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Joined: 27 Nov 2004
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 Posted: Wed 06 Aug 2008 04:59 Post subject: The racist "Human Stain" |
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The authors should question the "African American" label on a person who has neither Negroid looks nor any "African" culture. I would also point out that an actor playing a Jew in a Holocaust film would not be expected to provide proof of Jewish genes.
| Quote: | -------- Original Message --------
Subject: A worthy exploration of ethnic identity and assimilation
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 17:34:30 -0800
From: James C. Mancuso <mancusoj>
To: H-ITAM <H>
Hi:
I trust that those who receive this posting will not be turned aside by
its length.
The following discussion represents a coalescing of some of the
important threads of my activity over the last several years.
The concept designated by the term ASSIMILATION deserves continuous
elaboration. The concept is too important to all it to enter discussion
of ingroup/outgroup relationships as a "given." I hold to the position
that the people who invented the concept and who have tried to apply the
concept over the last 75 years worked from quite limited psychological
theory. I also hold to the position that Personal Construct Psychology
offers a theory that can be highly useful in discussions of whatever is
supposed to happen when a person is required to/asked to/expected
"assimilate." What happens when a person takes the self role identities
he acquired in his/her original culture into interactions with the power
holders of an established culture/society? Whose self role enactmets
shall gain validation?
Thus, I send this message around people who have been involved in
chronicling the history of the Italy-to-The-USA immigration as well as
to my psychology colleagues.
I hope that I can convince you to bear with me....
I must first offer a "truth in advertising claim."
Our daughter, Renee, does accounting work for Lakeshore Entertainment
Corp... Which company produced and released the movie, THE HUMAN STAIN. (The film's script was adapted from Philip Roth's novel of the same
name.)
Renee arranged for Susan and I to attend a premier showing at the
Paramount theater, on the Paramount lot, in LA.
We went to the showing with some trepidation.... After all, Anthony
Hopkins and Nicole Kidman spell HIGH Celebrity, and I was expecting that
the film would capitalize primarily on their status as celebrities.
I found the movie to be very, very intellectually evocative -- and very
personally moving.
The film was very personally moving, because it struck many chords
relative to making one's way as an "outsider" during the late '40s and
the 50's. Many of the actual details of the life of the protagonist --
Coleman Silk, an African-American whose physical features allowed him to
"pass" as a "white man" -- crossed over into some of the details of my
own life. The age and era of the protagonist replicated mine. The
protagonist is said to have served in the US Navy, and then to have
attended NYU. I went to a different college after my Navy hitch, but I
did attend NYU for one summer. The college that I attended was a very
middle class WASP college -- one found very few vowel ending names among the listings of the student body and faculty. And, of course, like the protagonist, I lived out a career in academe.
So, I could easily grasp the significance of the film's (and Philip
Roth's) explorations of identity formation and maintenance.
Additionally, the theme neatly coalesced with my academic interests --
identity formation and maintenance.
At the affair following the screening, I spoke with the president of
Lakeshore, and I expressed my concern that audiences -- especially young audiences -- would not easily grasp the power of the film's
explorations.
Sure enough -- my expectations seemed to have been met when the reviews
began to appear.... "Anthony Hopkins was miscast!!! Imagine a mixed
colored man speaking with a Welsh accent!!!" (The script writer should
have made some kind of allusion to the people who have aspired to
success in academe and then affected a "valued" British accent!!!)
"Anthony Hopkins has little physical resemblance to the ultra-handsome
actor who played the part of the young Coleman Silk." So what -- our
physical appearance does change a bit when we get to be about 65 years
old, doesn't it.
"Nicole Kidman was too physically attractive to be cast as a woman who
supported herself by scrubbing floors." Again, a nice piece of
stereotyping. We had a very lovely (physically and otherwise) lady
doing the janitor work for the psychology department at University at
Albany. I had often noted her attractiveness, so that it wasn't a big
surprise when I found that she and one of our young professors had taken
marriage vows -- and they still are married, as both head to retirement
from their respective positions.
All the early reviews of THE HUMAN STAIN were a big disappointment.
This morning (Monday, November 17, 2003) The LA TIMES came through.
In a very telling response to the newspapers' original review (see
attachment), Kimberly Cooper Plaszewski wrote and had published a superb
response to a previously published review.
Plaszewski rightly criticizes the earlier published review for focusing
on non-essentials. Plaszewski cogently points out the power of the
film's exploration of identity crises created by a society that tries to
impose a single standard of self identity that a person must meet in
order to gain credibility in that society.
As I read parts of the review to Susan, my wife (who comes from a
Polish-American background) I noted the name of the writer of the
response -- PLASZEWSKI. My comment -- "Does it require that one have
intimate personal connections to outgroup experiences in order to see
the extent of the effects of the "assimilation" project that was carried
on in The USA during the first three-quarters of the 20th century?"
Ms. Plaszewski is identified as diversity consultant and director of
development for The Independent School Alliance for Minority Affairs in
Los Angeles.
In her review, Ms. Plaszewski reveals a deep understanding of the
problems of forming and presenting self identities that will gain the
validation of the surrounding power holders. It is very satisfying, to
me, to find that she holds positions from which she can bring that
understanding into the ongoing functioning of our society.
Below you will find Ms. Plaszewski's review.
Sincerely, Jim Mancuso
=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=
COUNTERPUNCH
'Human Stain's' lessons about U.S. assimilation
By Kimberly Cooper Plaszewski
I was dismayed that in her review of "The Human Stain" ("Vital Ideas Are
Lost in the Translation," Oct. 31), film critic Manohla Dargis ignored
discussing the movie's important racial themes and instead opted to
criticize the casting of Anthony Hopkins because he is not black - even
though the character is supposed to look white. I couldn't help but feel
Dargis was missing the point.
"The Human Stain" is a groundbreaking contribution to the racial debate
in America. Not only does the film exhibit an underrepresented
historical phenomenon involving black/white relations, it also provides
a constructive platform for navigating our own preconceived notions
regarding self-identity as well as racial typecasting within Hollywood
cinema.
Set in 1998, "The Human Stain" tells the story of Coleman Silk, a man
haunted by a life-altering decision to deceptively reinvent his racial
identity in search of individuality and freedom. The dramatic irony of
Coleman's secret is foreshadowed within the first 20 minutes of the film
when his professional career as a Jewish college professor is stunted
prematurely by false allegations of racism. Pressured to resign, Coleman
soon thereafter becomes widowed and finds familiarity, solace and sexual
enlightenment in Faunia Farley (Nicole Kidman), a hard-edged,
blue-collar woman half his age.
What is fundamental to ponder to appreciate this film is whether it is
plausible for an individual to be defined as one race and yet
effectively "pass" for another. Reviewers nationwide have been
distracted by the producers' decision to cast Hopkins, a Welsh actor, in
the lead role. The character, however, as described in Philip Roth's
2000 bestselling novel, is a light-skinned African American with skin
"white as snow," thereby enabling him to transform his racial identity
from "Negro" to "White" without question.
Casting Hopkins was courageous, because it requires the audience to
transcend significant barriers with regard to preconceived notions of
racial distinctiveness within mainstream film. And Hopkins' captivating
performance as a man struggling to maintain his self-imposed identity in
the face of defeat is flawless - regardless of the actor's "authentic"
racial background.
Historically, "light-skinned" African Americans who could misrepresent
their racial identity because they had physical features closely
resembling those of white Americans often did so to gain upward mobility
in mainstream society, moving beyond segregated, blue-collar working
conditions. This phenomenon is traditionally referred to as "passing."
The consequences, however, were costly. Family members were rejected and
entire generations of people were lost - crossing the racial divide into
white America and forever detaching themselves from their African
American lineage. One of the film's most powerful scenes takes place in
a flashback sequence when we learn of Coleman's decision as a young man
(brilliantly portrayed by newcomer Wentworth Miller) to reject his
mother (Anna Deavere Smith) and siblings to successfully "pass" for
white.
Not since Douglas Sirk's 1959 version of "Imitation of Life" (also
panned by critics but successful at the box office) has a major studio
attempted to address "passing" and the struggles encountered by those
directly affected by it in this country. Now, more than 40 years later,
"The Human Stain" invokes a rediscovery and affirmation of this
historical occurrence for contemporary audiences to digest.
Even though the pressures that drove Coleman Silk to denounce his racial
background have lessened over the last few decades, we continue to live
in a nation that places far too much emphasis on skin color and racial
categories instead of the individuality of the human being within.
Census 2000 was the first time in U.S. history in which people of
biracial heritage could indicate their entire racial background if so
desired. These individuals of "mixed race" continue to remain virtually
nonexistent elsewhere, however, such as on school enrollment forms
(where biracial children must choose one racial identity over another
when requested to "self-identify"). Forced to assimilate their biracial
identity into one distinct racial classification, they, like Silk, are
too often faced with the dilemma of "passing" or denying part of their
individualism in order to secure acceptance and acknowledgment within
U.S. culture.
"The Human Stain" should be valued and celebrated for its courageous
attempt to further the nation's awareness about these matters. Coleman
Silk challenges what we think we know about racial identity, while at
the same time providing an accurate depiction of the lengths to which
people have gone to free themselves from oppression and discrimination
in the shaping of an "American" identity. Long overdue, the film
requires us to rethink how we continue to legitimize ourselves on the
basis of race in the United States.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Kimberly Cooper Plaszewski is a diversity consultant and director of
development for the Independent School Alliance for Minority Affairs in
Los Angeles.
=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=
James C. Mancuso, Ph. D.
335 South Norton Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90020
323 938 4803
www.mancusopersonalital.net
A www site on Italian-American Connections |
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