Frontstage and Backstage Racism Presentation

This week at New College, Dr. Feagin, a phenomenal speaker and one of the worlds leading scholars on race relations, presented the idea of how we act in situations with differing comfort levels. The front stage is how we behave in public or in a mixed race setting. The back stage is reserved for times when we are in groups of people of similar race, white folk specific in the study at hand. (As far as I know, this whole concept came from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by a guy named Erving Goffman who was a fantastic communication theorist. I loved this theory now and I think that is why I appreciated Dr. Feagin’s concept so much.) He also spoke of the racial framework from which most (and more likely all) white people perceive the world and their lives. It wasn’t surprisingly new information, but it was a swift reminder that regardless of how liberal and open minded we are as a college of mostly white, mostly privileged people we see the world through a certain lens that doesn’t often remind of us the privilege we have or the subtle and not so subtle discrimination and hate that most of the population has to face and fight and swallow and make sense of… because one has to if he or she wants to remain authentic and true to life’s lens.

At any rate, if you missed it you missed some truly good reflections and reminders and realizations.

Lucia, Agne and Erica also deserve some applause for doing a great job with PR, advertising, planning and organizing.

The point: Doing good often means standing up to the to the face of a back stage group that feels like being comfortably situated in an all white situation gives him/her a pass to act in a way that condones and promotes discriminatory language, beliefs, or behaviors. Be the dissenter and make the point… point to the fact its not okay (or funny or fair or dismissible) and though the intention may be a joke, it is a 400 year old running gag that has roots deep in hate, privilege, and injustice.

Find out more by google searching or talk to the Gender Studies department.

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jg