Honorary White or "Just Happens to be Black"
05/04/08 10:00
“…one experiment found it easy for whites to admire African-American doctors; they just mentally categorized them as ‘doctors’ rather than as “blacks.” Meanwhile, whites categorize black doctors whom they dislike as ‘blacks.’
- Nicholas D. Kristof
“… Obama has unwittingly enhanced his image as the African American candidate – as opposed to being just a remarkable candidate who happens to be black.”
- Robert Novak
Kristof points to, and Novak then makes a common distinction. Novak distinguishes between an “African-American X,” and an “X who Just Happens to be African American.” It seems that in order for the majority to consider you an X Who Just Happens to Be African-American versus an African-American X, you have to work very hard. Despite the fact that your African-Americanness is telegraphed all over your body, your task is to assure the majority that the fact of your skin color, having been raised as a minority in America with it, having been all of your life associated with the dominant Afro-American sub-culture surrounding it… your job is to assure your judges (and all who claim to speak for the majority are, rightfully, your judges) that none of that has made any difference whatsoever in your outlook, point-of-view, or allegiances. You must assure them that you think, perceive and behave just like “regular” [read “white”] Americans. Only then can you be considered an X Who Just Happens to Be African American, versus the dreaded African-American X.
So I’ve been trying to decide if, in the eyes of my white judges, I am the dreaded, lesser Black Man, or if I have achieved the august status of Just Happening to Be Black. Hmmm. I was raised around white people. I’ve lived and studied next to them. I competed and fought with them. I’ve loved, eaten and even slept with them throughout my life. I went to Harvard and my command of mainstream culture rivals that of the vast majority of my countrymen. My speech is unaccented. So far, so good. I’m feeling better about myself already.
But I am also devotee of Afro-American history and culture. My outlook on everything from matters spiritual to political to interpersonal have been formed by the fact of being African-American, and more specifically, Afro-American (the American descendant of African slaves). So, while on first blush, my judges might think I am that rare, sought after racial Unicorn—the Man Who Just Happens to Be African-American, in fact, on slightly deeper examination, I will be exposed as the lesser African-American Man and accordingly reviled. Oh my!
This might lead to a personal meltdown. I write; so am I a Black Writer, or am I the much better Writer Who Just Happens to Be Black? Does it depend on what I’m writing? Right now, I’m writing about racial issues, so I guess I’m a Black Writer as opposed to a Writer Who Happens to Be Black. But Novak was writing about racial issues too. Because he was writing about black people is he White Writer, or a White Writer Who Happens to Be Black? But perhaps, being white, the whole question moot since the question itself presupposes the majority (in this case white) outlook as a baseline, a norm, the constant from which all else aberrantly deviates.
Becoming what white people want us to be—People Who Just Happen to Be Black seems to require an extraordinary amount of self-negation, a sort of reverse therapy process. As opposed to coming to terms with our past and the influences that formed us, we are to do the opposite. We are to deny them—our history, our parents, their histories, our siblings, and their experiences as well as our own. Only then are we worthy of the majority’s trust.
During apartheid, South Africa allowed certain blacks to gain special status by bestowing upon them the status of “Honorary White.” We now bestow special status on those anointed “Just Happens to Be Black.”
What’s the difference?