Today I'll be writing about Sonia Tran's blog post from Week 9. She addresses this article from the LA Times, about a middle class black family living in Orange County who recently moved because they had been the subject of hate crimes.
Your take on the situation is influenced by Stuart Hall's understanding of race as a "floating signifier." You also take a very negative stance on the future of race relations, arguing that "No matter what sorts of programs, policies and reforms a society undertakes, they could never allow for real equality." You're not wrong--"pure" equality is impossible. But it's impossible for everyone, from black to white, from gay to straight, from old to young, from fat to thin. As such, we can only do the best we can with what we've been given, and people will always hold grudges against people they don't know for reasons that have nothing to do with who they are. But we can do the best we can to minimize these incidents. We can enact more just policy, we can work to spread accepting and loving attitudes in schools, we can try and help those set in their ways to understand people they've been taught to hate. This course has focused a lot on our problems, our difficulties, and our differences, I think that the pessimistic view you take here is reflective of that. However, I think that there's always hope for change, so long as we understand that humans will never be perfect. The reason that Stuart Hall's research into race as a floating signifier is so important is because it explains how our current understanding of "race" came about, and gives us the tools to change it. Change the way we talk about it, change the way we think about it. And though we can never eradicate racism on the fringe, I think it's possible to get rid of prejudices like racism and homophobia in the cultural mainstream with dedicated efforts in the right areas. People from both sides have to realize that historical wrongs have been committed, whether or not some more grievous and overwhelming than others, and let them go. That's the hardest thing: no one wants to forget the past because they find the lessons in it important for the future, and that's true. But the past can mask and bury those lessons in hurt and loss, and often that's what sticks over lessons of equality. If we look toward the future and the future alone, who's to say that we can't overcome anything?
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