Black Culture is the blueprint; that is a given in the American cultural landscape and the frame of our campus culture. You see it everywhere. In literature, in film, in music, in speech. It surrounds us constantly and the global impact of Black (and specifically African-American) culture can never be overstated.
Cultural Appropriation has been a hotly debated topic that has dominated social media. Specifically the pervasive consumption of African-American culture without regard to cultural respect or understanding. Non-Black people constantly misappropriate the elements of Black culture in their day to day life including broken African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) speech without any knowledge on the syntax and the history that grounds it. Their favorite rap song that recounts someone’s traumatic experiences which they think is a song they can use on their TikTok dances. It is a constant stream of mockery and racism that simultaneously believes Black culture is “inferior” or not worthy of respect while taking up space in Black cultural environments. This is the cannibalization of Black culture.
Denison’s campus life is not above this. The famed liberal arts education does not instruct white and non-Black students to unlearn their racist behaviors, especially implicit beliefs. The evolution of Black face in the digital age and the entitlement to a culture that is not theirs can be found everywhere on campus. Black students know this and navigate it daily. Individuals have to watch the vicious dismemberment of their culture because it has been normalized throughout the country and the world. The implicit belief that Black people do not possess a culture carries over even into day-to-day conversations.
And this brings me to my focus today, the Bullsheet article titled “Which Beloved Character Are You?”, a game that picks apart Toni Morrison’s iconic book about a formerly enslaved woman and her experiences escaping the South. The article is a multiple-choice quiz that “innocently” relates you to the main characters as if it is a Buzzfeed quiz that describes an element of your personality, similar to something as mundane as which of the 4 elements are you or what Michael Shur show embodies you, the Office (Denisonians love that one!), Parks & Rec or Brooklyn Nine-Nine?
I don’t believe I have the time or all the words to really describe all of the racist elements in the mockery of Morrison’s work, a sacred title in the annals of African-American literature. I find it incredibly hard to believe that there is anything game-worthy or funny found within the novel that recounts a painful history in a racist country. The immediate response to the Bullsheet’s publication of their ill-considered “game” is ignorance or a lack of understanding, but this reflects a far more sinister belief within the Denison psyche. Beloved is a slave novel, a historical fiction story based on the real account of a woman, Margaret Garner, who killed her daughter to protect her from the fate of slavery. This racist mockery of Morrison’s work reflects the apathy towards Black people, Black literature, and Black history. Similar to how Black trauma movies go over so well with white audiences for the past century, Black pain and stories are reduced to a punchline. A comedic joke and a quirky quiz.
And the irony does not escape me from the theatrics of activism we saw on Denison’s campus. The meaningless declarations that “Black Lives Matter!” and the empty platitudes to support your peers who are facing the brunt of institutional brutality and white supremacy. As Black students endured a traumatic year during the pandemic, the election, and the protests, they witnessed people feign concern while doing nothing to change themselves.
Black students on a predominantly white campus navigate a culturally hostile college. The Bullsheet article is one example of the several points of experiences that relate to cannibalization of culture daily. The reality that has to be accepted is not the lack of knowledge or exposure, it is the lack of care. America has never reserved empathy or space for the Black experience. The Denison campus reflects that. It is the full force of systemic racism that frames our institutions and social experiences.