The denormativization of monoraciality
Presenter Title/Affiliation
University of Chicago
Start Date
21-5-2021 4:45 PM
Event Name
Panel discussion
Panel Number
9
Panel Chair Name
William Leap
Zoom URL to Join
https://ciis.zoom.us/j/99085517274
Zoom Meeting ID
990 8551 7274
Abstract
Multiracial relationships have long been—and continue to be—a contested site of social, legal, and biopolitical control. As with all marked positions (Jakobson 1932, Brekhus 1998), they are viewed with ambivalence (cf. Glick & Fiske 1997, inter alia): multiracial relationships represent either/both the transcendence of racial hierarchy in the marketplace of desire (McBride 2005) or/and the convergence of fetishization and internalized racism. This paper will argue that there may be cases in which multiraciality is normal, expected, and even hegemonic—in which monoraciality has been denormativized. Specifically, it will be shown that monoracially attached Asian Americans, both queer and non-queer, are regularly met with ideologies, discourses, and even aggressions targeting the 'baffling' homoraciality of their partnerships. Principal data comes from two interviewees, subjects A and C. Subject A identifies as a queer Asian American man in a relationship with another Asian American man. This pairing is so out of the ordinary in his majority-queer social group that he and his partner are referred to as 'the lesbian couple' (cf. discourses of surprise surrounding the idea of
travesti-travesti partnerships as described in Kulick 1998). Subject A comes from an activist background and is able to chart the intersections between the anti-Asian racism, misogyny, Asian specific misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and white supremacy that underlie these and similar remarks. Subject C identifies as a heterosexual Asian American woman in a relationship with an Asian American man. Among other things, she discusses the manner in which her relationship is in fact similar to lesbian relationships: My queer female friends have told me that telling a man who is harassing you that you have a girlfriend is often no defense. Well, having my Asian boyfriend physically present is also no defense: they either ignore him or see him as a threat they can overcome. Connections will be drawn to the ways in which conventional/hegemonic heterosexual family formation in the black community (e.g., the Obamas, the Knowles-Carters) has been portrayed as deviant and exceptional. It emerges from this work that the study of linguistic racialization is indispensable in the study of hetero- and homonormativity.
Presenter Contact
elixir@uchicago.edu
The denormativization of monoraciality
Multiracial relationships have long been—and continue to be—a contested site of social, legal, and biopolitical control. As with all marked positions (Jakobson 1932, Brekhus 1998), they are viewed with ambivalence (cf. Glick & Fiske 1997, inter alia): multiracial relationships represent either/both the transcendence of racial hierarchy in the marketplace of desire (McBride 2005) or/and the convergence of fetishization and internalized racism. This paper will argue that there may be cases in which multiraciality is normal, expected, and even hegemonic—in which monoraciality has been denormativized. Specifically, it will be shown that monoracially attached Asian Americans, both queer and non-queer, are regularly met with ideologies, discourses, and even aggressions targeting the 'baffling' homoraciality of their partnerships. Principal data comes from two interviewees, subjects A and C. Subject A identifies as a queer Asian American man in a relationship with another Asian American man. This pairing is so out of the ordinary in his majority-queer social group that he and his partner are referred to as 'the lesbian couple' (cf. discourses of surprise surrounding the idea of
travesti-travesti partnerships as described in Kulick 1998). Subject A comes from an activist background and is able to chart the intersections between the anti-Asian racism, misogyny, Asian specific misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and white supremacy that underlie these and similar remarks. Subject C identifies as a heterosexual Asian American woman in a relationship with an Asian American man. Among other things, she discusses the manner in which her relationship is in fact similar to lesbian relationships: My queer female friends have told me that telling a man who is harassing you that you have a girlfriend is often no defense. Well, having my Asian boyfriend physically present is also no defense: they either ignore him or see him as a threat they can overcome. Connections will be drawn to the ways in which conventional/hegemonic heterosexual family formation in the black community (e.g., the Obamas, the Knowles-Carters) has been portrayed as deviant and exceptional. It emerges from this work that the study of linguistic racialization is indispensable in the study of hetero- and homonormativity.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/lavlang/2021/friday/28
