Stories about Angelina Jolie and Bill O'Reilly helped develop Columbia Law Professor Patricia J. Williams' discussion of race on Friday.
Williams, a renowned author, was the first distinguished speaker of an original series sponsored by the Loyce Stewart Memorial Fund.
The free lecture, entitled "Transcending Race: Race, Gender and the Upcoming US Presidential Election," was held in the Screening Room of the Center for the Arts.
Williams began by introducing the paradoxical idea that in present times, people are "colorblind." She disputed this argument with anecdotes.
"This strange moment...we love to call 'colorblind' where we talk about our first serious black candidate who has 'transcended race.' He has transcended it so much because no one really thinks of him as black and that is why he is our first black candidate," Williams said.
She later pointed out the negative nature of the term being used in relation to race.
"Transcendence also implies rising above something, cutting through, being liberated from," Williams said.
She used recent examples of current events and news to invalidate the "colorblind" state of modern times.
"We live in this strange 'colorblind' moment, where Bill O'Reilly can be struck...by the fact that he actually ate at a soul food restaurant and survived. 'There wasn't any kind of craziness at all,' as he put it, 'it was just like eating at an Italian restaurant,'" Williams said.
Williams explains that race is never uncomplicated because it is a term that can be used in various contexts.
"Race, so frequently and reductively biologized, is more comprehensively and accurately analyzed as...a form of narration. It is, really, no more than what we say it is," Willams said. "It's almost always a line in the sand."
Williams' favorite example of this is the public's acceptance of Angelina Jolie's homogeneous family. She countered this acceptance by explaining the grief of a Latina woman who gave birth to a darker skinned baby with her white husband after a mistake at a fertility clinic.
"I think that split front page of the New York Post reflected the cultural double speak of this...neo-interracialism...on the one hand, we adore the image of the Vietnamese-born Pax and the Cambodian-born Maddox and the Ethiopian-born Zahara all adjoined by...Angelina. Versus, the on-the-ground so-called disaster of the newborn Jessica," Williams said.
Williams uses the concept of a 19th century toy called a twinning doll as a metaphor of our state of union.
"A twinning doll is a 19th century toy that had two heads and a torso that met in the middle. When held vertically, the skirt would fall obscuring the other end. So that flipped one way it becomes a white doll and flipped and turned upside down the shirt falls and suddenly it's a black doll," Williams explained.
The speaker applied this idea of a spinning, continuous transformation of the dolls to the country's African-American leaders.
"I think that this inquiry, this investigation, about his identity reveals the complexly blind slipperiness of American conceptions of race, culture...ethnicity."
Throughout her discourse, the audience laughed at the speaker's jokes and current event references.
"I thought it would be a good lecture to attend. It was really interesting and I liked that she added a little comedy to it. She covered all the good points," said Diana Vito, a senior media studies major.
Even with the comedy, many attendees of the lecture found it provoking and valuable.
"I think what made it really fascinating is she talked about how it is we see each other. She was so articulate...and she was so engaging, that was part of the appeal," said Tami-Lyn Grys, a third year law school student. "I think part of the message was we have to look at ourselves and you have to determine for yourself what you see when you see somebody."
Before introducing the speaker of the night, Memorial Fund Co-Chairs Barbara Burke, interim director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Affirmative Action Administration, and Alexis DeVeaux, director of Graduate Studies of Global Gender Studies, spoke about the legacy of Loyce Stewart, former director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Affirmative Action Administration at UB.
"Following Loyce's passing in 2005, a group of her colleagues and friends formed a committee to plan her memorial to her work and to her commitment to social justice," Burke said.
DeVeaux praised Stewart, calling her a courageous woman and an original. She explained that Stewart had a lifelong interest in law, feminist projects and the creative.
"And so it is deeply fitting that the first distinguished speaker lecture sponsored by the Loyce Stewart Memorial Fund would be that of Professor Patricia J. Williams, an award-winning writer whose work has explored issues of racial inequity, politics, law and feminism."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
