Rhetoric Race and Religion
R3 Contributor
Summer has barely just begun and it’s already been a hard season so far. The Supreme Court gutted a crucial piece of the Voting Rights Act, Paula Deen reminded us we’re not as post-racial as we thought, and opening statements began in the trial of George Zimmerman. Between celebrating the actions of Senator Wendy Davis and mourning the declining health of South African icon Nelson Mandela, it’s been an emotional week. And no sooner than I finished watching the “Dark Girls” documentary, the Twitterverse and Facebook newsfeeds nearly exploded with negative commentary about the physical appearance of Rachel Jeantel, the young woman who was on the phone with Trayvon Martin in the moments before he was shot by George Zimmerman.
I have been listening to the trial and had many quick tears moments: seeing the pain behind the eyes of Trayvon Martin’s parents as they listened to crime scene technicians testify. Seeing the actual bloodstained sweatshirt he had been wearing. Seeing his sneakered foot extended from beneath the yellow plastic sheet that covered his body. And listening to the testimony of the young lady who was speaking with him on the phone at the time he was being watched by George Zimmerman. Let the weight of that find its way onto your shoulders for just one moment. Imagine the stunning realization that the last thing someone you cared about was doing before he was brutally shot to death was probably speaking with you. Add this to the grief of losing of your friend, the violent way he died, and the national attention his death received, not to mention the added pressure of having to go to court, knowing in advance that you will be seen by the entire country and your image will be plastered across network news graphics, and that every word you say will be dissected and scrutinized, and that might scratch the surface of what Rachel Jeantel has dealt with this week.
And yet, instead of supporting this young sista who is in just an awful position through no fault of her own, she is being criticized in ways I do not even want to repeat. I cannot help but raise a few questions: What is it about her that we feel is unworthy of respect? And why do we feel that way? Why are people being so hard on this young woman? Rachel Jeantel is not on trial, but you would think so the way she is being taken to task for her hair, clothes, weight, speech patterns, and—wait for it—her skin tone. Of course I have my theories about this harsh response to her. One is a particular concern of my mother’s generation: the thinking that Black women have a special burden of appearing demure, well-mannered and intelligent in public lest anyone provide any credence to certain stereotypes about Black women. Many Black women of my mother’s generation fought hard to lay to rest the Jezebel (the promiscuous and hyper-sexed archetype), Sapphire (the hateful, evil, stubborn who loves to spar archetype), and Mammy (the overweight care-giver archetype) stereotypes by avoiding provocative dress, insisting their children did not speak in slang but in proper English, and avoiding at all costs raising one’s voice in public.
The other theory is the hard to resist sport that is shaming people in public. The Internet provides an easily accessible platform for what used to be a private activity (for example, shaming people in “slam” books that got passed around in school.) I suppose I should not be surprised by the appearance backlash Miss Jeantel has endured when there is such a history of “appearance-shaming” Black women who have been thrust into the national spotlight. Just ask Anita Hill. Venus and Serena Williams. Oprah Winfrey. Gabby Douglas. Michelle Obama. Note what these women all have in common. And this complexion backlash in the backdrop of the premiere of “Dark Girls” on the Oprah Winfrey Channel is disturbing on many levels.
With regard to the stereotypes about Black people in general and Black women in particular, language (how we convey a message) and speech (how we produce the sounds of a particular language) have often been used to combat them. They have also served as the unofficial measuring stick in assessing who had sense and who didn’t. How many of us have heard our parents say it is one thing to use “street language” in the house, but don’t you dare use it in public? Could this be a factor in the reasons why Rachel Jeantel is being taken to task for using urban slang in public? Or perhaps her presence reminds us of things we don’t want to think about? As my grandmother used to say, only hit dogs holler….
But I digress. The narrative of the Black female in America and the tri-polar convergence of race, sex, and class continue to produce an American experience worthy of conversation. But instead of having that conversation, reverting back to stereotypes is often the default position. In her book Sister Citizen:Shame, Stereotypes and Black Women in America, Melissa Harris-Perry argues the goal of a stereotype is to characterize in a monolithic image. And unfortunately they are often re-enforced and applied with a hammer, meet nail approach by some men and women both outside of and within our communities. The vitriol used to describe and discuss Miss Jeantel may reveal this tendency to embrace and uphold the stereotypes that have followed Black women since the days of American slavery. Heaven forbid we unpack the myriad strands and expressions of Black female diversity.
I get why we are reluctant to do so. Just this past month alone there have been enough race-tinged incidents to deplete even the most generous empathy reservoir. A friend of mine recently posted a photo on Facebook that was a picture of a pain relief product for the “racial tension headache.” I could certainly use a couple of those. I hope that as we replenish our empathy reservoirs, we keep in mind that that Rachel Jeantel is worthy of our compassion. It is my hope that we can someday cea
se and desist with the binary oppositional platform of “us versus them” that has already caused so much strife in our community: Light-skin vs. Dark-skin. Northern vs. southern. Middle-class vs. the working poor. Educated vs. uneducated. I wrote an earlier piece about how Paula Deen shows us why race still matters in this country. Rachel Jeantel shows us we might have some gains to make in compassion matters as well.
Follow Kimberly Peeler-Ringer on twitter @kpringer
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