What's in a Name Label?
First of all, I want to apologize for the late post! This
post is referring specifically to pages 1-103 in Stuck Rubber Baby.
Labeling race and sexual orientation through name calling,
is a theme in Stuck Rubber Baby that immediately
stood out to me. On the third page of the novel, a conversation with Tolend
Polk’s parents set up the distinction that certain names should not be used:
Throughout the book’s dialogue the characters seem to
consider “negro” as a more acceptable label. However, that term is now
considered politically incorrect and currently people are taught to use
African-American. Outside of the character’s dialogue, Polk as a narrator uses “black”
to describe the community. These terms are in stark contrast on page 14:
Polk’s father and mother set up the need for distinction
between offensive and acceptable labels for different members in the community.
The language from the “Kennedy Time” and when Stuck Rubber Baby was published show a large change in how we talk
about and identify race in America. The way the novel labels sexual orientation
in the context of offensive or politically correct is also introduced in the
novel on page 6:
I have several questions I wanted to address while reading Stuck Rubber Baby and noticing the
labels, but primarily were so we draw the distinction between offensive and
correct or joking? Is it an individual decision based on personal experience
with such loaded words? Is it the historical context and its etymology a sole
or significant factor in a label’s appropriateness?
I recently saw an interview that made me wonder if our language,
and our culture, is evolving to a point where labeling differences are not
needed. If this is the case, how do we decide what labels to use when describing
historical events?
Howard Cruse does a great job of using different labels to evoke
different feelings within the reader, or even develop certain characters based
on their labeling of other people. I mentioned a few moments, but where are
some other frames in Stuck Rubber Baby when
he does this? What is his goal in using the specific language in those frames?
First off I LOVE that interview with Raven-Symone. I agree whole heartedly with what she says in her interview. Its wonderful if you know where your family comes from and you can say 'hey I have ... roots in my family,' but so many of our families have been here for generations and many more have taken the tests and filed the documents in recent years to become an American citizen. If your an American citizen then your American. I have always hated those documents where you have to file what your ethnicity is. Unless it is for a medical reason, I don't think it should matter what my ethnicity is.
ReplyDeleteJust like I don't think that labels like homosexual, bi-sexual and heterosexual should matter. By labeling yourself or another person as a certain sexual orientation or other label it is like you are limiting or holding back that person. If someone has only ever been in relationships with someone of the sexual gender than most would think of that person as homosexual. However, what if one day they find someone of a different gender and fall in love with them and have a relationship with them even though they have never before been in a relationship with a person of that gender. Would that person still be gay but in a heterosexual relationship or would that person be bi-sexual? Should it really matter? We will love who we love and like what we like and it can always change.
This goes back to a previous posting of using civil rights as a platform to argue for LGBT rights.
Labels are very important for many people, while for others it is not. For my grandmother and, even in part, for my mother labels are very important. Its important for them to label gender, sexuality and ethnicity. While for myself, my nieces, younger cousins, we're a bit more desensitized when it comes to such labels. It could be due to a change in times with people having more rights than they had in the past or it is due to literature and media, but many more younger people have no interest in if someone is a certain sexual orientation or skin color.
My own son loves to watch Ru Paul's drag race and never called someone by their skin color. He is young, but in his eyes a person is their name and not their skin color or orientation. He calls other people by either their name or buddy.
It comes down to what we know and what we have been raised to know. The way we parent and educate change as the times change and this either allows or disallows a young person to grow up feeling secure and free in their own right with who they are.
For Polk, his parents were uneducated and could only offer so much of a free thinking environment for their son. I think that was the real reason why they had so many books in their home. It wasn't for them but for their children so that way they could expand their minds and thinking and not feel the need to be confined by the limitations of society.
Giving something a name or label can with empower it or take away its power, it just depends on the person.
I personally believe that labels are wrong and often offensive or just cruel. I think that labels are what is placed upon an individual or a group by others, not by the individual or the group themselves. Furthermore, I think that often these labels serve a purpose. Throughout history, certain words have evolved in order to be used as a weapon against a type of person. The word 'gay' is a perfect example of a word that had its meaning so altered that it no longer refers to the same thing at all. However, I find that these labels are used mostly for the purpose of harming or shaming that person.
ReplyDeleteYet I do not believe that identifying an aspect of some one's personality and making distinctions is necessarily wrong. While I agree with Raven that it is perhaps wrong for her to be identified as African-American, she does agree to having a homosexual orientation. While she might argue that she personally does not have a categorizing statement, it is often necessary to make distinctions between yourself and other people. I grew up in a very ethnically diverse family and was always taught that my unique identity that made me different from others was a good thing that made me special, even if others didn't believe it. Being from an Arabic background has been increasingly difficult over the years as I am a victim of, so-called, "terrorist" jokes, and am often classified as an extremist Muslim even though I am, in fact, a devout Catholic. However, I recognize that these labels are placed upon me by others who do not know or understand my identity, and so I am able to disregard them as simply the powerless words of ignorant people.
That being said, I think that it is important to escape certain labels. I believe that one's identity stems from the various titles one gives oneself. But I also believe that certain aspects of an individual's self are objective to that person. I believe that being a man or a woman is not a label, but simply a biological fact. It is not something that can be changed. Even with modern sex-change surgery, nothing really changes but the appearance. Furthermore, I believe that one's ethnic background is a part of who they are, and while individuals can choose whether or not to embrace it, it is inescapably a part of their lives.
Personally, I agree with everyone that the labeling system is wrong and shouldn't be do to by anyone. They have been used to identify a certain group and how they are represented, but that doesn't make it any less wrong. The only reason why I think that labeling has been a problem is because of the media. The media has created multiple stereotypes for the public to intake, thus causing segregation amongst different groups. When people hear the word 'gay' or 'Black', they automatically think of the stereotype that was portrayed by the media rather than hearing their story first. Raven-Symone is a clear example of breaking away from the stereotypes and how people should listen to the sotry before drawing up conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI agree that labeling someone is wrong and those forms drive me crazy too. It shouldn't matter what race you are or sexual orientation when filling out a form. Although I think it's wrong to label others in a negative way, I think that labeling is also just part of our species' need to categorize everything. We don't just have flowers for example but we have roses, carnations, tulips, daisies, etc. I took a psychology class last year that explained the human mind needs to categorize things so that it isn't overloaded with information. Obviously categorizing flowers is a lot less touchy subject than categorizing human beings and I'm not saying that it's right to put labels on anyone... I'm just pointing out that there may be a reason for why we do it. As I said before, labeling anyone in a negative way is absolutely unacceptable and shouldn't be tolerated, but sometimes it's hard to separate the way your mind thinks and how you think ethically about matters like this.
ReplyDeleteSomething that is vital to remember here is that both language and culture are living, evolving entities. As we move forward as a species, the way that we understand the world, societies, cultures, and the people that surround us all change as well. In the span of about sixty years we went from living in a world that allowed Jim Crow to persist far beyond any sense of rationality, to having an African-American president in the White House. That is an incredible amount of social change in what really amounts to a relatively short amount of time, historically speaking. Specifically, that's an immense amount of SOCIAL change in such a short period of time.
ReplyDeleteWho we are, how we see ourselves changes, adjust, reformats, all based around how the world around us is changing as well. Some language becomes outmoded, others inappropriate. New terms and definitions are created, not out of spontaneity, but out of necessity. When it comes to how these labels are used, two primary factors contribute to their relationship to you; who are you, and what is the context of the label? We have a lot of words that have gone out of fashion. A lot of the time it's because their contextual strength has been lost (modern children technically may have no idea what "hold the phone means," as shared landlines are a thing of the past). Other times it's because the words have taken on an overwhelmingly negative context.
In the latter case, respect should be paid to the community that the word is reflective of. If they deem it inappropriate; so be it. It is not the outsider's right to judge how a group of people feels being summed up in a handful of words. If the speech is perceived to be hateful by those whom it addresses, than that really should be the end of it.
I don’t think labels are as straight forward as they made out to be and the idea of labels takes on a lot of negative context even when people decide to label themselves. The origin of the label can have a major impact on whether it is viewed as socially acceptable and often times becomes a word that only those it was once used against can use without offense. In this way it becomes equal portions loaded for its etymology and on an individual’s experience with the word.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure how eradicating labels for individuals connects to historical events. It doesn’t seem like it would have too much of an effect as regardless of the present we can’t ignore labels used in the past if we want accurate portrayals of the past. Labels may not be needed but that doesn’t mean that someone out there won’t use them. And as I mentioned not all labels are negative. Others label themselves because they feel that that label is important them and defines who they are.
The most obvious scene where labels make such a huge impact is the use of “nigger loving queer” in the panels showing Sammy after he had been lynched. He showed quite clearly how even labels used by individual in a way that isn’t negative can be viewed negatively by others and used against them. It also shows that no matter how someone may try to change the negative connotation behind a word can still hold to it from generations of derogatory use.
As a white, straight, male I haven't been labeled too many things in life. I was once dismissively called a "wolf-lover" (which is code for "liberal" in Montana, where the mere presence of wolves has become a political hot-button issue of almost cartoonish proportions). In the context of "Stuck Rubber Baby" obviously labeling is a means of control and derision. My sense is we see on page 6 that Toland uses the word "faggot" not so much as a self-derogatory term, but as a label he has reclaimed from his bigoted detractors. In this way, he diminishes the negative connotations of the word by addressing himself as the very label.
ReplyDelete