Interview Transcript

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MP: How did you feel after reading the post?

CE: I felt empowered. 

 

MP: How so?

CE: I was very moved and empowered by her courage and willingness to open up about her experiences of racism. 

 

MP: You mentioned “courage”. What is the courage that you referred to here?

CE: Her willingness to show people her vulnerability I think. I’m half white and half black, and I often white pass because of my appearance and the environment in which I was brought up. I’ve never said this out loud to anyone before, but sometimes I do feel insecure about my blackness. I haven’t been brave enough to acknowledge the systemic oppressions that black people face because I was afraid that doing so might disadvantage me or hurt my status somehow. So yeah I think she’s really brave in acknowledging her own insecurities.

 

MP: Are you suggesting that, for someone that is simultaneously in a position of privilege and disadvantage, like you and her, being color brave is difficult because it could burst the illusion that they are just as dominant as their privileged counterparts? 

(I elaborated that being color brave means having candid conversations about race, racial injustice, and vulnerability that can help us better understand each other’s perspectives and experiences)

CE: Yeah definitely. And I think that’s very courageous, especially that I think I can relate how hard that might have been for her. 

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Interpretation of Interview

Why might it be difficult for someone who simultaneously possesses dominant and subordinate identities to be color brave / (identity brave)?

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On an individual level, being a racial minority already creates extra emotional baggage for many people. To be color brave, one needs to be willing to stand out from the crowd of dominant social groups and stand against “social norms” to assert and embrace his social agency. The emotional burden that comes with the process of admitting one’s difference from everyone else, especially if that difference is associated with systematic discrimination, and not knowing whether one’s action will create further alienation could be intimidating. Deconstructing the façade of power that one has constructed using his dominant identities could be terrifying for some. Thus, it could be very difficult for someone who simultaneously wants to secure their power and bring attention to their vulnerabilities and disadvantages to be color brave. It requires courage and self-confidence than simply being color blind and concealing one’s identities or conforming to social norms where their “differences” are made invisible and thus not a target of public scrutiny. 

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Reflections on My Interpretations

Again I sensed myself gravitating towards the discussion of power dynamics employing a framework of intersectionality.  As I've discussed in my other reflections , this tendency was shaped by my prior life experience and academic interest. Embodying fragmented and multidimensional identities that are simultaneously dominant and subordinate (Asian, female, non-Christian, abled, socio-economic status, straight...) myself, I constantly experience how labels, or identity constructs, give me or strip me of power, where who I am as a whole and what I do independently of my identity labels lose their significance under the constructed images of identities. This further shapes my philosophical bent on how values and knowledge and human experiences are essentially social constructs and social constructs  were created to maintain power inevitably underlies my perspective and interpretation of what people do, say, and feel. My preoccupation with the concept of power dynamics largely frames my research and the focus of my discussion of race and identity. 

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