Day: April 22, 2009

Caveat: All the world’s a stage…

Philosophy & Cultural Criticism / Politics, Economics & Current Affairs

In the latest Atlantic magazine, Hua Hsu replies to letters critiquing his article "The End of White America," which I mentioned once before.  And there is one thing that he says that bothers me (and he may have said something similar in his article, but at the time it didn't stick with me): "I am reminded of the commentary about Barack Obama's skill (and more important, success) at 'playing white.'"

This statement of Hsu's bothers me because in my opinion it underscores the problem with so much analysis of race, everywhere in the world:  it conflates the issues of physiognomy on the one hand and cultural background on the other.  You see, Barack Obama is not, in fact, skilled at "playing white," as Hsu says.  Culturally, Barack Obama is white.  He was raised by a white mother (and her white parents, his grandparents) in the multiethnic but mostly culturally "white" enclaves of Honolulu.  It doesn't require any skill on his part to "play white," because it's what comes naturally to him.  Being white is Obama's birthright.  If anything, Obama's skill is in "playing black," given that he had very little exposure to black culture during his childhood and adolescence (whether we're speaking of blackness of the American, slave-descended variety or of the African immigrant variety).

In fact, Obama's ability to navigate "alien" cultural spaces (such as Chicago's Southside African American world) is a great gift he has, and his success in "nativizing" himself contributed hugely to his political success later on.  And far be it from me to criticize his desire to "go native" — the challenges of cultural adoptees (where physical "race" doesn't match that of one's parents) is something I feel I have some small insight into, but in reality is far beyond my ability to empathize with deeply.
 
Nevertheless, Hsu's confusion of Obama's cultural background (white) and physiognomy (black/white), along with the inevitable overweighting of the latter vis-a-vis the former, is what I would term a central tenet of the "racist fallacy."  Obama demands huge credit for his ability to cross the cultural divides that permeate our society, and there's no denying that his physiognomy introduced complexities into that navigational process, both positive and negative, but to say that Obama is successful at "playing white" totally misses the realities of the way culture and ethnicity work, from an anthropological standpoint. 
 
Well, that's just my opinion.

Caveat: 꽃보다男子

Banalities & Journaling / Life in Korea

I began watching a new Korean TV series.
I never got more than few episodes into the last one I tried, which was called 밤이면 밤마다 (which is translated, I think inaccurately, as “When it’s at night”).  I couldn’t get into the rather rah-rah-yay-Korean-history premise, of these people working for the “cultural properties division” of some government agency, mostly bashing Japanese thefts of Korean national properties.  It’s not that I don’t believe such things are happening, or at the least, have happened in the past.  It’s just that, when couched in tones of unreflective nationalism it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
This drama was all the rage over the winter, here.  It’s a Korean remake of a Japanese remake of an originally Japanese manga series: 꽃보다男子  (“Boys over flowers”).  The premise is OK, I guess, and I’m trying my best to watch it partly because with a bunch of 10-13 year old students who are obsessed with it (especially the girls), I felt like I should try to know what it was about.  Maybe over time, it will grow on me.  So far, it seems the acting is of lower quality than some other series I’ve seen — partly, the problem is having a bunch of 20-somethings playing supposed high school students.  I heard that the Taiwanese remake of the show reset it to college, and that might have been a better strategy here, too.  I find the main actress’s efforts to be a wide-eyed innocent high school junior implausible when not downright annoying.  And the “bad-boy” gang-of-four heroes are more of the entitled, tantrums-will-always-get-you-what-you-want young men that seem all the rage in Korean romantic comedy these days as lead characters.  I’ll try to remember to report back, I guess.

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