Race and Family Systems Therapy

I fortunately read Bluest Eye a few weeks ago for my TC class. As a result, the major themes discussed in the book have been in the back of my mind for a while. I am extremely ambivalent about what the final message is that we should take from Bluest Eye. I’ll describe this internal dialogue through a response to Bump’s papers on Bluest Eye.

One of the most moving moments in Bluest Eye was definitely the internal split dialogue that occurs at the end. Pecola’s insanity is described in a somewhat disturbing manner as the novel draws to a conclusion. When talking to a seemingly imaginary friend, Pecola exclaims, “don’t go. Don’t leave me” (Morrison 203). This insanity was caused by Pecola’s desire for the “bluest eyes in the whole world” (203). It must be determined what Morrison is attempting to argue is the cause of Pecola’s neurosis. When attempting to describe what caused the family problems in Pecola’s family, Bump draws from Family Systems Therapy. Using this framework, he argues that “family therapists support the claim that “white society finds it difficult enough to have traditional, nuclear, stable families itself” (Bump 154). This claim is used to create universality when responding to family issues. There is a universal struggle that exists regarding family systems that is not limited to specific racial experiences.

one must be careful to avoid the dangerous fallacies of the moynihan report

However, the afterword seems to argue that there is a racial element to Morrison’s argument. She seems to argue that Bluest Eye is an attempt to “transfigure the complexity and wealth of Black American culture” into an empowering force (Morrison 206). When taking into account the origin of Cholly’s patriarchal behavior, we must remember that it began when Cholly had a racist encounter with white people. However, Bump is quick to remind us that “research has demonstrated that the average black family is healthier than the average white family” (Bump 159). Moreover, perhaps a different reading of Bluest Eye is more strategic for addressing issues of race. If we have a more universal response to Pecola’s insanity then we can “enable the reader to experience the suffering of such a victim of racism and fear of ugliness” (Bump 162). While this is a reasonable argument about strategy, I am still uncomfortable abandoning the racial lens entirely. Family Systems Therapy may be useful in explaining clinical cases of family problems, but a closer reading of specific narratives (such as the fictional one posited in Bluest Eye) reveals a different experience within black families that is different from white families. Considering many aspects of psychological theory were developed with predominantly white patients and case studies, it seems only fair to attempt to build empathic coalitions through a universal understanding of family problems while simultaneously being mindful of unique racial experiences.

pecola views her own (lack of) beauty in a racial context

Jerome Bump. “Family Systems Therapy and Narrative in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye”. Reading the Family Dance: Family Systems Therapy and Literary Study. Rosemont Publishing Danvers Massachusetts. 2003.

Jerome Bump. “Racism and Appearance in the Bluest Eye: A Template for an Ethical Emotive Criticism”. College Literature 37:2. 2010.

intersectionality and internalization

Cholly’s experience with racism is extremely revealing about the ways that racism operates within the community that Morrison is describing. Cholly’s abuse of his wife (and poor relationship with his daughter) is attributed to a flashback that occurs in the first chapter of the book. Cholly is “surprised in some bushes by two white men” (42). It would seem logical for Cholly to use this experience to develop a hatred for racists and perhaps an irrationally negative disposition towards white people. However, Cholly instead responds to this by adopting patriarchal attitudes. He takes it out by hating women, because in his view, by “hating her, he could leave himself intact” (42). In this way, Morrison gives insight to the complicated ways that racism exists. Rather than merely existing in a white/black binary, patriarchy also adds a more complicated dimension to this hierarchy. The experience of black women in Bluest Eye is vastly different from the experience felt by black men. Many of the black women have a more complicated struggle with ideas of beauty and the expectations of how their physical appearance should be, as well.

the dick and jane books alluded to in the opening pages of bluest eye

The dialogue that exists regarding Maureen also provides commentary on the internalization of racism. Maureen is a light-skinned black girl, and it seems that Morrison is implicitly making the argument that she is regarded as beautiful because of her relative likeness to white girls. Maureen “never had to search for anybody to eat with in the cafeteria” (63). When she gets a locker next to Claudia, she then indulges her “jealousy four times a day” (63). Here Morrison provides a different account of racism than usually found. Rather than racism occurring through the subjugation of one group by another, instead racial understandings of beauty have been internalized by the black girls such that they impose them upon themselves. The social relations of black women with each other have been influenced by an understanding of beauty imposed by a largely white-dominated culture. Clearly Morrison is attempting to open our eyes to a more dynamic understanding of the role that race plays in our society. We all participate in a network of power relations that have the potentiality to improve or worsen the lives of those around us.

beyonce is a living example of norms that exist with what is and isn't considered beautiful

rat race: antropocentrism in maus

In regards to the metaphors present in Maus, it is interesting that Spiegelman describes them as self-destructing. Although this statement is not qualified in the discussion board prompt, it seems safe to assume that the author of the quotation is implying that Maus exposes the absurdity of dividing different lines between races. However, it is unclear what relationship Maus has to the anthropocentric lines that exist in society today. While mice are used to represent Jews, the dialogue and characterization of these individuals are no different than humans, and there does not seem to be any clever analysis regarding the author’s decision to substitute mice for humans. Does Maus help us advance our metaphor of animals to the holocaust? When articulating the experience in Maus, much of the exploitation is contextualized with labor. The camps demanded “200 workers tomorrow” while the camp that the main character was present at only had “180 still registered” (35). Although the graphic novel later also discusses starvation, the analogy of the forced extraction of labor from animals is not apparent. The choice of mice is one reason, considering that mice are not usually used to extract labor (as opposed to horses or mules). Moreover, the mobilization of labor for the ends of the state is a relatively human phenomenon.

the labor market

the nazis also depended upon military labor

Also problematic within Maus is the ability for the main character to have agency. When the main character claims that he is a tin-smith, the officer exclaims, “A tin-smith! I’ll see what I can do!” (36). I am not going to speak of the likelihood of people getting special treatment from officers for teaching them languages (I was not there) but it goes without saying that animals never receive as much agency in their own personal enslavement. However, Maus does provide some useful commentary. Despite the injustices that the Jews faced, the old man describes a time when he “first came to New York” that was free of blacks (100). However, now he laments that “if I put down only for one second my valuables, they took” (100). In this way, Maus can be read as exposing the hypocrisy of being intolerant of racial injustice while still tolerating the poor treatment of animals. While this does nothing to excuse the lack of an explicit consideration of anthropocentrism, it still advances the theoretical ability to interrogate a variety of hierarchies simultaneously.

diversity and harmony are not easy goals

 

 

 

 

things done changed

it's raining cats and dogs

I woke up and arose when several strangers walked into the room where I was being kept. Strangers are nice enough, but they can be so fickle at times. As usual, the strangers immediately walked past the three black cats in cages next to me and went straight to my cage.  They opened it and held me.  I used the first opportunity I had to extend my limbs and escape their grasp. Strangely, the visitors were surprised that I wanted to roam around the floor after being trapped in the same cage all day. As I played with many of the toys lying around the floor, I recalled the days when I was able to play with toys at any time I wanted to.

I had started out in a normal home like any other domesticated feline. The humans that fed me always gave me generous amounts of food. The younger humans also played with me on a regular basis, which gave me great exercise and kept me entertained. While I lived with this family for as early as I can remember, this would not be my last family. Eventually these humans were forced to move away to another place where they said that they could not take me. As a result, they found me another home.

This home was not as kind. There were no children in the household to play with me. The owners had no toys to keep me entertained. And to make matters worse,  I was only fed on an irregular basis. Some weekends I would find myself quite hungry due to the lack of food in the food bowl. After spending a solid year in this household, an event occurred that I am quite ambivalent about. I woke up and the family was missing. Not only that, but all of their possessions were gone too. They completely vacated the house. With my future uncertain at this location, I immediately left out of fear. I was unsure about what I should do. How would I get food? How would I get shelter?

I spent a few tumultuous days roaming the streets, incapable of finding a stable place to exist. I roamed the streets of Austin looking for bits and pieces of scraps of food to eat. While this was enough to keep me alive, it was a bare life, at best. My diet was incredibly unhealthy, and I began smelling quite foul due to my lack of a bath. Eventually, some adults found me and took me to a place called Austin Pets Alive.

This is basically the story of how I arrived here, being held by a few humans who clearly do not have very much experience holding cats of their own. Since my arrival at Austin Pets Alive, I have been given the name Blanco for my white coat. Most of the other cats at this institution have dark, black coats. For some reason, all of the visitors that come into APA head straight for my cage. It was the same when we had another white cat in the room, for some reason the humans were attracted to cats with white fur before they paid attention to the darker cats. Why do the humans think that white cats are more beautiful? Although this might be a subconscious desire, it is nevertheless unfair. I can’t help but feel ambivalent about receiving more attention but still knowing that many of my friends in the APA will live the rest of their lives here.

However, this privilege that I possess is relative. Regardless of the attention, I am still stuck inside of this cage like all of the other cats. Many of the workers here have mentioned that enough attention has been paid to me that It is likely I will find a foster home within a week. Yet, my future is uncertain. Many of the homes that other cats have come from homes where they were physically mistreated and abused. I myself have suffered malnutrition due to my previous home. Ultimately, only time will tell if this future home will be a place of safety or a new cage that I will long to escape from as well.

While I can only speculate about the past life of Blanco, I know for certain the impact that my encounter with him had upon me. I was initially nervous when I first decided to visit APA. This is not because of a fear of Austin public transportation. But rather, because I had never attended an animal shelter before and was warned by my mother about the dangers of contagious animals. “They could be diseased. Don’t touch them, you might get rabies.” Obviously these fears were dispelled by the friendly reminders from APA staff that the animals at Austin Pets Alive do not have any contagious diseases.

I began by looking at the cats in the cat building at the Manchaca location. The workers at the location directed us to a room where the cats were kept. The room was a little messy, and the cages that the cats were kept within were quite cramped. Moreover, as I entered the room, all of the cats’ eyes immediately turned to me.  Their facial expressions made it clear that they were longing for attention. As a result, I could not help opening each of the cats’ cages individually and spending a substantial amount of time with each one. I was moved by what seemed to be a great amount of appreciation and gratitude that was communicated to me merely as a result of me showing attention to the cats. This is something that I realized that I take for granted in my daily life, the ability to be listened and loved by people around me on a daily basis.

Blanco was an especially affectionate cat. Many of the other cats were somewhat irritable, and understandably so. However, Blanco seemed extremely peaceful lying in my lap and being held in my arms. As I watched Blanco play with the toys in the room happily, I understood the importance of the biography that I would write for him. In my hands I held the power to influence whether or not Blanco would ever have the opportunity to live in a household where he is able to play with toys like this on a daily basis. I immediately began taking notes about the unique characteristics that made Blanco unique in order to try to improve the biography that I would eventually write.

After visiting the cats, I proceeded to go outside and visit the dogs. I visited many of the dogs’ cages, and I noticed a somewhat similar response to my foreign presence. Each of the dogs was clamoring for my attention. When the worker at APA unlocked the cage of a dog that I was going to walk, all of the other dogs would bark vigorously, seemingly demanding to be given attention themselves. It was difficult to walk very many dogs, but I had time to walk a few. One of the dogs that I walked was particularly old and sick, and barely walked much on his own. It reminded me of the only pet that I have ever owned in his later years, a dog named Munchy that my family had when I was in elementary school. This was a dog that my parents took in when they found her living in the junkyard next to their house when they were in graduate school. I had never given much thought to their act of taking a random stray dog into their home. But as I saw many dogs wishing to have the same opportunity, I felt both a feeling of admiration for my parents but also a feeling of dissatisfaction that many dogs would never encounter such a friendly home themselves.

As I rode the bus back to campus, I reflected on my visit in the context of a discussion that we had in class. Professor Bump challenged us to prove that animals could talk. But in a way, I felt that all of the animals at the Austin Pets Alive shelter were communicating with me every second that I interacted with them. Many of them visibly felt pain and despair. Many of them had hopeless looks on their eyes. If only the rest of the world could hear these animals’ cries too.

can the black elk speak?

When it was mentioned during discussion that Black Elk Speaks is not a firsthand account of Black Elk, but rather the result of spoken word tradition and translation, I was skeptical. It is difficult for me to imagine that an authentic encounter with American Indian culture could be mediated by a third party. Moreover, the author of a work that is not autobiographical has an incentive to structure narratives that are easily digestible by white culture. William Powers argues in an academic journal that historical evidence actually points to Black Elk as a historical figure converting to Christianity. However, this did not consist of an exclusive acceptance of Christianity. Rather, “Black Elk, like so many other medicine men, was participating simultaneously in both religious systems, drawing upon the protocol and ritual of traditional Lakota religion, as well as on Christianity to help meet daily problems as they arose” (Powers 46). This is vastly different from the dichotomy posited in Black Elk, where the “Wasichus have put us in these square boxes” (in reference to white influence) (319). As a result of this, American Indian “power is gone and we are dying, for the power is not in us any more” (319). It seems that this more accurate historical evidence indicates that Black Elk would have a far more ambivalent response to white influence, considering he identified with it in strategic instances.

black elk speaks

Perhaps most problematic is the claim that “Neihardt was clearly aware of the old man’s participation in the Catholic church” (Powers 49). Neihardt’s storytelling method is also troubling. Black Elk Speaks is focused around the visions that Black Elk encounters. In his “own words,” Black Elk recalls “a very great vision, and I should have depended only upon that to guide me to the good” (342). This is contrary to Lakota tradition. Powers argues that in real Lakota society, “there is no interest in Black Elk on the reservation as a philosopher or spokesman for the traditional way of life, at least not by his living contemporaries” (53). This calls into question the methodology of giving preference to one individual’s account of his or her experiences as a Lakota. Perhaps this singular narrative format is fundamentally incompatible with traditional Lakota understandings of recalling experiences. Moreover, the series of visions that Black Elk sees have specific morals tied to them. However, Lakota society would not focus on Black Elk’s visions as a universal lesson, but rather a personal ethical observation that is subjective.

subaltern studies

In light of this analysis, it becomes important to determine where this leaves Black Elk Speaks. Echoing Spivak’s original question, perhaps Black Elk has no voice within this text. Nevertheless, I am reluctant to believe that this means the text should be abandoned entirely. Rather, I look forward to the class discussing on Tuesday where these historical discrepancies leave us in relation to the text.


William Powers. “When Black Elk Speaks, Everybody Listens”. Social Text 24 (1990).