How Many Black Friends Do You Have?

Last week, in honor of Black History Month, Jimmy Kimmel and his crew took to the streets of Los Angeles to ask a simple question: " How many black friends do you have?"  Take a look:

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2015/02/jimmu-kimmel-asks-white-people-if-they-have-black-friends?utm_campaign=complexmag%2Bsocialflow%2B02%2B2015&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

The satirization of this question is ironic, funny, sad and instructive. Why? Because the number of black friends white people have has become a proxy for determining if whites are racist, at worst, or the degree to which they are "diverse, " at best. The irony is that, as demonstrated by one of the participant's in this video,research consistently indicates that an overwhelming majority of whites don't have poc in their network. A recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that most white people have no black friends in their social circles.

You can read an article from the Washington Post here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/25/three-quarters-of-whites-dont-have-any-non-white-friends/


And for those who are interested in delving more into the data and methodology of the survey:
http://publicreligion.org/research/2014/08/analysis-social-network/


In short, we have an absurdly imperfect criterion to assess white people's racial conceptual frameworks, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors; an overwhelming white population that lies about the question because, in fact, they have no black people in their social networks, and a polarized society, along racial lines, regarding perceptions of the saliency of race. We a also know that authentic exposure to people of different backgrounds and cultures is critical to cultivating respect for difference. So instead of asking people how many black friends they have, maybe we should encourage ALL people to consider the nature of their social networks and reflect on how they learn about those who are different to them? The "how many black friends do you have?" ultimately serves no purpose besides promoting a fictitious sense of "diversity."

The Catcalling Video: The Big Elephant that the Producers Didn't See!

A few days ago Slate posted a video of a young woman who chronicled the challenges that many women in Manhattan face , and presumably many other places,  of negotiating catcalling, unwanted attention from men. My understanding is that the purpose of the video was to raise awareness around this issue with the goal of educating men to make better decisions and foster a more inclusive environment for women. So far, I'm onboard.

Before you continue reading, you should watch the video:



Upon clicking the video, however, I was APPALLED. Mind you, I am a feminist and have dedicated my career to fostering a more inclusive environment for all people. I am ally. I opened the video with the hopes of deepening my understanding in the ways that this dynamic manifests. Best of all cases, I could even incorporate the video into my practice and workshops around gender equality. 

Unfortunately, the video drowns in clear positionality bias. The original article suggests that from amongst at least 600 minutes of footage and potentially thousands of interactions between and among this young lady and catcallers, the producers of the video selected 3 minutes that are meant to capture her Manhattan experience( looks like Soho, Harlem, Times Square and). This footage evidences overwhelming representation of black and Latino men. 

Tag: implicit bias, danger of single story, pathologization of black and Latino men. 

And because as a society we are largely composed of uncritical consumers of internet "journalism" and mainstream "research" (yet often espousing largely uninformed opinions) the link has gone viral. And so has the visual blueprint and priming of the nature of catcalling-- how it manifests, what it looks like, WHO initiates and who is the victim. Above and beyond the lack of this critical cultural piece is the unfortunate residual outcome of this video, which parenthetically occurs far too often in these situations: a deflection from the intended issue. To be sure, catcalling and unwanted advances from men warrants increased awareness and corresponding actions.It's unfortunate, however, that this video misses the mark in some fairly significant ways.

For another analysis, you might enjoy these articles:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/10/29/catcalling_video_hollaback_s_look_at_street_harassment_in_nyc_edited_out.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

http://www.bkmag.com/2014/10/29/hey-beautiful-on-the-racist-and-classist-implications-of-the-catcalling-video/