November 8, 2016 - 21:59
Coates asserts that race cannot be separated from racism. He writes that there are no inherent qualities in a race (Coates 7). I was interested in the way he talks about naming: “And the process of naming ‘the people’ has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy” (7) Coates goes on to discuss white washing and the elevation of the belief in being white (8). Coates critiques the American dream and has high moral standards for a country that prides itself on exceptionalism. “One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our country’s claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjection our country to an exceptional moral standard” (8). Coates ideas of power, ability, and mobility are constantly being complicated and put in relation to each other in new ways. “And you know now, if you did not before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body” (9). Coates goes on to explain other ways the black body is destroyed: friskings, detainings, beating, and humiliations (9). He explains the police role in mass incarceration and racism. Coates writes that police fulfill the role of the destroyer of the black body, but that people have been filling this role for years: “There is nothing uniquely evil in these destroyers or even in this moment. The destroyers are merely men enforcing the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy” (10). This description is so visceral because it demonstrates how “easily” are society deems black and brown bodies replaceable, “one of many.” This in and of itself is an erasure of identities, the physical plundering of culture, and language. How do we understand existence?
Coates describes how language denounces the violence and pain of racism. Words can limit, reduce, and minimalize people’s experiences. Sometimes I wish they weren’t so powerful.
I appreciated the way he explains how words can “obscure that racism is a visceral experience” (10). I liked how he named the physicality of racism- that racism is inherently embodied and felt. I appreciate the way he named how it is felt in the muscle, organs, teeth- that violence ripples and is constantly reinvented.
Coates describes the difficulty of explaining and articulating his thoughts, perspectives, and intentions through an experience with a host on a Sunday news show. “And I remembered that I expected to fail” (101). White people are constantly searching for examples that defy normal, racist, painful realities. They want to imagine that the current racial caste system, well-orchestrated colorblind trauma, torture site, does not exist. I think this speaks to something I am deeply ashamed of. The ability to ignore and desire to ignore racial microaggressions- the way it can complicate relationships, times that I am grasping for “a good night,” searching for “a way out of no way.” Wanting to connect, to understand, to “make someone feel better,” when that intention can be traumatic, painful through my processes of helping. I am always missing, partially because I have a non-verbal learning difference/ disorder, same challenges different names, and so I don’t always pick up on all the subtle racial microaggressions in class, but also because I’m white and wealthy and colorblind and racist.
“And for so long I have wanted to escape into the Dream, to fold my country over my head like a blanket” (11).