more widely read is a national shame. In our busy lives, try to find time for some of these books in 2016 – read with the courage of these writers. | That these works are not more widely read is a national shame. In our busy lives, try to find time for some of these books in 2016 – read with the courage of these writers. |
| George Yancy asks white Americans to become “un-sutured”, to open themselves up and let go of their white innocence. | George Yancy asks white Americans to become “un-sutured”, to open themselves up and let go of their white innocence. |
| Why is this important? Well, for white people it may simply be a matter of choice – the fate of black people may not affect them. For us it is survival – the white gaze means we die young, are locked up and locked out of work and education. | Why is this important? Well, for white people it may simply be a matter of choice – the fate of black people may not affect them. For us it is survival – the white gaze means we die young, are locked up and locked out of work and education. |
| We hear a lot about recognition – acknowledging Indigenous people in the Australian constitution. But there is another recognition – recognising the pervasive and too often destructive role of race in our lives, and the need to lift our gaze above it. | We hear a lot about recognition – acknowledging Indigenous people in the Australian constitution. But there is another recognition – recognising the pervasive and too often destructive role of race in our lives, and the need to lift our gaze above it. |