Thursday, January 12, 2017
City of Angels?
In “Twilight,” Mike Davis discusses how the Los Angeles experience has changed. He states that “the only permitted legal activity anymore [is] being in a mall shopping,” that “cruising has been totally eliminated” because of its presumed links to gang violence, and that “it’s illegal to sleep on the beach.” Davis is essentially arguing that the L.A. riots both exposed this city’s virulent racism and stripped away the “Southern California culture” that has been historically used to market the idea of living here. In If He Hollers, Bob’s experience is radically different from Davis’s working-class adolescence. Bob’s a member of the working class, but the fact of his race means that he isn’t privy to the white Angeleno ideal of sun and sand, as well as the other “incredibly important” pleasures and freedoms that Davis describes. It seems like the realities of racial and socioeconomic inequity poked a whole lot of holes in the Boosters’ manufactured image of Los Angeles. But somehow -- despite the various movements that have sprung up in attempts to redefine the Angeleno identity/experience -- their fantasy still persists to some degree in many people’s minds. So I ask: is there a way to reconcile our (and by our, I mean our city’s) diametrically opposed perspectives into one shared narrative? Are our experiences really diametrically opposed or, like the figures in Bob’s dream, are we all victims of the same power structures? Is intellectual/philosophical commonality even something we want to strive for? And, after a history bursting with injustices that have been left to fester in ignorance and erupt in tragedy, is anything about Los Angeles remotely angelic?
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In the introduction of "Twilight," Anna Deavere Smith addresses people's persistence to find an answer to the question, " 'Did you ever find any one voice that could speak for the entire city?' [She thinks] there is an expectation that in this diverse city... a unifying voice would bring increased understanding and put us on the road to solutions. This expectation surprises [her]. In order to have real unity, all voices would have to be first heard or at least represented." (Deavere Smith, xxv). I agree with Deavere Smith in that there is no way to bring all the diverse perspectives of Los Angeles together into one representative voice, at least if your goal is to increase understanding. The Boosters did attempt to smother the majority of narratives in Los Angeles and display a "unifying" image because their goal was not to increase understanding, but rather the opposite; they wanted to create a false history for their own capital gain.
ReplyDeleteBob's internal self is full of contradictions and opposing emotions and constantly changing, his external and internal self are at odds, the people of his race have many different opinions and experiences, Los Angeles is a diverse city with many races and identities. Bob never finds one voice that represents all that he feels, his race never agrees on one narrative, so how could a City that encompasses so many people, so many races, so many identities, and so many experiences ever find one all-encompassing truth?
California has always been more tolerant of minorities than other states; California was not a slave state and did not participate in segregation. However, racism was/is still a problem here, as evidenced by the treatment of Bob in the novel. It isn’t as bad as other parts of the US, where racism and bigotry is more prevalent. At this point in the history of Los Angeles, I don’t think that there is a way to reconcile our perspectives and create unity; Twilight describes the imbalances of life in Los Angeles. Our experiences really are diametrically opposed. Some people in Los Angeles live a life of luxury in fancy mansions in Beverly Hills. Bob, however, was forced to tolerate with racism at his job on a daily basis, and was refused proper living conditions. With such contrasting experiences, it seems that it will be challenging to have one shared experience.
ReplyDeleteAlthough LA can seem angelic for some people (mainly those who live luxuriously), for others, it can be hell. It has been over twenty years since the Rodney King beatings, and Los Angeles has still been plagued with beatings and murders that involve police officers. These include the murder of Reginald Thomas Jr. (which took place in Pasadena), Ezell Ford, Alecia Thomas, Donnell Thompson, Brendon Glenn, Carnell Snell, Lionel Gibson, and so many more.
I'm really engaged by the idea of everybody being stuck in the same power structures when it comes to race. It is clear from reading If He Hollers that people have different ideas about the constructs of race and the role race plays in their everyday interactions. Alice and Bob have very different perspectives and experiences with being black, yet when they are pulled over by the police, none of that matters -- they are treated the same way because of their race, regardless of how they identify with race on a personal level.
ReplyDeleteIn "Twilight" when Angela King is telling her story (pg. 51-60) she talks about how she didn't really consider race a big factor in the way she thought of people until she had to go through the horrible event with her family. She was raised with friends of all different races, black, white, Chinese and didn't consider race to be a dividing factor. However, she is still sucked into the power structure with Rodney and the police, despite her not being involved previously.
I think that although people can have different ideas about race, and how race affects one's identity, but it is such a systemic part of society that it is nearly impossible to escape being victim to the cycle in one way or another all together.
We may be under the same power structure, but we are each impacted differently. Every time I exceed the speed limit while driving I fear that I will get a ticket; however, I never fear being accused of committing a crime I did not commit as described in “Lightning But No Rain.” This story was the most shocking to me because even though I know police brutality is a prevalent issue, these police seem to be actively trying to get opposing gangs to kill each other. It appears they want to kill people just for the sake of it. So yes, people from all over Los Angeles are subject to a governing “power,” but the ways in which each person is impacted by this power changes based on the race of a person. I do not think that Los Angeles can be collected into one master narrative since the ways in which people experience Los Angeles are so diverse.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natalie about the fact that we all exist under the same power structure, but the way we interact with power and the opportunities provided are drastically different based on different factors of identity, as well as the way that the people we interact with perceive us.
ReplyDeleteIn "If He Hollers," Alice and Bob have completely different relationships to their race: Alice doesn't seem to feel like she has a place in the black community in LA and instead attempts to distance herself from her race, which she is able to do because of her parents, her class, and her light skin tone. On the other hand, Bob seems to tie every action that he makes as well as the actions of the people around him back to his race, which is a large part of his identity. As Lucy brought up, Alice and Bob's personal relationships with their race were rendered unimportant when the white police officers pulled them over. The only thing that mattered was the way the cops viewed them. In the power structure, the police have more authority and control than Alice and Bob do, as we see when Alice tries to weasel her way out of a ticket by talking about her high class but the cops still bring them in anyway.
The power structure is only based on how people of different groups interact with each other - there is no consideration in regards to an individual person's feelings or thoughts. When Bob first comes to LA, he tells himself that he won't get caught up in the power structure: "Race was a handicap, sure, I reasoned. But hell, I didn't have to marry it." But, he ends up getting completely sucked into the power structure and doesn't know how to get out. That is, until Alice brings up the fact that personal life and exist simultaneously with the oppression Bob is facing: "There is no reason a Negro cannot control his destiny within this pattern. Really, darling, it is not cowardly. It is simply a form of self-preservation" (pg. 168). Alice shows Bob that, while the framework of power and oppression haunts him day to day, it doesn't have to become his own personal all-encompassing truth.
To answer Matilda's question and Cali's question about a unifying truth: I think that the fact that we all exist within the same power structure is part of one truth, but not The Truth (TM). As I explained above, Alice, Bob, the cops, and everyone else in Los Angeles operates under the same power structure, but their position within the framework and their personal feelings and lives creates an avenue for infinite truths within the same framework.
There is no unifying "Angeleno Experience", nor do I think there will be any time soon. Institutional Classism, Racism, Sexism, etc. have seen to it that there can never be a ubiquitous "American Experience" as long as they persist. Commonality exists only where there is pain. In my opinion, it is when two culturally, racially, economically different people can share empathy/grief for the same pain is when the all-encompassing "Human Experience" exists. As Seth Macfarlane (yes, I mean the creator of 'Family Guy') put it while discussing the topic of the September 11th attacks, "There was that wonderful unity that we've since completely abandoned; I've never felt [it] more than when I was standing at the bar at 9 o'clock in the morning and saying to the bartender, 'Hey, can you pour me a shot?' and he's like, 'Yeah, here you go, its on the house.'...in that moment, we're all the same."
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that we should constantly endure the same pain to understand each other, but I am saying that it is the only way to achieve the intellectual commonality Matilda is discussing. I do not think that Angelenos should strive for a shared narrative. I live a privileged LA experience, I will never truly understand some struggles that other Angelenos face because I have never had to face them.
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ReplyDeleteMatilda, these are important and interesting questions. While reading Twilight, I was struck by the incredible diversity in experience during the riots. For example, I had no idea that the Korean-American community was affected so acutely. But to answer your question, I actually disagree somewhat with my classmates' responses in somewhat of a subtle way. I think there should be a distinction drawn between narrative and experience. While individual people and races experienced the riots differently, I think that part of why things like racially-charged police brutality are still alive and well is because we seem to be unable to agree on a story. I don't know if I'm being remotely realistic in asserting that this kind of factual baseline be established, because each person lives their own life, truth, etc., but I think part of systematic racism's enduring relevance lies in our inability to transcend our own identities when it comes to issues that are bigger than ourselves. I know I am walking a fine line here, and I'm not even sure I'm doing it well, but alas.
ReplyDeleteIn that same vein, I think one idea we all need to start navigating within the context of race as a story is presented by Anonymous Man #2 on p. 139. He recounts when there were reports that "they" were going to burn down the Beverly Center and the ensuring chaos. "I was almost thinking" 'Did I deserve this? Do I, do I deserve this? I thought me, personally--no, me, generically, maybe so.'"
Both Twilight and If He Hollers discuss the power struggle present in Los Angeles. These struggles include racial tension, and tension within status. I think that we've seen many instances throughout this course of a certain facade surrounding the characteristics of Los Angeles. Both If He Hollers and Twilight break this facade and exhibit the true characteristics of Los Angeles. I think that it's interesting when you say "the Southern California Culture" has been stripped. This is the first time we've read something that looks to break this ideal of Los Angeles being a place where not much got wrong. I think that Davis is really attempting to discuss how the values of these rioters is truly what correlated with the values of tension and power struggle in LA.
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