The Trouble with Friendship has for me, since I put the book down almost twenty-four hours ago, been one of the most compelling and insightful books I have read in years. This is a noteworthy statement; many, many, many of the books I have read in the past five years have been “academic” in nature. Most dealing with cultural topics such as race, sexuality, and gender, the three topics I am most interested. Let me back track for a minute, and consider the idea of “thinking clearly” what does it mean? I teach freshman composition and one of the claims of my department is that we teach our students how to “think clearly” in order to write clearly. This concept is anything new or earth shattering, but the most students don’t. So, getting back to DeMott’s work, what does “thinking clearly” have to do with his book. Well, for the most part he presupposes that in America, there is a distinct problem with “friendship” [black, white, and brown] which is why “we” as a collective nation cannot think straight or “clearly” about it.
“Why can’t we all get along” are the words that run through my mind. Of course, if we buy into everything popular culture tells us about ourselves, we in fact do get along. This idea of “getting along” or that we are all the “same” is at the heart of DeMott’s work. The friendship orthodoxy as he terms it, tells us that we are all the same, we have the same values and beliefs. We are essentially a people with the spirit of “can do.” But for African-Americans, simply given our history in this country, DeMott paints a very different picture than the one “pop culture” tries to sell.
What he has created is a methphorical testament about racial troubles in American society. He has given a voice to concerns that I feel, have gone astray in the past twenty years. I really believe if we look at films and television as a sort of cultural text, then we can really “see” DeMott’s ideas come to life. For example, I discussed in my graduate thesis the ways in which African-Americans, specifically women are depicted on television and film. I asserted the idea that authenticity rest in the realm of multiplicity. Many of the depictions of Black women I observed relied on convention and stereotype to rely or to create a sense of authentic “Blackness” for the viewer. In terms of DeMott’s work, this is classic pop culture; informing much of what the general public believes about social groups. Friendship orthodoxy becomes a narrative text in movies and on television because the mediums are seemingly telling a story about American experiences. The stories in films like White Men Can’t Jump or Six degrees of Separation often paint a misleading picture of racial integration.
A film, that I believe would appeal to DeMott’s taste is Crash. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2005, although it was not favored to win in this category. The film is a metaphor for many of the complex and complicated racial tensions still present in American culture. A lot of the backlash surrounding this film was in-part because it did not really fit into the friendship orthodoxy theme. Unlike, many movies dealing with racial tensions, Crash painted a very unapologetic picture of life in Los Angeles, California. It did not make us feel good. In fact, it was a wake-up call---shouting, “things are not okay, we don’t all get along, in fact, we may not really like each other.” A film like Crash is important because it is brutally honest. Unfortunately, honesty is often hard to find in popular culture.
Friendship is intelligent, prophetic, and realistic about the racial and social problems that continue to plague our country. We can choose to keep our heads buried in the sand, or we can choose to educate ourselves. I choose to educate.
Visit this address for an interview with DeMott
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/race_matters_1-15.html
No comments:
Post a Comment