“Your husband … he’d get in trouble every now and then ’cause he couldn’t tell the difference ’tween black and white.”Despite the irrelevance of race in society being, I think, a major goal of racial equality, it seems that this is not a desirable characteristic in Kevin, a white man married to a black woman. When he talks to Dana after they see slave children playing a game resembling a slave auction, Kevin minimizes the horror of slavery, sounding similar to how I think someone arguing the paternalism side to slavery would
"This place isn't what I would have imagined. No overseer. No more work than the people can manage ..."While the things he says are somewhat true, he temporarily overlooks the slew of reasons that slavery, even at this relatively good plantation, is a terrible thing. Dana instantly reminds him of these reasons. Although I don't think Kevin actually believes slavery is acceptable in any way, remarks like this are what make his sense of race seem flawed.
It could be said that the friction that arises because of his "colorblindness" is because society is not colorblind as a whole in 1976, and certainly not in the antebellum south. But, for a society to become colorblind as a whole I think that this disregard of race needs to start with someone and then spread. If that is true, then perhaps Kevin's awkward remarks should be taken not as something to be looked down upon, but rather as a sign of one of the best parts of his character: the ability to completely ignore race.
I don't think total irrelevance of race (colorblindness) is necessarily our goal for racial equality--for many people, race is a big part of personal identity. It's important to recognize and respect cultural and racial differences; ignoring race completely can marginalize minorities, making them feel forced to assimilate to the dominant culture.
ReplyDeleteKevin puts his foot in his mouth sometimes because he has a greater distance from the situation than Dana can. These aren't his ancestors and he has no obligations here; he remains an observer. In general, Kevin seems like a pretty good guy--faithful, intelligent, loving...I wish he could have more sensitivity, but it makes a lot of sense from his perspective and I like him overall.
Kevin's bouts of colorblindness are important to his character, but I don't think it's something the rest of society should aspire towards. Ignoring race as A Thing doesn't really do anything for Dana either in the 1800s or in 1976. It only makes racism more baffling to people like white, male, probably straight Kevin, who can actually afford to be colorblind. Even if, somehow, sometime, the universe as a whole became colorblind and people treated each other completely consistently as far as racial differences were concerned... I don't know. I can't even continue this hypothetical situation because race means so much more than appearance. And even if it were just appearance, wouldn't it be weird to ignore race? That's like ignoring the difference between brown and blue eyes or something. The difference isn't going away just because people choose not to acknowledge it. Like Kari said, ending racism an issue of respect, not burying your head in the sand when race comes up.
ReplyDeleteKevin's blindness on racial issues isn't an entirely bad thing--like, it's cool how he seems initially drawn to Dana more as a "kindred spirit" (a fellow writer, a friendly young woman, etc.) than by her racial identity. In a sense, this is something for society to aspire to, a stark contrast to the very NOT color-blind antebellum South.
ReplyDeleteBut Butler won't let it be that simple, and Kevin's well-intentioned non-racism is revealed to be naive in a number of ways, not least because it minimizes and tries to ignore the very real and consequential history of slavery. It's a form of white privilege, in short, to choose to "ignore" race while implicitly claiming that ignorance as a moral virtue. We don't get to see enough of him after her returns from the 19th century to judge (and admittedly, he is still pushing the "let's leave it all behind us" view at the very end), but we imagine that his more extended experience in the past has made him somewhat less "color-blind."