DISSECTING KEY THEMES, AND IDENTIFYING KEY IDEAS AND THE AUTHOR’S MESSAGE, VIEWS AND VALUES
To improve your text response essays and your writing in general, you need to be specific with regards to the author’s views, values, message, key ideas. You need to dissect the main themes and be specific. We will also use story-telling devices – voice, mindset, symbols etc. — to help us locate the author’s views and values.
Using these key ideas, based on The Hate Race (a migrant’s journey) and Charlie’s Country (an indigenous person’s journey), we will explore, and synthesise, parallel experiences in a variety of texts/excerpts.
We will be investigating what the author says about stereotypes, discrimination, prejudice and what they say about a challenge and misconceptions.
Please read widely as well and use texts from your own reading.
Personal memoirs – these are the type of ideas you need to explore in your own personal writing/craft of writing texts. You must ensure your “voice” fits the message – reflects the author’s views and values.
See pages 6-12; and 31-33.
ESSAY PROMPT: How does skin colour shape the experiences of the characters in the text?
White-skinned people tend to enjoy the advantages and benefits of a colour that appears to be “normal”, “natural” and “powerful”.
People of colour — Maxine Clarke is of Afro-Carribean origin and Charlie is a First Nations person — often have to prove their worth. They tend to be cast in the position of “other” and treated differently. They do not have the same opportunities. Charlie struggles with a system that undermines his sense of agency.
Migrants such as the Clarkes struggle with a sense of difference “because of where they come from”. In both cases, while colour-related experiences can create positive change, they can also have a debilitating effect on one’s well-being.
Key Idea: Skin colour lies at the basis of a divided society: historically, socially and culturally. Through this division, power tends to accrue to the Anglo-Saxon (“white”) person.
Through her personal stories Maxine Beneba Clarke depicts the consequences of an imbalance of power: white people occupy the powerful centre and determine standards of beauty. People of colour are treated differently because of “where they come from”. As a First Nations person, Charlie is subject to the controls of a paternalistic government undermining his sense of wellbeing.
Often the setting – captures the physical as well as a social divide.
Like most residents in Kellyville, the Clarkes have seen, but have had no contact with, the “black children” from the Marella Mission farm located on the fringes of Kellyville. It houses “removed” Aboriginal children. (92)
Key Idea: White people enjoy an intuitive and entitled sense of power which may cause harm to others.
In depictions of Maxine’s kindergarten peers, teachers and parents, Clarke suggests that the white person tends to occupy a position of power and to enjoy a sense of entitlement they do not have to earn.
Maxine’s peer, such as Carlita Allen, Greg Adams and Derek Healey, have a conditioned sense of superiority which they use to their advantage. They torment Maxine with impunity – simply because they are “white”.
Greg Adams reveals a racist attitude towards the “Abos” when Miss Cooke plays excerpts of Paul Keating’s “Redfern Speech”. “Nobody gives a shit about the abos. Except maybe blackie over there.” We should have wiped them all out when we had the fucken chance.” (150).
As Maxine points out: “The bullied know body language like bulls know red flags. To the bullied, reading body language is like having a compass.” (136)
Key Idea: “White-skinned” people often feel a sense of “satisfaction” at the expense of the “other”
Numerous students treat Maxine with disdain, while the tormentors consolidate their power at Maxine’s expense. They set her up for ridicule and delight in her humiliation. Many of her peers gain a sadistic sense of enjoyment as she becomes increasingly uncomfortable.
As Maxine increasingly becomes the object of mirth, she learns that both children and parents have normalised the racial power disparity to such an extent that they are completely oblivious of the pain they are causing.
With the support of the adult world the white-skinned bullies become more provocative and audacious. They know they will not be meaningfully reprimanded or punished.
Key Idea: The coloured person feels betrayed by those in positions of power and influence: the bystander syndrome
Those in positions of power and influence (those who should be moral beacons such as teachers) have a tendency to minimise the abuse or the discrimination.
Clarke shows that in the politics of race there are no bystanders. Those who stand by and witness racist behaviour are complicit.
Key Idea: The coloured person is more likely to suffer from racial profiling. This compounds feelings of insecurity and shame.
People of colour are frequently judged more harshly as people make assumptions about their behaviour and character. Both De Heer and Clarke include examples of racial profiling whereby white people are suspicious and distrustful of people of colour.
The police often intercept Charlie and carry out a search for illegal weapons.
Maxine’s and Cecilia’s achievements are often overlooked. The same type of cultural whitewashing is evident whenever they pursue excellence within certain groups. Deemed to be the clear winner at the speech for the Lions Club Youth of the Year award, Maxine does not get the award. The other girl’s story is celebrated in the local paper.
Key Idea: On both a personal and a collective/historical level, “black” is a colour that is frequently erased. The white-washing of “black” history and culture is also reflected on a personal level rendering the “victim” invisible. This leads to a loss of confidence.
“Black” is a colour that conceals a problem. It highlights historical blemishes and blind-spots that hide trauma and pain, violence and injustice.
Generally, people of colour learn that their experiences are culturally insignificant and their stories are relegated to the historical margins by white people in positions of authority.
Key Idea: “Black” is a demonised colour. It is the source of fear; through role reversals the victim is often blamed for their “problems”.
“Black” is also the colour of fear and is demonised in speeches by Enoch Powell and Pauline Hanson. Exploiting people’s fears and insecurities during an era of increased economic hardship, Hanson’s maiden speech comprised anti-Asian rhetoric. Clarke notes: “Her maiden speech sounded much like the Rivers of Blood address Enoch Powell had famously delivered in England in 1968”. A British Member of Parliament (“that fool English politician”), Powell peddles the myth that “in fifteen or twenty years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man’” (9.)
Key Idea: Marginalisation leads to a loss of confidence and a sense of despair
Clarke and de Heer suggest that in societies that marginalise people of colour, individuals despair.
They experience a debilitating sense of loneliness. Owing to their sense of exclusion, both Charlie and Maxine exhibit self-destructive tendencies as they try to make themselves “invisible”.