Abstract
‘Diversity’ is a dangerous misnomer in the white academe because the idea fails to recognize the politics of Whiteness that structure a spectrum of assimilation academics of colour are positioned by. Taking the title and plotline from the Jacobean masque written by Ben Jonson in 1605, this revisionist play sets out to consider the politics of assimilation academics of colour perform in their daily lives. Drawing on Black liberation and anti-racist literature, the play draws attention to how Black and Brown bodies that are asked to perform and use voice daringly or silence instrumentally to leverage degrees of assimilation into white structures. The play first, questions the ontology of foreignness by reflecting on the colonized history of the Black body becoming assimilated into Whiteness, and second, it provides a counter-narrative to those who experience perpetual exclusion and racism at work while other academics of colour seem to become accepted and even celebrated by white hierarchies.
Personated at any University in the United Kingdom on many occasion and in perpetuity
The violence and ferocity of these performed spectacles of Whiteness are such as, could those hours last, this of mine now has been a most unprofitable work. 1 But, when it is fate even of the most decorated academics of colour, that their experiences of systemic racism are mythologized by the soothing words of a Diversity Consultant, 2 or with worse effects, that they are met with indifference or shame by Brown-skinned colleagues, then the scene and with it the impression of racism perishes and its documentation is rendered impossible. 3
Within this zone of exclusion and silence, there remains a lone voice who demands she is recognized and accepted in alterity as Other. 4 In duty, therefore, to that Black Other – the Resistant Object 5 –who wrestles with equal compulsions of belonging to and rejecting outright the white academe; who despite this turmoil has the boldness to call out racism and resist assimilation, deserving of eminent celebration for these solemnities, I add this later hand to redeem her as well from ignorance as envy, two common evils, the one of censure, the other of oblivion.
Fanon, Ngugi, Lorde, Baldwin and hooks remember unto us the historic brutal imprisonment and forced sea-migration of peoples from the continents of Africa and Asia to the shores of Western Europe and the Americas. This movement of foreign Black bodies to Western lands became famous by the name of slavery and later Empire, and during this journey West, a journey that stretched centuries and crossed continents, transformed that human-non-person/degenerate/beast into a person of colour or Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) or Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME). Hence, because it was the Majesty’s will to have them BME assimilated and made workers, as well as subjects to her crown, Diversity Managers were hired and consulted to perform numerous rituals of purity and inclusion so that BME may become fluent in Whiteness and convert to being Enlightened. 6
First, for the scene, was drawn a neo-liberal, ‘post-race’ university that caters to national and international elites, where some knowledge is cited, circulated and thus valued and other knowledges are continually erased, cut out and silenced. 7 The university is depicted by an ivory-white square around which a turquoise migratory river floweth in great surges. Several gatekeepers stand at the university’s entrance – these are white men (at times, white anti-racists) and white women (often feminists) 8 standing in and around the university’s ivory towers that are lit with delicate lights resembling galaxies and stars. Their dark academic robes billow in the wind, as imitating that orderly disorder which is common in nature. These white Western Europeans, North Americans, South Africans and Australians are diverse in as much as the continents they represent. But, they all share a history of colonialism, Western European empire and racial genocide which has led to the affirmation of a hierarchy that European Whiteness is superior and the suffering and demotion of racialized others is at best an individual pathology 9 or at worst an acceptable outcome for a lesser class. From deep within this colonial psyche which endures into the present of which I now speak, these European nations actively uproot democratic processes, subjectivities, and affective relationalities when they re-imagine themselves as post-race where Blackness is nothing more than part of a ‘diverse’ culture. 10 Upon the swirling river, two figures appear – these are Empire and Resistant Object.
Empire presented in a human form, the colour of his flesh blue, and shadowed with a velvet robe of sea-green; his head white, he is garlanded with fish-nets, sea algae and in his hand he holds a white quill.
Resistant Object, a woman of colour, her black hair curled, shadowed with a blue and bright hoodie; her front and wrists adorned with luminous pearls, and her head crowned with a wreath of cane, cotton and papyrus.
The figures introduce the masquers, which are 12 nymphs, women and men of colour, daughters and sons of the Resistant Object. They wear robes of fine silks made in Houzhou and on their arms gold amulets from Calcutta and Madras glisten under the stage lights. 11
The masquers are placed in a great upturned shell like mother of pearl, curiously made to move with the waters below it. Their voyage seems precarious and risky, but they hold on tight to the shell’s edges, each one determined to weather the stormy seas and complete their journey to enlightenment.
As the shell approaches centre stage, one of the gate-keepers steps forward, and with two others flanking him on either side, the trio begin to sing to loud jubilant music.
Song
Sound, sound aloud The welcome of the orient flood Into the West; O brave but recalcitrant Resistant Object Bring forth your handsome race For though they be Black of face Yet they are full of life and light within, Let us liberate them from their dismal histories! Don’t suffer them alienation and distance; let them mutate and assimilate!
12
Together, we will create communities of meritocracy Based on competences, not their colour, Let us provide the travellers with maps
13
with which they may navigate their careers And no longer need to heed that Resistant Object, that nomadic Runaway Tongue!
14
Empire
Be silent, now the ceremony’s done, And Resistant Object, say, how comes ye here? That thou art, the furthest from mine thoughts and culture Bring here your brethren into th’extremest West Of me, the king of enlightenment, Empire, And in mine imperial land I stand amazed To see you labour thus, across so many seas and continents, To stand under starry skies, but still you’re not free For what can I do for thee?
Resistant object
Dishonourable Empire, ‘tis not strange at all, Since centuries you have attempted to enter my cognizance And lo, I now sense all things with double-consciousness, Hybridity doth mix Whiteness with Black bodies Yet, I reserve forever A power of separation That I should sever My negritude from thy promises of progress, Yet something powerful about your methodologies Has mixed so profoundly with my ontology Liberation, though bound to bodies that move, Is now accomplished by arguing like you.
Empire
But what’s the end of these liberation struggles, That you now bring to these calm and hallowed shores?
Resistant object
To do a caring and cautious mother’s part In nourishing every desiring heart Of these my children, my most beloved birth, My first teenagers, my first imaginations, Them slowly gaining their subtle voice, Them creeping from the margins to centre stage, But, them making journeys from slave to cage, They try to be cool, They try to be real, But then, how soon Whiteness prevails, And their language and Blackness, their skins and their Brownness Are shed off like costumes after a tragic play. It makes me sad and angry and mad, So now, it’s a time to talk about my fears About those maps that enforce transformation, And how their Black voices get lost in translation, White canons blow and white canons prevail, No hooks, no Collins, no more Friere! Those Black canons have little value here, And so my dear children fall hostage to The brainsickness of European men who stand with you, These self-styled so-called men of mind, Cut out our beautiful Black voices One cut at a time, You drew those maps with silvery white quills, You made those white quills from our wings fallen,
15
But hey, but ho, Blackness no longer soars. Perchance, I saved my wings and resisted The volleys of revilings that have persisted, With some great strength I found within A loud passionate potency that to my kin Sounded like a fury full of rage, ‘Enough!’ I voiced, No more migrations Of body and mind, Cease these circulations Depose white tools of accreditation That diminish Black bodies Through erasing citations Let people of colour create among ourselves With arms warm and wide and kind conversations A deep and infinite fresh-water well To suckle solidarity and trust that swells Invoking new kinds of foreign formations Blackness intact, no self-transformations. And so it was, but so it unfolded, My children turned away from me in shame and lamented, Oh, Angry Black Woman! You have injured us so, Your hurt and misery and pain is no more Than ours, but still we cannot stand With you for fear of the coming reprimand Instead we turn away from thee And gaze upon the ancient Tree Of Enlightment. Enlighten me! Caste out our Blackness and wash away That stained and foreign Black malaise And, make us recount those canons white So that we may reach the soft peaky heights Of Professorship. Their tears streamed down and carried forward A deep plight from which they could not escape And in this dark predicament They saw a light and lovely Star That seemed to speak to them from afar These words: Force within yourselves an alteration Then ask the gatekeepers of a great nation To let you in so that you may provide Your labours, servitude and loyalty Make haste, and celebrate Diversity! With these words my children grew Happier that they may eschew An isolated state of mind And so, they charge forth towards assimilation To rid themselves of discrimination.
Empire turning to the nymphs
Step forward into the light and fair air, Of this hallowed and purified institution Our post-race university shall be A place for development and Diversity, We shall accept all types of races But prepare them for a singular education Based on One of universalism.
At this the Star appears in the upper part of the house, majestic and sitting on a silver throne all luminous and glittering with four-star publications. His Brown skin is painted white like alabaster and in his hand he holds a white quill. He wears long snowy robes and an orb of light adorns his head, sending opulent beams and sprightly rays across the dark blue satin skies. The sight is startling and so impresses Resistant Object that she interrupts Empire with this present passion.
Resistant object
O See, our silver star! Whose fair and impressive beams reach below, We stand beneath his shimmering glow, With one hand he beckons my children to follow And with the other he places a finger to his lips, Silently they turn to him in servitude humble, Alas, I have lost an opportunity To shake the permanence of White Supremacy And now, here I am: Foraging for a scream, But finding a mumble.
The star
Resistant Object, be glad; resume thy anti Thy children’s labours are done, Their journeys hath ended one by one, I was that voice that they heard from afar, I am the hand that keeps the door ajar, I am the Black body with masque of white, That climbs hand in hand with Empire’s might. I am the Black body with a white gaze, I offer your children work, prestige and praise, Much more than you could or should want to provide. I follow the Master, but I am no slave, I am freed from my history and have now remade Myself as colour-free and diluted with One, Come let your children enjoin in the singularity Of British values and sovereignty! No longer must we toil enchained, But strike a bargain in exchange For equality. And once you do, dear children of colour, You will see how we can forge an alliance Your mother’s ambushes are but a tirade That put false breaks upon opportunity! So here, I invite you to these sunlit shores, No more will you be deprived of a seat at the table. But, children let us in our haste not forget, To be good and kind and grateful natives yet. Don’t dwell upon the attainment gap, Or think of servitude as a trap, This is our place and our place it hath been Since Empire conquered and reigned supreme!
Here, the gate-keepers sound a gay cheer and leap towards the 12 nymphs who have silently stood in amazement and wonder. Offering their hands, the gate-keepers take the nymphs ashore and provide patronage and co-authorship as they skip and dance with each other. Star disembarks from his throne and distributes a white paste that is applied to the nymphs faces and arms. Now in white-face, the nymphs make a pleasant formation. They are enclosed by the figures of the gate-keepers who gaze at the nymphs adoringly, curiously, angrily, worryingly. With great anticipation and expectancy, a loud and joyous music is heard and the nymphs open their mouths to sing.
Song
MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM, MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM! MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM, MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM, MMM MMM MMM MMM MMM!
With this muffled song and dance, the party takes off in great celebratory jubilation to exit the scene. Resistant Object is left alone on stage, she shows no remorse at her children’s transformation, but in her body, she senses a tension and with that stirs a mighty will that rises up in her declaration.
Resistant object
A question hangs in the smoke, Getting ready for the future to burst open. I’ll take the last word and the next and thereafter, I can hear my speech echo forth with the ideas I earn. My Black body awards me few prizes, I know that, And with my Blackness I experience many sadnesses, But with each sadness that marks my body, I am getting ready to do combat with hierarchy, White Supremacy is the system of white privilege It makes Whiteness transparent like water, A purifier, a tincture of healing, It floods Black bodies in a wash of white gazes White gazing whites and white gazing Blacks, Through whites? Whose rights? Them whites! Them rights! Our commonwealth rights, our immigrant rights, Are crushed and mutated when access is managed To jobs and resources, education and upgrades Let me give to you instead the Gift of the Black Gaze, What I see will be yours to make sense of, engage! For I cannot lose and I have not lost, What is mine, is a gift which comes with a cost, I’m speaking to let myself know I’m alive, I’m letting you know I have survived, not thrived, Still hoping to thrive, still waiting to up-lift Let people of colour reanimate in succession, There is a way out – a world of interventions, I reach into my Blackness to give you Black light, This Masque was just one way, now I’ll pass the mic.
Footnotes
Notes
Author biography
.