randomWalks

50 pages from the end...I have been really wrestling with my expectations for the 'weighty indictment' of racism the 11/14 post wisely points out was not Smith's aim. Again, I say that self-critically. It troubles me that I'm not getting the direct racial and colonial power-analysis through anyone except Mad Mary. It is a very fun read, and a refreshing shift away from all the other weighty but boring indictments I am usually reading. I like that Josh discovers something elemental within himself that is different from his father when he recognizes that "the world happens to you, you don't happen to the world" (412). Her language is cryptic enough for me to assign meaning to his words, but it seems that where Marcus feels himself above the world and able to control it with rational mind, Josh is humble to it and realizes he cannot control it.

A problem, however, with Smith's ability to show how characters in present day London inhabit a racialized, colonized world without making a didactic statement about the system is that it leaves room for commentary like:

"Her (Smith's) attitude to the complications and conflicts, loves and hates that inevitably result from living in a cultural melting pot is not only post-imperial but post-racial," wrote Anne Chisholm in the Sunday Telegraph. "One of the endearing qualities of her sharp-eyed but warm-hearted book is that it makes racism appear not only ugly and stupid but ludicrously out of date..."

(This is from the linked review below.)
It seems like multiculturalism loves to throw around the idea of "post-racial" society, which is just another sematic ploy to make racism invisible. (Though it would be interesting to read Paul Gilroy's Against Race : Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line. He is, of course, a British cultural critic.)
How can a book with the glaringly white uppermiddle class eugenicist Chalfen family--who finance Magid's study of English law and further coopt him into English dominant culture--be seen as making racism "appear...out of date?" Isn't this exactly what white dominant culture does? Coopt people of color into positions of power to make it appear as if people of color are being represented (and that they just happen to choose to support the status quo because it is the best system) when really its all about perpetuating dominance? Clarence Thomas comes to mind. I don't think Smith can be accused of portraying racism as "out of date."

Down other avenues, I like what she does with sons and fathers between Samad and Marcus and Magid, Millat, and Josh. The only extent to which each son relates to his biological father's values is in rebelling against them. Otherwise, they each find new fathers and ideological systems to parent their rebellion. I like how various characters, Samad, Millat, Irie make sense of and try to nail down their histories using different means--exalting a myth, accentuating a reinvented religious tradition, reclaiming one set of family roots. Smith makes it so funny and such a great comment on humanity, don't we all run around looking for fathers/ parents and grabbing ideologies and histories in order to feel we are independent while making sure we have guidance and structure? (Though that raises the question for me of what else are we looking and grabbing for? Why?)

Lastly, re: Chinese burn, accents, etc. I think you're right that Smith can still ask pointed questions about racism/ colonialism using some tools shaped by them. It is still important to question the tools. Because where do you draw the line? What does it mean for someone who is adept at playing with culture and race to perpetuate stereotypes (such as the "various ledges" of Irie's curvy body that Smith describes as "shelf space for...children, bags of fruit, buckets of water"(222)--as if Irie is genetically built for work on her mother's family's pre-industrial island of origin). What does it mean if there are a few--not excessive, if I caught most of them--of these stereotypes? Are they slip ups? Can they be read other ways? How does this relate to her story--set in a racialized society--that does not yet (maybe there is something in the last few pages) have any human vicitms?


Ok, I can't get away from the same question. But I have written this too many times without posting to start over. Later.

originally posted by hcog