False Assumptions

   While reading Sue Hum’s “Behind the Eyes,” and Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “Writing Race and the Difference it makes,” I noticed that Gates address the history and reality of racial issues, and Hum discusses how and why race has come to influence society.  By putting these two authors and their works in conversation, we can unpack race and its constructs within literature and design.

           
Gates begins by stating that race has done nothing in terms of the development of “the study of literature and the shaping of critical theory” (2). He establishes that using race to define any person, their abilities, or their writing is completely invalid and an assumption masked as researched truths. People use these visual differences to create inaccurate assumptions about one’s intangible abilities. Sue Hum says this “racialized gaze” is created by “sight and site” (193). It’s interesting that because of factors an individual can’t control, they are looked at as inferior. Further more, large groups of people were forced into illiteracy. Gates points to Hegel’s belief that the African people lacked culture because of their illiteracy and inability to understand European linguistics. This is crazy to me because the African population was never even given a chance to learn. The white and European cultures took drastic measures at times to prevent black and African cultures from reading and writing. Being blamed by someone that is causing the situation you are being blamed for…what? Unfortunately, these ideas prevailed through history, in some instances even rewriting it. Children grew up surrounded by these ideas. Their whole lives they have heard stereotypes, ideologies, and biased opinions from every single source imaginable. Hum labeled this unique  and one-of-a-kind experience in life with her term, “lifeworld” (197). Every person has their own life within their own world. They have grown up learning their own truths, making their reality real to just them. Kids grew up; their lifeworlds were filled with strong opinion on differing races and cultures.

            Hum’s journal is centered on the racially fueled artwork of Thomas Nast. His work was intended to be pro-racial equality, but ended up coming across quite the opposite. When discussing fig. 1, she states “Despite the cartoon’s racially inclusive, progressive message, Nast inadvertently weakens that message through sight in design as a verb by understanding the metonymic significance of phenotypical traits” (200). Images like this were fuel to the fire for growing decision makers. As people grew into major influencers, they continued to push their parents learned ideals. They became people that could make impactful decisions: lawyers, politicians, author and artists.  It was these people, believing in their own made-up designs of reality that promoted slavery, black illiteracy, and so much more. One such instance, mentioned by Gates, occurred when Phillis Wheatley was questioned by 18 high-status citizens about whether or not she had truly written a certain poem (7). Now, this did happen in 1772 and equality has certainly become common goal of the modern population thanks to huge advances in communication technologies. Thanks to her work and works similar to Anna Julia Cooper, the rejection of literature based on author’s race has become unheard of. Gates refers to race as an “invisible quantity, a persistent yet implicit presence” (2) in modern century literature.

            By deconstructing what causes racism, we should become aware that race should have no grounds in determining the validity of literature. This racism is a product of the worlds we, and those before us, have designed. It’s taken hundreds of years for us to progress this far. The benefits of positive communication between all people are endless. I feel like if more people took the time to analyze what has happened and why, we could eradicate the racialized gaze for good.