This past week for class I read an article entitled The White Girl in Me, the Colored Girl in You, and the Lesbian in Us: Crossing Boundaries. The authors, Medria Connolly and Debra Noumair, discussed the perspective that “differences such as race, gender, and sexual orientation of ‘others’ are often used as receptacles for the unwanted aspects of oneself,” and subsequently their personal experiences in discovering the “other” within themselves (322). It never occurred to me that an important aspect of breaking down individual stereotypes could involve investigating how I personally embody the “other.” I found the article quite interesting because it provided a different approach to combating racism and increasing communication from many of the other material encountered in this course.

When reading the article, though, I noticed in the process of breaking down prejudices, it seemed that the authors continued to uphold many existing stereotypes. Connolly describes how in her mind “white girl behavior can take various forms. It involves talking proper…presenting one’s self with a neutral affect…engaging through personal connections…[and] acting as if one really needs the support of others” (326). This illustrates one of several examples when the authors describe in stereotypical terms what it means to be White, Black or homosexual. I understand that in the process of identifying how one embodies the “other,” one must first define characteristics of that other group. Additionally I understand that these authors are exploring this exercise for the first time, and that sharing their personal experiences on paper must have been a challenging task. Despite this though, it seemed that these descriptions of the “other” might simply perpetuate the stereotypes that they originally attempted to destroy.

The next day while reading through blogs, I read an entry by Amanda S. that related to these thoughts. I could not figure out how to comment because she registered her blog on another site, so I am going to include my comments here. Amanda discussed how in Brothers and Sisters, many of the characters “were accused of ‘acting White,’” and that she believes that “the whole idea of ‘acting White’ or ‘acting Black’ seems to perpetuate the stereotypes that can lead to prejudice and racism.” While Amanda’s blog provided some support for my notion that perhaps labeling behavior as “acting White” or “acting Black” simply propagates stereotypes, I realized after more thought that there is an important difference in context between the situations that Amanda and I considered. Amanda observed this trend in a social and work setting where such classifications perhaps contributed to stronger prejudices, while I noticed it in an academic setting where the purpose of defining “acting White” was to identify “the other” in oneself. This realization made me reconsider my original reaction to the Connolly and Noumair’s article.