Expanding the Circumference of Centrisms: On The Reframing of Identity

1. Expanding the Circumference of Centrisms: On The Reframing of Identity William J. Starosta Howard University Washington, DC 20059 USA wstarosta@howard.edu

2. 从霍华德大学到上海师范大学的问候 With regards from Howard University to Shanghai Normal University

3. ON IDENTITY: CENTRISMS • A shared orientation • About perceived social facts and realities • Subject to negotiation and change • Maintain power and control • Minimize threats to their own dominance

4. The Centrism: A shared orientation “’Centrisms’ exist in historical space, rhetorical space, physical space, national space, postcolonial space, and in mental space. They are inscribed authentically, by those groups who have lived a cultural experience, or inauthentically, by those outside of the community. They reflect a more or less actual history, or they may represent idealized conceptions of how a community should or might be. Centrisms are always at some site of contestation.“ Starosta & Chen (2009). China Media Research Cultural space? Colonial space? Gendered space? Racial space? Rhetorical space? Linguistic space? Nationalist space? Religious space? Tribal space? Ideological space? Geographic space (Or any combination of these…and others!)

5. The Centrism: About perceived social facts and realities • Social constructions • Group truisms and consensus • Agreement • Utility (to the group’s perceived benefit) • More visible to Others than to Self

6. The Centrism: Subject to negotiation and change • Subject to contestation • Avowed (an self-asserted identity) • Ascribed (an identity asserted by the other) • Asserts and maintains power • Shifts with time and change of circumstance

7. The Centrism: Maintains power and control • “Ism’s: driven by racism, sexism, nationalism, religious belief, tribalism, gender orientation • The self is centered; the Other is controlled • The center may seem unmarked and natural • Usually represents a numerical majority (an exception: apartheid) • The centrism tries to preserve itself

8. The Centrism: Minimizes threats to its own dominance • Controls the languaging of reality • Maintains boundaries • Censors alternative voices • Dominates media images • Attributes “difference” to others • Calls “difference” disruptive

9. DoesCentrism =Culture ? • An As-Is,or an Ought-to-be • Not just nation but also co-cultures • Shared meanings, rules, and repertoires • Across generations, or only temporary • A thing of the mind, not just of physical realities

10. “Expanding the circumference…” Those efforts to enlarge the centrism • consolidate power and authority • by co-opting certain other groups • as allies against (or buffers from) • rival centrisms

11. Being “controlled” by the centrism • The privilege of “Whiteness” (Nakayama) • Minority “invisibility” (Sun & Starosta) • Being reminded of “difference” (Asante, Miike) • Being negatively portrayed • The “hyphen,” the “frontier,” the “margin”

12. The resources of ambiguity • Postmodernism: we are many identities • We may rank these hierarchically • We may come to believe in a new ordering of identities • Two examples: Religion and Race

13. The resources of ambiguity: Religion “They [immigrants] should all be made to pass an assimilation test to demonstrate their allegiance to American values. They all should swear on the Bible that they are loyal only to the U.S., that they have given up their past allegiances. They all should speak fluent English before we accept them, and they should all fly an American flag. Since Muslims will be unwilling to do at least two of these things, we should send them back home, to wherever they came from…. No, not on a Koran, on a Bible, as was intended by the writers of the Constitution.“ Starosta fieldwork notes, 2007 • Western Christians are concerned about Islam as a threat to their centrism • They appeal to religion over race to create a buffer against religious competition

14. The resources of ambiguity: Race Study in California, persons aged 20-35: 70%+ of Asian- and Latino-Americans are intermarrying, mostly with Whites. Their children may be considered White. Four percent of African Americans will marry Whites. Their children will likely be considered to be Black. Lee & Bean, 2004 • In USAmerica, some projections say that Whites will be in a minority status within 35 years • But what about expanding the definition of “White”? • Not “Black and White,” but “Black and non-Black” (includes those of Asian and Latin origin), maintains the racial centrism.

15. The Ethics of Expanding the Circumference: Exclusion? Does the promoting of centrisms lock others out, or does it imprison centrists within? Which is ultimately more pro-survival: to enlist the talents and genius of all those who have something to contribute, or to maintain a privileged place at a rhetorical “center” at the expense of others who face restricted access to equal participation in governance and social participation? The argument must be made and reinforced that the exclusion of the Other represents a diminution of the self and its possibilities. It denies humanity to both the one excluded and to the one who attempts the categorical exclusion. In defining the Other as less, it renders the self as less.

16. The Ethics of Expanding the Circumference: Inclusion? By contrast, a rhetorical appeal that rests on commonality in principle of any and all Others with the center, not to one group’s negation by another, holds the prospect for synergy and joint action in the name of the broadest possible good. Such inclusive rhetoric by the centrism leads toward the broadest participation in efforts to define and to reach a point of common good.

17. 从美利坚合众国到中央王国的问候 Regards from The USA to the Central Kingdom 感谢万分! With my thanks