Saidiya and Silent Racism

I’d have to say my favorite reading so far was the first chapter in Silent Racism. This is because it really connected the other readings and put them in the context of today. Silent Racism reminded me most of Saidiya Hartman and her chapter titled “Lose Your Mother.” The mentality of colorblindness and state of double-consciousness speak volumes in her situation of identity rejection, rebirth and rebuilding.
Saidiya’s emotions of a lost identity in contrast of her family’s willingness to forget the past could be perhaps due to colorblindness and the double consciousness that African Americans live with daily. The majority, or whites have taken on the role of forgetting the past of slavery and in a way rejected its transference today to silent racism on the once-enslaved population, the African Americans. I found it interesting how her own family chose to sort of side with the whites in their definition of racism, which is described on p. 3 of Silent Racism as only a two-dimensional framework: either you are racist, or you aren’t. Racism is only hateful, and also rare. Though they may have not believed this, Saidiya’s family let this mentality take over their life choices such as naming their daughter Valerie and chose to assimilate, which in Saidiya’s eyes meant forgetting their true heritage. In other words, the double-consciousness that blacks have to live with has perhaps manipulated the family’s thinking, how they view themselves and their place in society. Though her family chose to accept this sense of detachment and ambiguity of equality, Saidiya chose to reject it. Saidiya was more apt to side with the African American view of racism, in that racism permeates the institutions of society. It is not just hateful and rare, but can be passive and witnessed daily through our societies’ engrained institutions. Saidiya did not want to forget, for forgetting to her meant losing her identity. Though it was a tiresome road, she sought to explore her identity and heritage.