Gray ?!
JC
Pop Matters features an opinion piece by Mark Harris who explores a new mixed identity for himself: Gray. He rejects terms like mixed and biracial and instead calls himself gray and rants about the lack of “gray” representation in the media. And you know, even though he said a couple of things I didn’t agree with (he bashed Boris Kodjoe!!! WTH? :)), and he is generally clueless about any activism that *is* going on in the mixed community, I was happy to hear someone else saying the same kinds of things that we say here at MMW.
AND THEN he wrecked everything with his last couple of lines.
Summer blockbusters will be replaced by biopics on Barack Obama and Slash, and maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally hear those words we’ve waited so long for: Tia and Tamara, Oscar winners.
But until that day, we’ll remain invisible — the frizzy-haired background scenery, ever reliable and unthreatening, the droning Muzak of Hollywood. I guess things could be worse, though. We could be Asian.
I understand that the entire piece should be taken with a grain of salt — that he is being sarcastic and is poking fun at everything. BUT “Things could be worse…we could be Asian?” Now, does he mean that things are worse for Asians in the media? Or does he mean that it’s worse to be Asian in general? And by distancing “grays” from Asians, he’s clearly not including Asians as a part of the mixed landscape (duh, he uses the term gray which is obviously black + white…but for some reason, I had completely glazed over that and had assumed that he would be inclusive, e.g. speaking on behalf of mixed people). This article totally made me think of recent flick, Crash……where yes, on the bottom are the Asians (we mentioned this before). They get stepped on and can’t speak up for themselves or rise up to beat the odds. Other people need to bring them to salvation.
It mainly bothers me that he uses the statement as a source of comfort. He spends the whole piece complaining and then tries to ease his mind and perhaps the minds of other “grays” out there…”look at how far we have to go until we actually get representation! Well, at least we aren’t the WORST off.”
Charles wrote:
This is a great example of why many in America do not take Mixed Race Identity seriously. It’s also a bit embarrassing personally because his “new identity” happens to be my last name. A bit ironic but true nevertheless. I would never use it to identify the whole of who I am.
Thank you Mixed Media Watch for the informative, balanced work that you do.
Posted 22 Jun 2005 at 11:48 am ¶
jen chau wrote:
haha no worries, charles gray…we won’t associate you with all of this.
thanks for your comment!
- JC
Posted 22 Jun 2005 at 12:32 pm ¶
Mark Harris wrote:
I thought this article — a humor piece, with emphasis on HUMOR — was funny and insightful, but maybe that’s b/c I WROTE IT. How are we to expect anyone to take “Mixed Race Identity” seriously if you’re so uptight about it? Isn’t that a stereotype? That mixed people have sticks up their butts? Don’t be a stereotype! Fight the power! (and yes, I had Crash in mind when I wrote the Asian comment…again, HUMOR, people)
GFL (Gray for Life)
Posted 22 Jun 2005 at 9:48 pm ¶
jen chau wrote:
it’s great to hear directly from you, mark!
like i said, i appreciated the majority of your article…it was just that last piece that didn’t sit well with me.
in response to your comment…believe me, i am the last one to tote around a stick up my butt…i believe there is a time to laugh and there is a time to be serious. and i *definitely* think that we should all be able to poke fun at ourselves.
but that last part of your article (”I guess things could be worse, though. We could be Asian.”) — can you speak to that? i leave room for the fact that i may have misunderstood or taken it a different way that you intended….
i don’t think that a good route for any of us “grays”/mixed people to go is to alienate ourselves from other communities of color. for one, we are all a part of these communities, second, what good ever comes from this kind of “you have it worse/i have it worse” game?
perhaps i am naive, but i would rather stand together than separately from other sisters and brothers of color. i consider an affront to the black community an affront to me, a stab at the latino community, a stab at me. an insult to the asian community, an insult to me. i don’t think that we should separately fight the injustices and prejudices that only affect our very specific identity groups…but instead stand all together.
let’s not take what we can get at the cost of another group…but instead be watchful for all to get fair treatment and representation.
if these comments mean that i don’t have a sense of humor, so be it. i don’t want to laugh when it’s not funny anyway.
Posted 27 Jun 2005 at 9:41 am ¶