Hua Hsu’s article “The End of White America” puts forth the interesting prospect of a new America, whose culture is created not by the white American but by the new mainstream of a “post-white” country. Hsu’s tone through the article is hopeful; he mentions significant progress of the inclusion of more diverse actors and actresses on television, the increase in the number of non-white elected officials, and the possibility that a post-racial world means that race is “no longer essential to how we define ourselves.” Although Hsu cites a few examples as evidence that identifying as white is “no longer a precondition for entry into the highest levels of public office” nor for other milestones of cultural ascension, I find his conclusions premature. Hsu mentions the rise of hip-hop as an example of how African American culture is helping to redefine mainstream culture in America. While hip-hop has developed a global audience and emerged as a multi-billion dollar industry, I would argue that hip hop artists are still forced to the margins of white American culture and white artists still culturally appropriate and capitalize on elements of black culture. Perhaps a prime example of this is Miley Cyrus’ appropriation of twerking at the VMAs in 2013. The form of dance exploded onto the American culture scene, but had existed in global black culture for years. The popularization and manipulation of the dance, coupled with society’s hyper-sexualization of black bodies, just solidifies the assertion that white American still handles and shapes culture creation.
Additionally, the article does little to address intersectionality, considering race as isolated from other identifiers of personal identity, when, in fact, all facets of a person’s identity inform their experience. Gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status are just a few of these identifiers that come together each with their separate systems of hierarchy and power. Rather than speaking of people abandoning their whiteness, we should instead encourage a greater understanding of how race has impacted the experience of certain groups in society. A post-racial society we are not, and instead of fooling people into thinking of today’s society as one, we should instead work to address the discrimination and inequality that still so clearly exists.
Great critique of Hsu Kara!
You are definitely right to push his assertions further. Much of his argument seems to rest on whether or not being black is fashionable and trendy and focuses on, really, the market appeal of black culture. Yet, the market appeal of black culture is not particularly new. However, blackness as fashion , while laudable in some ways I suppose, does not point to deeper and more meaningful structural and ideological shifts in the American racial terrain. Cultural appropriation is a hot button issue and one of the most salient critiques launched against it is that when whites culturally appropriate, they in essence don the fashionable aspects of blackness for their own enjoyment while remaining still white with all the privileges that category affords.
While redefining mainstream culture is important, I do agree that Hsu may be a bit premature in his assertions and I think we should be suspicious of the notion that fashionability of non-white cultures automatically paves the way for amelioration of inequalities, when much of the time it is consumption of the Other which serves to reinforce their status as exotic Other worthy of being consumed.