Codes of race

Baz Dreisinger’s amusing and caustic article obscures how the cultural codes and semiotics of racial and ethnic representation are nested in historical and contemporary race relations. Shifting the charge of ethnic authenticity onto the narrow shoulders of J. Lo. is not acceptable. Although the artist is implicated to some degree in the “ethnic sleight-of-hand” that Dreisinger highlights, the onus of its form and function is a product of the film industry rather than individual Machiavellian chutzpah. Dreisinger not merely misses the boat, she gets lost on her way to the dock.

The racial dynamics she alludes to involve ranking Lopez’s past and current beaus of the moment on an arbitrary pigmentation scale to measure her racial-ethnic authenticity. Adopting that type of logic invites the absurd. For example, if Samuel L. Jackson divorces his black wife and remarries a white woman at the same time he takes a part playing a West Indian immigrant, does that make him less black, “Cablanasian” or worse, a sellout?

The dream factory’s cookie-cutter compulsion to churn out racially bland widgets for audience consumption is the true homogenizing culprit, not Lopez’s culpability in playing by the rules of racial engagement that run the Hollywood marketing machine. To borrow from the hip-hop parlance of the day: Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Adilifu Nama

Northridge

Nama is an assistant professor in the pan-African studies department of California State University Northridge

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The subject of Latino racial identity fascinates me. Latinos who are predominantly white don’t hesitate to call themselves white. Check out the self-descriptions on the love-line pages in Spanish-language newspapers. We Anglos understand that many “white” people are actually tan or even brown in color, such as Greeks, Italians, Armenians, etc. But for some strange reason, we don’t assign the same racial status to Spanish people. Spain is in Europe. Europeans are white. If somebody is born in Latin America, of mixed Spanish and Indian blood, they can still be considered white, just as such white Americans as Burt Reynolds or Johnny Bench are considered white, although they proudly proclaim their Indian heritage.

But in America, as the author of the article undoubtedly is aware, a visible sign of African racial background is treated differently. In America, if you are visibly part black, you are black. Even if your name is Garcia instead of Jones or Smith. That is our racial caste system, as of the year 2002. We shall see what the future brings.

Mike Burns

Bakersfield