In her exploration of “Whiteness as Property,” Cheryl Harris
evokes the idea of “autonomous decision-making.” Harris employs her grandmother’s story and
the story of many Black Americans to discuss the idea of “passing” as a white
citizen (Harris 1743). Harris emphasizes
that “only when oppression makes self-denial and the obliteration of identity
rational and, in significant measure, beneficial” would so many Black Americans
cover up their identities to “embrace a lie” (Harris 1743). Thus, she asks whether this “choice”
represents “voluntariness or lack of compulsion” at all (Harris 1743). This idea of “choice” evoked the Lockean
theme of “tacit consent” for me. Adam Smith noted about Americans in the in the
18th century, “most people know no other language nor country, are
poor, and obliged to stay not far from the place where they were born to labour
for a subsistence. They cannot therefore
be said to give any consent to a contract (Smith 403).” Thus, like Harris,
Smith is skeptical of whether this choice to consent constitutes a choice at
all. During my tutorial with Professor
Hurley, we discussed “tacit consent” and examined when choices—like that of
“consenting” to a government or “choosing” a race—are choices and when they are
coercion. If men or women in Locke’s
time did not support their government, did they really have the option to leave
that government? Did they really have
the ability to leave family, culture, source of revenue, and life in order to
pursue a life in a foreign land? Like Smith argues about 18th
century Americans, Harris argues that her grandmother did not have a choice of
whether to pass as a white. Rather, “the
economic coercion of white supremacy on self-identification” forced Harris’
grandmother to self-identify as white, thereby causing her to leave her
culture, heritage, and true self behind (1743).
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ReplyDeleteEllen, I like this careful connection to Locke's tacit consent. Do you believe that Harris's mother had absolutely no choice to self-identify as white, or not? Doesn't Harris's mother's practice of self-identifying actually uphold the notion of white property, by legitimizing its holdings within the workplace? If she truly had no choice, then how did--or does-- change happen? I would argue that she did have a choice, yet I hope that this claim does not trivialize the immense challenges and discrimination she undoubtedly faced. I simply want to draw maybe a different connection to the ways in which other activists (think Rosa Parks) did choose to challenge segregation and expressly challenge--instead of tacitly consent-- to upholding white property.
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ReplyDeleteWhen I read this section I also thought of Locke, and so I'm happy you posted about it. Becca, I would agree that within Harris' account, the act of "passing" reifies the notion of white property. However, I think the point Ellen was raising doesn't contradict that; one might recognize that what she is doing is not advancing Blacks' station in a world dominated by white privilege (as activists like Rosa Parks did), while also calling into question how much of a choice (or the quality of the choice) Harris' grandmother had in "passing." If I understand Ellen's suggestion correctly (a similar point was brought up in our tutorial), we are asking a question like this: If somebody is told "Give me your money or I'll kill you," do they really have a choice/the ability to consent? In being forced to "survive," Harris' grandmother was in a decidedly different situation from somebody like Rosa Parks. She felt as if she had no alternative, and that she was "coerced" into "passing" to provide for her family. While she could have -- in literal terms -- decided not to take a job which subjected her to this type of pain, I would argue that to some extent, her circumstances curtailed her agency.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I don't think we'll have time to talk about this in class, I've always been interested in the question of how much agency we have when coming to any decision. I have yet to hear a satisfying argument for free-will, and here's why: Isn't any decision we make informed by our situation at the time? Beyond that, aren't these "decisions" pretty thoroughly driven by our past experiences (and the values we hold, which I would also claim are a result of our past experiences)? When fully drawn out, such questions of agency might also call into question notions of accountability/punishment of crimes (as in Socrates' dialogue with Meletus in Plato's Apology). It's always been unsettling to me, so if somebody can convince me that at least some of our choices aren't entirely decided, in some way or another, before we actually "make them," I would be forever indebted to you.
ReplyDeleteEllen, Becca, and Mo, you guys bring up very intriguing and compelling points! While I do agree with Becca that Harris’s grandmother did have an option to challenge the status quo, and therefore, a “choice” to decide of passing or not, I think her need for survival outweighs this as an actual option for “becoming white meant gaining access to a whole set of public and private privileges that materially and permanently guaranteed basic subsistence needs and, therefore, survival” (Harris 1713). Like Ellen and Mo highlighted, if we are faced with two bad alternatives, this “choice” does not really exist and is rather coercion. Based on this discussion, I believe that our evaluation of “choice” is determined by a benefit. So, if we are faced with a good and bad option, the presence of a good option determines a “choice.” With a choice, we expect to incur some sort of benefit. I argue that this expectation of a benefit, when legitimated by the basis of law, is the basis of white property. Since “whites have come to expect and rely on these benefits,” they want to ensure safety and security in their assets (Harris 1713). Only through a declaration of property, “affirmed, legitimated and protected by the laws,” can whites have legitimate claim to these benefits (Harris 1713). As a result, white property emerges.
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