I have recently seen a documentary that has won the Jury Award at the South by Southwest Film Festival. This is my reaction in relation to white privilege and heteronormative privilege in the black community.
The documentary Flag Wars presents a unique view of an African American community in Columbus, Ohio. In this community the current middle class home owning black community is in a way being forced to submit to the demands of increasing populations of homosexual white males and females. While the homosexuals have the money to increase their property value, the current residents do not generally have the money to pay for home upgrades. This area is designated a historical area of the city and the city statutes are being enforced to improve the area with or without the help of the current African American residents.
I think that in a way it is just a continued battle between the rich and the poor. The rich people move in to the area and want to control more than they have the right to. In doing this they have a negative effect on the community members which then creates prejudice on both sides. People deciding what signs other people should have on their house or people requiring their neighbor’s house to be rebuilt are each examples of this. The people who are perpetrating these citizens happen to white and white privilege immediately comes to mind.
White privilege is a concept that basically says that white people, in general, have more opportunities to succeed than other races, primarily blacks. This white privilege is seen in many different lights. Some believe that it is a rampant problem in America to this day while others think that white privilege is a myth that exists only on paper, representing the remnants of reverse racism. While it cannot be denied that in our history white males have had a majority of power positions, there have been measured accomplishments of other races that work together with the current power. Perhaps white privilege is something that whites are not even aware of. Things such as “flesh colored” Band-Aids that only match white people’s skin. Inherited values from rich ancestors, generally whites, can also be seen as white privilege. I found a list of white privileges that I had never thought of as an inherent privilege because I am white. This is the link, http://jimbuie.blogs.com/journal/2007/11/50-examples-of-.html. While I cannot say I necessarily support all of these examples of white privilege it does make you think.
I believe that any person of any faith, race or sexual preference can, if they apply themselves, succeed in life. Not everybody in life is given the same opportunities and this is a fact. To be Heteronormative is to believe that heterosexual activity is normal. It can be seen that there are privileges in thinking this way, such as being able to marry anywhere in the United States. Gays simply are denied this right, but that is a religious ideal more than anything else. The people in the black community that are opposed to the gays life style are generally members of Heteronormative privileged class.
In Flag Wars the Heteronormative black community is threatened by the homosexuals moving into the area. The area was discussed as being an area that is open to ethnicities. I feel like just because an area is open to ethnicities, it doesn’t mean it is just open to blacks or whites it should be open to various ethnicities. Although I do not think that it is fair for the blacks to be forced to live with the other races if they don’t want to be an ethnogenic neighborhood, people have had to adapt to their surroundings since the beginning of time. I do not like the way that the rich homosexual white went about it. Comments were said on both sides of the argument that were selfish. However I do not think that the blacks should have to change their community and the culture of the community to suit the needs of the incoming gays. The neighborhood was originally middle class home owners and when somebody owns that home it is theirs to do as they see fit. I feel like if the city wants to pay for it then they can do that but forcing them to make a change until they die, like in Flag Wars, is an unjust scenario and it is not fair to the homeowners. It would be a great loss if we were to lose a historical cultural community because the people that represent that culture, black American’s, felt forced to leave their homes.
I feel like when the neighborhood began it was a white neighborhood but due to white middle class privilege they were able to move away causing the African Americans to take over the neighborhood. However it was their choice to move away whereas the African Americans don’t want to move and so they should not be forced out of the neighborhood. I believe this is part of society, we have to adapt to the new presence of different cultures. In fact the great American melting pot is becoming just that because each race and ethnicity has its upper class and lower class. I think for the most part people have always been divided between races and class. The way people are being separated is no longer according to race; it is according to economic success. To refer to people as a certain specific race doesn’t really work anymore because we are a part of a bigger American race. Nowhere in the world can you find the variety of people that you can in the United States of America. African American communities and white American communities as well as others are slowly becoming harder to differentiate.
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