Finding Their Devinants

It was Tuesday morning, September 22, and I flipped on the TV to the "Today" show, as I do every morning. To my disbelief, one of the anchors was interviewing an African-American woman who had hosted a viewing party for the season premiere of the sitcom "Murphy Brown." But this was no ordinary viewing party, for along with this woman and other African-Americans (including some single mothers) was none other than Vice President Dan Quayle.

I must admit that I was shocked by this news and I recognized immediately the hypocrisy and the purely political motives for Quayle's appearance.

But as I tried to envision Quayle, a chief spokesperson of the "traditional family values" agenda (an agenda in which African-Americans, other people of color and poor people have been subtly and not so subtly positioned as the enemy), my mind kept flashing back to Madonna and her film "Truth or Dare." Why was my mind forging this seemingly ridiculous connection between two people who in every way seem to deny just such a connection? The answer became clear soon enough: racial appropriation.

In his seminal work Harlem Renaissance, the late Professor Nathan Huggins made the following observation: "Whites have needed the blackface minstrel mask--a guise of alter ego. And blacks--sensing this psychic dependency--have been all too willing to join in the charade, hiding behind that minstrel mask, appearing to be what white men wanted them to be, and finding pleasure in the deception which too often was a trick on themselves."

To understand the ways in which Huggins' statement applies to Quayle, Madonna and racial appropriation, let's "deconstruct," if you will, the three.

Responding to the backlash he received from his earlier comments regarding the "immorality" of a television show which he had admittedly never watched, Quayle searched for the most "authentic" representations of this particular so-called "defect" in the nations's family values--single mothers. And just as African-Americans in this country have been always coded as the most "primitive" and the most "free" (among many other things), in today's discussions of "family values," African-American are also coded as the most "deviant."

Certainly the lingering influence and acceptance of the tenets of the Moynihan Report have helped to solidify this perception. Thus, what better racial group to appropriate in order to validate a new-found "concern" for "social deviants" than African-Americans?

In this sense, the African-American woman who represented Quayle's posse for the "Today" show (who was a single mother herself)" joined in the charade."

As I listened to her speak, I realized that she had a number of issues that she wished to have addressed in the national political arena, and I also realized that, sadly, she could not understand that she and the other African-Americans present for this occasion had played "a trick on themselves."

Enter Madonna. Many critics, most notably bell hooks in her new book Black Looks: Race and Representation, have pointed out the very obvious absence of any racial critique of this film.

However, it seems to me that such a critique is necessary, as in the case of Quayle, in order to expose the ways in which she appropriated race. But in the context of "family values," it should be pointed out that Madonna's film "Truth or Dare" also uses African-Americans as the symbols of "deviants."

Let's juxtapose the family story of her only straight male dancer--an African-Americans who is blond named Oliver--with that of Madonna.

What we learn about Oliver is that his father has been absent for most of his life, while Madonna's father has been present for all of hers. And although these situations are valid, it seems as if Madonna is appropriating Oliver to establish herself as "mainstream" in spite of her non-conventional demeanor.

This is merely one of many situations in the film in which Madonna establishes herself in opposition to the people of color who work for her. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the fact that Madonna sees herself as "mother" and sees her dancers as "children."

As in the case of Quayle, this positioning by Madonna is extremely convincing and successful because she uses well-established racial symbols.

In spite of the seductive and convincing effects of racial appropriation, we must always remember that such acts, while elevating the "other" for a brief moment in time, leave racism, stereotypes and the structures that deny opportunity and advancement for the majority of all people completely intact.

Moreover, such acts fail to allow the "appropriators" to examine their own psyches since they are content to live in a fantasy that is sustained by their opposition to the "inferior other."

Don't believe the hype.

Mecca J. Nelson '92 is a non-resident tutor in Cabot House.