When I first read the article, I thought, “Hmmm. . . Maybe my German isn’t as good as I thought it was.” Then I read it again. Nope. The problem wasn’t with my German, but with an essay published in the January 2005 issue of Cicero, which bills itself as a magazine for political culture. Glossy, high-brow, conservative rag. [It was a gift from someone I know who works there, okay? I didn’t buy it.] In any case, the offending essay was titled, “Wie schwarz ist Condi?” (“How black is Condi?”) For those of you who can read German, click on the essay title. Written by Sabine Reichel, the essay is just what its title implies: the attempt by a German woman to determine the blackness of an American woman.
Imagine a classroom with a large chalkboard. The teacher draws a line down the middle creating two columns. One column she labels “Black,” the other “White.” She then invites the students to offer facts about the life of Condoleezza Rice, which she will then enter into the appropriate column. “Born in Alabama.” Black. “Ph.D. at the age of 26.” White. “Concert pianist.” White. “Youngest Provost in the history of Stanford University.” White. “No Ghetto-Glamour.” White.
You get the picture.
But because I was still worried that the fault was actually to be found in my inability to suss the essay's inherent irony, I asked Martin and Isabelle to read it, since they were native German speakers. They couldn't detect any irony in the essay either. Ms. Reichel is calling it like she sees it. Here’s a (translated) quote from the article:
“With every aspect of her behaviour she is a white woman who has erased her ethnicity. With good reason: In America it is hard enough to be black, it is really foolish to remain black. Whoever wants to belong to the white middle class, has to be able to recreate themselves in the image of whites.”
Okay, because I’m a Libra I’ll give Ms. Reichel the benefit of the doubt. After all, she is a German woman living in Berlin and what she knows about being black in America can probably be summed up by her exposure to MTV and other forms of mass media, and we all know how balanced those images are. And I’m sure that there are some black folks out there who are also passing judgement on other black folks as to the extent of their blackness, but I’ll deal with them another day.
Giving Ms. Reichel the benefit of the doubt, however, doesn’t mean letting her off the hook. Despite whatever connection she has to black women in the US, she has revealed herself nevertheless, to be a narrow-minded, arrogant, not to mention ignorant individual. [See the list of things I don’t like in my profile.] As evidence of Condi’s “whiteness” she asserts, among other things, that Condi is lacking in certain black-defining criteria: she is not “a passionate Hot Mama in African clothing"; “doesn’t speak ‘black’”; and that she would “never be encountered snapping her fingers at a hip hop concert.” With respect to that last comment, Ms. Reichel goes on to say that Condi “idolizes the elegiac Brahms and not the fiery Missy Elliott and Jay-Z.” Oh, the horror!
Right.
Now, I’m no Condi fan, but that’s not the point, and you know it.
I’ll be back tomorrow for Part 2.
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No matter what traits Ms. Reichel might think Ms. Rice favors or displays, the fact is that in her country (Ms. Rice's that is) she is seen as the first Black Female Secretary of State. All the attributes Ms. Riechel draws up seem not to have changed that outcome. It appears therefore that Ms. Rice's ethnicity is not something she determines by her acts, behaviour or appearance, but something for others to determine. You are what I say you are. The ultimate abuse of power in the hands of the so-called intellectual elite. There is this fact also - The problem begins at home and eventually gets exported to unthinking and uncritical recepients abroad. It is made in the USA and exported for global consumption.
ReplyDeleteWhat a riot! Is that really how some people in other countries see African-Americans? Condi is not black because she's not, "a passionate Hot Mama in African clothing..." Oh, that is the funniest thing!
ReplyDeleteAt first I thought Ms. Reichel was going to make some point about selling out to the white establishment and betraying the interests of your own people, but the article really isn't that deep, is it? Sounds like it's just a compendium of racial stereotypes.
As a Muslim and Arab-American, I know a few things about stereotypes. I used to laugh at them. I used to make an effort to educate. But in the last three and a half years I have been called a terrorist at a job interview, mocked in public, visited by the FBI, raided by Homeland Security, and detained by U.S. Customs.
And that's the thing about racial stereotypes. They're funny until they're not funny anymore.
Wael, I know exactly how you feel,
ReplyDeleteit like a bad joke that has gone on too long or has been told once too often. Your patience wears very thin. It's a very ugly thing when someone appears to have the power to define who you are without your own imput.