Isn’t that always what racist people say? Doesn’t saying that make you an unaware racist? At least that’s the conventional wisdom. I don’t think of myself as racist; race is usually one of the last things I consider about a person–if I consider it at all. I tend to only consider race if it comes up as part of the conversation; I get that maybe I need to do more self-examination.
What did I do that is accused of racism? (First off, no one has accused ME directly of being racist; I’ve just seen others who share my position on this one matter as being called racist.)
During the Oscars someone in the employ of the satirical Internet Magazine The Onion posted an outrageously horrific comment that went beyond satire into the land of the truly cruel and hideously awful. They called the nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis a word that I won’t use even in example.*
The thing about Quvenzhane Wallis is that she’s a little girl who has been on the publicity and awards circuit for her movie (Beasts Of The Southern Wild) for a long time now–much of this last year. I’ve seen her a lot of places, and just like Abigail Breslin before her I watched her go from a sweet, charming kid to a publicity-savvy brat over the course of her prolonged exposure. In fact, I compared her to Abigail Breslin in a conversation with friends because the trajectory was exactly the same in my mind. Cute little girl stars in a small picture that garners a lot of attention, and then the cute little girl is everywhere being sassy and snotty. So when I said that “she is definitely not that thing the Onion said, but she is acting like a brat” I figured hey. That’s my opinion. Several other people say she’s adorable and has a great amount of self-confidence, but I think what other people interpret as self-confidence I interpret as bratty. This may be yet another in the long list of good reasons for me to not have a child.
So in googling her name along with the word “brat” I came across many people who share my opinion. Thrown into the mix with us are folks that respond with “you’re just saying that because she’s black.” They also (erroneously) point out that “no one ever says that about white kids” and follow that claim with a list of white child actors, some of whom I’ve actually heard of.
Do I think she’s a brat because she’s black and I’m less accepting of personal pride in black children? I don’t think so. I’ve seen a lot of black child actors, none of whom have struck me as bratty even though they have self-confidence (eg. Jaden Smith, Willow Smith, Keshia Knight-Pulliam). I’ve seen many white child actors who do strike me as having become bratty in the spotlight. Not only the aforementioned Abigail Breslin but also Lindsay Lohan who started to hit the skids about six months after Parent Trap came out. Yes, I do remember that far back.
I do think there is room for a good conversation, though, about what level of self-confidence in any child is perceived as “okay”, and whether that line shifts–even subtly–when the child is of a race different to one’s own. I also think there’s room for a conversation about the huge generation and culture gaps between a 42-year old Midwestern-bred woman and a 9-year-old Southern-bred child. Midwesterners tend to not push to be noticed, to try to go about our business with a minimum of fuss. Modern children everywhere are being bought and dressed in t-shirts that say “call my agent” and “talk to the hand.” Is one right and the other wrong? I don’t think we can say that, obviously. People are different. Cultures are different. I don’t approve of dressing little girls as “princesses” and slathering them in makeup, but they’re not my kids. And I know that some parents do so not as encouragement of post-feminist “waiting for a man to save me” thought, but as a way to let their daughters know that they are beautiful and special and unique. (Of course I think that such lessons can and should be accomplished without a focus on dress and makeup, but children are children and sometimes you meet them where they’re at and bring them into a new way gradually.)
All of that is my way of saying that to distill this conversation down to “she’s black. You’re white. Your opinion is an evil one” does everybody a disservice.
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*If you want to know what the word is, just google the girl’s name. I’m sure it’ll pop right up.
Just Another Pretty Farce 
I’ve said this so many times, and I’ll say it again: One of the most profound things I’ve ever heard was my college sociology prof saying, “You stop being prejudiced when you realize jerks come in every color.”
The whole idea that you can’t call a brat a brat because she’s black is racist. And I can name about a zillion white child actors who have been called way worse than that–but no big deal is made of it because they were spoiled little white kids.
No one is saying that “you can’t call a brat a brat because she’s black”. Some people are saying that Wallis exhibits behavior that is not criticized in white children of her age, yet she gets called bratty for engaging in it. My exposure to her is limited to watching her movie and seeing her at the Oscars. Based on that I’d say she’s a pretty ordinary (in her behavior — not in her talent, which is clearly immense) 9-year-old, gleeful at being recognized but not acting out or acting up. I think that anyone who calls her a brat based on that level of exposure certainly has issues, but whether the issues relate to children or to race I couldn’t say. I kinda sorta imagine that a lot of the folks saying that her critics must be racist are coming from my very limited familiarity with Wallis.
My husband has also seen her (quite early on in the publicity cycle) in an extended interview on one of the talk shows (maybe Charlie Rose?) and came away from it talking about what a self-confident, self-aware actor she is. Anyone who criticizes Wallis based on that level of exposure to her probably has issues about actors (which, ya know, IMO is forgiveble); my husband was brought up among actors, has film-making experience, blah, blah, blah, and he doesn’t.
It may be that people who have watched Wallis a lot over the whole of the publicity cycle (like you, Coble) are right that she’s getting bratty. I have absolutely no information about it, and I trust your judgement. But many of the people who have been calling her bratty admit that they’ve seen her only in her brief appearances on-camera at the Oscars, and I don’t mind saying that anyone who thinks she’s a brat just based on that is coming from somewhere I don’t much like.
I said the attitude is that “you can’t call a brat a brat because she’s black” because Katherine said people are saying, “you’re just saying that because she’s black.” What happens when people make that claim is others feel they have to keep their mouths shut about bad behavior exhibited by blacks because they’re afraid of being called racist. It would be different if people came back with, “Don’t call her that, she’s just acting like any normal little girl in that situation.”
I honestly don’t know anything about the girl, had never even heard of her before this post, btw. But like you, I trust Katherine’s judgment and if she says the girl is being bratty I’d probably feel the same. My comments are less to do with this particular situation, though, and more with the general idea that the race card gets pulled in situations like this and that’s not fair. It’s an attempt to guilt the one commenting into taking back what they said even if it really is based on observance of things that have nothing to do with skin color.
Kat, I honestly don’t think nm was directing her comment at you specifically. We’ve been involved in another discussion touching on this elsewhere, and I gather she’s followed yet OTHER discussions on the matter (they’ve been everywhere for the last three days.) So I think she was speaking to the various categories of responses about Wallis. If I’m mistaken, I’m sure she’ll enlighten us both. 🙂
FWIW, I took your comment to be addressing me specifically in a manner of “I trust your judgement so here’s where I stand on the matter of [me, Katherine Coble] being a racist for this one action.”
I didn’t take nm’s comment personally, but rather noticed she quoted what I said directly and wanted to clarify. I understand what she’s saying about people judging based on a few moments on stage. And I agree with that–I think we all three agree on that :).
Well, Coble does point out that the people who say “you’re just saying that because she’s black” follow that claim with a list of white child actors whose behavior and/or treatment by the media they then compare with people who are calling Wallis a brat. That seems to me to be so different from Wallis’s defenders claiming that “you can’t call a brat a brat because she’s black” that I don’t know how you got there. I genuinely believe that most of the folks saying “yjstbsb” said it from a position like mine, where what they have seen of Wallis is so delightfully un-bratty that they figure there has to be something else behind the accusation. It’s not an attempt to guilt anyone into anything. And it’s not illegitimate to mention Wallis’s race, which is what I assume your reference to “the race card” implies.
I definitely see your point if the girl is not acting bratty. Then yes, there would be some other reason for the name-calling, and a lot of people would assume that reason is racism. But I was going on the assumption that the ones calling her a brat were like Katherine, looking beyond that one night. And I was then seeing that as an example of a more general situation in which the whole PC thing gets out of hand. Which it does. Racism exists–I’m not denying that. At all. Please don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen it first-hand. But I’ve also seen enough whites terrified of saying a single negative thing about any non-caucasian because they don’t want to get labeled a racist to know the race card does get pulled as a means of guilting people. Was it done in this situation? I’m not sure. But it does happen.
Admittedly I have seen a few people who only saw her on the Oscars flexing her muscles and accused her of brattiness. It’s weird because that wasn’t really THAT bratty. (It was in poor taste, but not necessarily bratty.) I DO get the distinct impression that there IS a subset of people calling her bratty that mean it as code word for “that girl is acting too uppity/not being servile enough.” I would suspect that there may be perhaps a bit of racism in that outlook.
I’m concerned about myself because I honestly don’t want to be falling into that same camp and I’m kind of wondering if there is a subconscious part of me that thinks that. I don’t think so, but we aren’t always honest with ourselves about ourselves. I’ll admit that.
Since one of the books I’ve been working on for about seven years now centers around a child actress who has grown up, I follow child actresses specifically for “research” purposes. So I’ve been watching Wallis closely and carefully. I actually think it’s part of my story, seeing as how she hews pretty closely to a pattern. (I forgot to mention in the post that Dakota Fanning was another girl I watched go from sweet and clever to hard and bratty.) I think these girls have several very good reasons for becoming bad examples of child behaviour; in fact I’m almost to the point of thinking that after a certain threshold it’s almost inevitable. (Maybe 5 talkshows? 🙂 )
I’m laying all that out there to explain that I’m most definitely NOT watching a little girl for twenty second snippets of a stressful award program and declaring her an uppity miss thang.
See, I don’t even think the muscle-flexing thing was in poor taste, because it’s something her character in BotSW does when she’s successful against some pretty steep odds, and because she’s nine. If she were nineteen it would be in poor taste, and I’m not sure where the line is, but I think a pre-teenager can be given the benefit of the doubt. But, I reiterate (because what am I about, if not going on and on and on?) that’s the benefit of the doubt from people like me who haven’t watched her losing her charm over the rounds of the talk shows. I can see how someone who had watched her move from adorable to calculating would see it differently.
Also, I know that it’s been bandied about that not calling her Quvenzhane is disrespectful. I just sometimes call people (including myself!) by their last names; it’s standard journalistic writing. I tend to think it’s more respectful to use someone’s last name when discussing professional conduct because it doesn’t overfamiliarize them. I use the last name only instead of a gendered title because I find that I prefer to discuss them that way. I will use ungendered titles (Dr.; President; Officer; Sgt.; etc.).
All of that to say that every time I call her “Wallis” I can’t help but think of Wallis Warfield Simpson.
As long as you’re not telling her that you’re going to call her “little Q” I think you’re OK.
Or “Annie”. That’s another instance where I think Wallis was justified in standing up for herself. I’m torn because while I hate bratty behaviour I also hate it when adults treat kids like totems of innocence and play instead of people. So if some idiot adult is wittering about how they can’t pronounce four syllables in a row and so they are going to either give her a stupid nickname or just call her by her character’s name….I’m pretty sure I’m ok with any response to that short of a kick to the groin.
Pardon the brevity and the typos. This was sent from my iPhone.
What I saw was a kid who usually goes to bed earlier staying up way past her bedtime. When little kid bodies and brains get stuck living on adult schedules, they act out a bit.