In this chapter, Taylor introduces the idea that a “racial
fantasyland” has been created which determines our perceptions of people based
on their race. He notes that this racial fantasyland has been “officially
sanctioned” and that just because it is officially sanctioned – meaning that it
is the widely accepted way of seeing people who embody a particular race – does
not mean that it is real; in fact, it is very far from “actual reality” and it
has forced us into very problematic ways of thinking about people such as “inventing”
people. This blog post will be an exploration of the implications of the racial
fantasyland, of what it causes us to do, of what it means to “invent” people,
and the implications of being able to create such an, in the words of Charles
Mills, “invented delusional world”.
Before even thinking about how this racial
fantasyland forces us into inventing people, it is important to note the fact
that we can invent people. The fact
that such distorted realities can be created, invented, is rather frightening,
to say the least. This possibility to fall under such, for lack of a better
word, lies, should serve as a
reminder that our thoughts and perceptions, along with the stories through
which we see the world, must be constantly subjected to analysis and skepticism.
It should also serve as a reminder that we are often the embodiment of such
thoughts and perceptions and stories because they are often being perpetuated
and normalized (the fact that they are normalized is probably the scariest part
of it all because often what is normal is seen as true and any attempt to stray
from normal is incredibly difficult). So, with those two reminders – which can
be summed up as the awareness that we
are a part of the racial fantasyland – we can begin to explore how this racial
fantasyland clouds people, living breathing people, behind an invention we
create of them.
So how does this racial fantasyland play out? In
simplest terms, it forces us to see certain
things when we see people from a certain race. Because the racial fantasyland
has invented blacks as being “essentially bound up with their bodies” there has been incredible focus
on Michelle Obama’s muscle and size. Because Latino immigrants have been
invented as thieves, we don’t allow them into “our” country (our is in
quotations because the reasons for it being our country are arbitrary and
embedded in this racial fantasyland). It is clear in these cases that our
invention of the identities people has enormous influence on how we treat them.
If they were seen as they are, not as their invented selves, perhaps Latino
immigration would be addressed in a different matter, and perhaps Michelle
Obama, the person, won’t be reduced to her physical appearance.
It is clear, then, that these practices are indeed
frightening. Our inventions of people greatly affect how we treat them and
interact with them. The ease with which these inventions are created and spread
is also grounds for much concern. It reveals the strength of such social
pressures and ideologies in determining how we see people (and therefore how we
treat them). Awareness of the racial fantasyland and the forces behind its
creation and perpetuation lead us to a set of new questions. How can we escape
it? And where are we escaping to?
Although it is question of which I have not
arrived at the answer (and I’m not so sure anyone can arrive at the answer), it
is a crucial question to ask and to explore. Charles Mills points out that the
racial fantasyland, the “officially sanctioned reality”, is divergent from “actual
reality”. Of course, the question that ensues is “what is the actual reality
through which we should see people?” I suppose the actual reality is not a
particular way of seeing people within a racial group, of seeing blacks as
criminals, nor as seeing them as angels. Switching the perception of blacks
from a negative one to a positive one still clouds them; it is still an invention of them. I suppose then that
seeing the actual reality consists of not
inventing people’s identity but to see them as people.
