Race and Difference
This talk of primitive, the focus on differences between people – one tries to believe society has reached the point of sameness, where race and color don’t mean a thing. Even in the previous sentence, I represented the point of view of the “whites” of America – “one tries to believe”…who is “one”. According to Richard Dyer and bell hooks, that “one” is indicative of white people – the people, in general, who have situated themselves as the norm. Dyer advocates the colorization of white people – making “white” a color in itself, a race or nation of people. There is a contemporary approach to the colorization of whites by acknowledgement by raced comedians. White people may laugh at the jokes, but don’t really accept the stereotypes as true and defining of their race. Because the raced comedians get a different perspective on white people as a race, they are more willing to bring attention and humor out of it.
Both Dyer and hooks reference people of race as primitive, spicy, or different – the difference between raced people and the uptight white rulers of the nation. Today, there isn’t so much racial prejudice and segregation as there is commoditization – white people trying to come to terms with other races, their culture and customs, what makes them different and embrace it. There have been countless attempts on the surface, for example: foods. Today, white people have the convenience of dining on foods from different worldly locations. White is the norm, but there is something desirable about difference. Almost as if white people are bored with themselves as the people and need some spice in their lives. There is a boring connotation with the word “normal”; though it is socially acceptable, it brings with is a sense of dullness – difference is exciting. For example, the most popular music today is rap and hip hop, that has become the popular desire. To get as “loose” as black people. MTVs Made has produced a number of shows with white kids wanting to be made into hip hop dancers or rappers. Anything to make them more “loose”.
http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/made/episode/episode.jhtml?episodeId=147299#bio
