On "The White Gaze"

When working with the kids in Ghana, Jocelynn, one of my co-travelers, asked her students what they wanted to be when they grow up. She got the staples; firefighter, astronaut, dancers and the likes. But one student excitedly proclaimed, "I want to be white!" Our hearts broke for her- not only because she could never achieve her hope, but that skin color is still so valued years and years after "overcoming" racism. It was evident elsewhere throughout the country- villagers ogling us as we passed, our names were second-nature to "Obroni" (white man in Twee), and the constant attention to touching our skin.

That moment with the school children was the most eye-opening experience to how influential- and detrimental- Western media is to all cultures. The reach of our culture touches even the most isolated of communities, and the message it encripts teaches these people about the value of skin color. In Africa particularly, our guides expressed how white skin is considered to be the most exotic form of beauty, the embodiment of weath, power, status, and success. I can't see any means that this is incidental; as consumers, we are indirectly cementing these constructs.

For a country with 12.6% of its residents Black, the TV would indicate it's more like 3%. Hispanics constitute a whopping 16.3% of the population and their visibility is particularly minimal. For a country that seems to believe discussions of race are through because "racism is done", the status of ethnicity is still subtly reinforced in our minds. It seems to be more the exception than the rule that anyone surpasses the archaic stereotypes embedded within the collective conscious.

I use the term "white gaze" based on Laura Mulvey's feminist thoery of the male gaze, which assumes that the media is catered to an audience strictly consisting of heterosexual, upper-middle class men. So I'm piggy-backing on her thoery with a particular emphasis on an all-white audience. There is a virtually exclusive use of Arian men and women as symbols of beauty, power, wealth, and intelligence; and it doesn't only affect minorities, the perception is detrimental for all. We are subconsciously programmed to think from the perspective of white men. There isn't much to do on an individual level beyond make a vigilant effort to excise these false premonitions out of our heads.

The place to start needs to be pop culture, but to do that, there must be a collective admission of our wrong-doing; something many people are reluctant to admit. It requires an admission that assumptions about race, sex, and orientation do, in fact, exist.

So c'mon. Obama, Oprah, and Beyonce should not be the only visible, powerful black figures. Tyler Perry needs to stop existing, blatantly recreating a divide between black and white communities and trivializing the people he is representing. Not every hispanic man works manual labor or deals drugs- I'm sure we have more roles for them than criminals on CSI.

Because these people deserve to know how naturally radiant and exquisite they are. Bearing no makeup or jewelry, the women of Ghana was devestatingly beautiful, despite believing otherwise. White should not mean success or intelligence; in fact, considering the resources, the Ghanains were geniuses. Let's give them access to the resources they need to attain power and realize that their skin color is arbitrary in determining success. The first step is just to admit there is an issue that needs to be fixed.