Race & Ethnicity, Pt. 2: Culture & Stereotypes

It’s impossible to personally audit one’s own underlying/subconscious racial prejudices without attacking the problem head-on. Wikipedia says that “stereotypes are ideas held about members of particular groups, based primarily on membership in that group.” That’s the first problem – I don’t know any people who view stereotypes as truths that apply to all members of the subject group. Most people understand that they are generalizations, I hope. Some argue that all stereotypes – positive or negative – are bad. If I argue that members of Group X are more likely to engage in behavior A or hold belief B than members of Group Y – and it’s evidently true – is that a problem? Where is the guidebook on which differences to celebrate and which to ignore? How can you understand the root causes of culture-oriented behavior without identifying and acknowledging the existence of these stereotypes?

Are Asian people bad drivers? I’ve certainly been stuck behind Asian drivers going 25mph in a 50mph zone – a practice I consider more dangerous than all but the most reckless forms of speeding. I’ve witnessed Asian drivers showing an extreme lack of awareness while on the road. Who else plays the game where you witness a bonehead driving move and then guess race/gender before pulling up alongside the offending car to check? I’ve gotten pretty good at it. Or have I? Problem with stereotypes, and human cognition in general, is that we tend to remember those things that validate our beliefs and ignore/conveniently forget that which does not. Maybe I’m no good at the guessing game, but I’ve convinced myself I am.

Maybe Asian people tend to be “bad drivers” or at the very least “different drivers” than the majority. Sure seems to be a generally accepted stereotype. But which segment of the Asian population is responsible for this stereotype? I’ve never heard anyone claim that young Asian second+ generation males are worse drivers than the average young male. This stereotype was formed on the alleged lack of driving acumen among young Asian women and middle aged and older Asians of both genders. Eight years at UCI has given me an overabundance of anecdotal observational data. I’ve seen every shade from “absolute FOB” to “whiter than I am”. I’d be willing to put money on there being cultural reasons that lead to “stereotypically” Asian girls feeling overwhelmed on the road, thus leading to the perception of them as “bad drivers”.

And the older people? I never considered this until Tsai pointed it out years ago, and it was poignant enough for me to remember: consider how many of this group are immigrants who grew up in areas where they never drove a car, were in a car, or possibly even saw a car. It’s not racist to point out that industrialization and the prevalence of the personal automobile hasn’t reached the entire world yet, and certainly hadn’t 50 years ago. The knee-jerk reaction of “oh fuck you, Asians aren’t worse drivers than anyone else” pushes it down into a subconscious level that may impact your outlook in other unintended ways. It keeps you from understanding the impact of culture and accepting cultural differences. It’s far more healthy for the mind to accept truth than ignore it. I don’t judge the student driver for taking too long to make a right turn or an old person for failing to understand modern electronics. Although both do make me giggle.

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(For the remainder of this blog, when I refer to “black people” I am referring to people who would self-identify as black and who live in the United States. I only use the term African-American when I know I am specifically referring to a person or group with distinct African roots. It’s a linguistic hang-up of mine.)

There are the funny, meaningless stereotypes that – despite what some theorists argue – don’t appear to do any harm. “Ha ha ha, black people yell in movie theaters.” Granted I don’t go around polling black people on this subject, but I’ve never heard of anyone refusing to admit to it as a generality. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly harmful about the claim that in a theater full of black people you’re more likely to hear people audibly crack jokes than you would be in a theater full of white people. I recently watched the Tyson-Douglas fight on ESPN Classic. It was held in a huge arena in Japan with over 30,000 spectators. The announcers pointed out that if you notice the spectators aren’t jumping out of their seats and screaming like you’d “expect” from a large crowd, it’s not because they are bored or not excited about the fight. It’s just a cultural difference. Hell, Japanese baseball players bow to the ump after being called out on strikes.

The only harmful aspect of the blacks-at-theaters stereotype is how some people interpret it as validation of their own racist beliefs. “Oh, those blacks just have no self-control and no concept of proper etiquette.” Yeah well, fuck anyone who thinks that way. Etiquette is a load of horseshit to begin with. Yeah, you have to know the “proper” ways of doing things if you want to fit in and advance in business. I’m not particularly fond of that reality, but so it is. Either way, etiquette is decided upon by the group – and there is no standard set of etiquette norms that are inherently superior and should be held by all groups. Personally, for almost any type of movie, I’d rather be in a theater where people are cracking jokes. Considering the same-old tripe that’s passed off as film and entertainment by major studios, a little MST3k-wannabeism is the only way to make the shit tolerable.

The “blacks & fried chicken” stereotype is neither funny nor harmless. It actually has an interesting background that should be common knowledge. In a stand-up bit, Chappelle notes how he feels self-conscious eating chicken around white people. He’s aware of the fact that some people may look at him and be internally validating a stereotype. The implication of the stereotype, although never stated, is that black people simply can’t control themselves around chicken. Asserting that an entire group of people loses self-control simply because of food is racist and negative. However, Chappelle points out that “if you don’t like chicken and watermelon, there’s something wrong with you.”

Frying chicken is an inexpensive method of preparation. In general, it is more pleasing to the human palate than bland, boiled chicken. Here’s some unsourced history from a Wikibooks cookbook entry on fried chicken:

Fried chicken has a dual origin in the rural American South. The Scots had a tradition of deep frying chicken in fat, unlike their English counterparts who baked or boiled chicken. Later, as African slaves were introduced to households as cooks, seasonings and spices were added that are absent in traditional Scottish cuisine, improving the flavor. Since slaves were often allowed to keep only chickens, frying chicken as a special occasion spread through the African American community. After slavery, poor rural southern blacks continued the tradition since chickens were often the only animals they could afford to raise. Since fried chicken could keep for several days, it travelled well, and also gained favor during segregation when blacks normally could not find places to eat and had to carry their own food. Southern whites also continued the tradition of frying chicken. While not limited like blacks socially, poor whites were no better off economically. Therefore, fried chicken continued to dominate as “Sunday dinner” or on other special occasions.

Something else I don’t care to source right now: the human palate (taste preferences) evolved over time, presumably to facilitate survival. Food has been scarce for most people throughout most of human history. It makes sense that our tastes would have evolved to favor fatty, sugary, high-energy foods that could sustain us for longer than a few leaves. Furthermore, most of us have fond memories of certain childhood foods. I have a minor obsession with mashed potatoes, and for some reason everybody in my family has a fondness for bran muffins. I’m pretty sure I never ate fried chicken until high school, as impossible as that may sound.

So if a group of people has fond memories of a delicious food tied to family gatherings and special occasions, it makes sense that group would continue to eat that food throughout their lives – even if they aren’t aware of the historical context. What may appear to be a silly stereotype, but is actually harmful, now makes complete sense. There’s no need for cognitive dissonance as long as you’re willing to admit that blacks do, in fact, eat fried chicken.

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Race and teen pregnancy is a tough issue. It’s largely a class issue, but of course race is one of the strongest predictors of class. In 2002, 48.2 per 1000 non-Hispanic whites between the ages of 15-19 became pregnant. After abortion and other causes of lost pregnancy, the birthrate was 28.3 per 1000. Among black teenagers, the pregnancy rate was 134.2 per 1000 with a birthrate of 66.6. Hispanic teenagers had a pregnancy rate of 131.5 and birthrate of 83.4, reflecting a much lower rate of abortion. In this 15-19 demographic, 31.5% of non-Hispanic white pregnancies, 42.6% of black pregnancies, and 25.5% of Hispanic pregnancies ended in abortion.

Here comes the science.

Humans are subject to the same evolutionary drive to have sex/procreate as any other animal. We just have the ability to put off procreation until “the time is right,” which is heavily tied to socioeconomics. As I realized when hanging out with bros from CSU Fullerton who are around my general age – for them, that time is when college is over. For most of the UCI grads I know, the time for marriage and kids is well after the bachelor’s degree. There are more pressing concerns like graduate and professional school, or devoting one’s life to the corporate ladder. An interesting argument from one of my sociology classes suggested that the most economically viable time for women trapped in poverty to have a child is when they are still living at home and can draw upon those resources while the child is young and needs near-constant attention.

By no means is this the only factor behind teenage pregnancy, nor does it consciously play into a decision to get pregnant young. After all, the vast majority of teenage pregnancies are unplanned. The argument intuitively makes sense. When you believe that education and the job market are dead ends for you, then I suppose the time is as right as it’ll ever be. It’s not like we’re ever aware of more than a small fraction of the impulses guiding our actions. At least that’s a common sociological perspective.

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Sociology tends to be highly deterministic. It doesn’t state that we aren’t responsible for our own actions, or that there isn’t any wiggle room to break free of the unseen lines that guide our behavior. Those are precisely related to the individual, whereas sociology is more focused on the behavior of the group. I’ve only commented once on an IMDB message board, in a thread for the movie “Stomp the Yard”. Yes, I was reading the message board for this film. I enjoy finding places online where ignorant members of all races will spew venomous anonymous racism at one another. It’s a useful reality check when I get too high up on the ivory tower. I replied to a post contending that teenage pregnancy is an “individual’s problem”, not a social problem. Actually, it’s a classic and obvious example of what constitutes a social problem.

When one group has a 28.3 per 1000 birthrate among teenagers compared to another group, in the same country, with an 83.4 birthrate… there are clearly social issues at play. When something affects a significant percentage of the population, it is no longer simply the result of bad judgment on a strictly individual level. You have to look at the underlying social factors to have any chance of understanding the problem.

The ruling class (white people) is generally blamed for causing the conditions that lead to widespread social problems among minority groups. The legacy of slavery and outright racism. The continuation of institutional racism. This covers most of it, each issue being directly tied to the economic development of different groups. Economics, in turn, being a strong predictor of many social ills such as widespread teen pregnancy. Which, of course, continues the cycle. Conspiracy or not, it sure benefits the establishment to have large pockets of cheap and reserve labor living in poverty and contributing to the riches of the elite.

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Elijah Anderson’s “The Code of the Streets” looks at inner-city culture and distinguishes between families that are “decent” and those that are “street”. Children from decent families that stress hard work and sacrifice still need to understand the street code simply for survival. The street can drag people away from decent families with the promises of quick riches. Society is, presumably, responsible for “the street” existing. When I was in high school there was a big story about a college professor who was going to teach a class on ebonics. I’ll admit that at the time I wondered “why the hell do black people speak ebonics… don’t they realize how ignorant it makes them sound?” Nobody bothered to explain to me that on the streets, talking “white” can get your ass beat.

Ebonics is dangerous for the same reason that excessive casual cussing is. Once you get used to a style of speech, it’s hard to change. For the vast majority of us that aren’t tied to a hip-hop label, it’s necessary to speak “professionally” aka “white” to get ahead in the business world. Among many people who aren’t trying to be racist, there is a sense of frustration that black people just don’t want to help themselves. Why do they get pregnant so young? Why talk in a way that won’t be accepted in the workplace? Why spend money on luxury items they can barely afford instead of saving for the future? And so on, there are many more stereotypes of black culture that appear to be counter-productive.

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If white people are responsible for creating the deterministic factors that keep minorities downtrodden, who’s responsible for giving white people the strings they hold? I blame God. Christianity, just like sociology, is highly deterministic. Most forms of Christian faith believe in God’s Plan, right? Due to God’s omnipotence, he knows what we are going to do before we do it. But don’t fret, you still have free will… even though, uh.. God knows what you’re going to do with it. Because, well, God is unknowable, right? So it’s like, shit, you understand… divinity is different from earthliness, so there can be free will for you and predetermined action for God. Or something.

I was very young when I figured out this dilemma. Religious scholars can explain it away all they want, but at the end of the day you have free will or you don’t. I chose to believe that I have free will, which meant choosing that my religion’s God didn’t exist. I remember learning about Calvinists and their concept of predetermination. I naturally assumed that, believing heaven or hell was a predetermined outcome, there would be no reason to be all crazy-religious. We found out, however, that they took it to new heights – everybody wanted to act as good as they possibly could to convince themselves and others that they were heaven-bound.

But since everybody else Believes, I will continue to blame God. He knew we’d all end up in close quarters in Europe. He knew we’d have access to easily domesticated animals that would revolutionize agriculture and lead to the development of cities. He knew we’d weaponize gunpowder. He knew we’d expand and kill in His name, and end up with the technological superiority that facilitated it. We know He would want us to take care of the poor and weak, but He knows it’s not in our nature. Besides, that sounds a little too close to the White Man’s Burden that got us here in the first place.

The extreme religiosity of the major minorities in the US is mind-boggling. If you hate The Man, realize that God is the Ultimate Man. He set this all in motion. We used Jesus to justify domination of “the lesser races” and bring them into civilization. For hundreds of years we used the Bible to justify slavery and oppression. I guess what I’m trying to say is that religion is the predominant source of racism and hatred in the world. Personally, I think it’s silly for those who are victims of those forces to worship the God we appropriated and spread throughout the world in the name of salvation. The Religious Right does not like you, and they do not want you in this country. Please do not donate to their causes and vote their line. Thanks.

This one got away from me.

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Recent Expenditures:

7-11: $2 – Sunday paper
Starbucks: $2 – Iced tea