Racialized Attention

Attending Through Race

“but also of the enormous presence of
the Negro as a fact in the American
imagination, which again and again has
created something which is absolutely
inextricable—it cannot be lost, cannot
be forgotten, cannot be by-passed, in
our minds for a moment” (Kazin 211).
“Perhaps people assume that Blacks possess extra
(i.e., superhuman) strength which enables them to
endure violence more easily than other humans.”
Add to this what we know about implicit bias—
that most people perceive blacks as more violent and
dangerous than other groups—and you have a
Darren Wilson narrative that reads like a textbook
case of racial projection” (Bouie).
“Instead, consider this: Maybe Wilson was
an ordinary police officer with all the
baggage it carries. Maybe, like many of his
peers on the Ferguson police force, he was
hard on black teenagers. Maybe, like many
Americans, he was a little afraid of them.
And maybe all of this—his fear, his bias,
and his training—met Michael Brown and
combined to create tragedy.” (Bouie).
“to be a Negro in this country and to be relatively
conscious, is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that
the first problem is how to control that rage so that it
won't destroy you. Part of the rage is this: it isn't only
what is happening to you, but it's what's happening all
around you all of the time, in the face of the most
extraordinary and criminal indifference, the indifference
and ignorance of most white people in this
country” (Baldwin 205).
“And really everything in America
can almost be defined by the
presence of the Negro in it,
including the American
personality” (Baldwin 210).
“You never really speak except for the time
she makes her request and later when she
tells you you smell good and have features
more like a white person. You assume she
thinks she is thanking you for letting her cheat
and feels better cheating from an almost
white person” (Rankine 5).
“Your friend is speaking to your neighbor when you arrive
home. The four police cars are gone. Your neighbor has
apologized to your friend and is now apologizing to you.
Feeling somewhat responsible for the actions of your
neighbor, you clumsily tell your friend that the next time
he wants to talk on the phone he should just go in the
backyard. He looks at you a long minute before saying he
can speak on the phone wherever he wants. Yes,
of course, you say. Yes, of course” (Rankine 15).
“you begin to understand yourself as rendered
hypervisible in the face of such language acts.
Language that feels hurtful is intended to exploit all
the ways that you are present. Your alertness, your
openness, and your desire to engage actually
demand your presence, your looking up, your
talking back, and, as insane as it is, saying
please” (Rankine 49).
“The streets had their own safety:
Unlike at home, there I could be
myself without fear of bodily
harm. Walking became so
regular and familiar that the way
home became home” (Cadogan).
“Walking as a black man has made me feel
simultaneously more removed from the city, in my
awareness that I am perceived as suspect, and more
closely connected to it, in the full attentiveness
demanded by my vigilance. It has made me walk
more purposefully in the city, becoming part of its
flow, rather than observing, standing
apart” (Cadogan).
“The race of an individual must be
noticed and remembered before a
racial stereotype can be activated or
racially motivated behavior can
occur. Is it possible not to notice a
person’s race” (Cosmides et al, 173)?
“This should be cause for concern; if people in
general are poor at recognizing others of a different
race, and many eyewitness identifications occur
across racial lines, knowledge and an
understanding of this phenomenon is critical both
to the researcher and to the legal practitioner. At
the very least, we should take particular care when
eyewitness identification crosses racial
lines” (MacLin et al, 135).