Recovering the Phoenix, cont. By Brenda Dixon Gottschild

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Tongue Smell Color (photo collage); from a performance created and performed by Hellmut Gottschild and Brenda Dixon Gottschild. Photo © by Beatriz Schiller, 2002

Demonstrating how we are prone to stereotyping, one researcher "... showed a group of people photographs of expressionless black faces, he was surprised to find that the amygdala–the brain's panic button–was triggered in almost two-thirds of cases. There was no difference in the response between black and white people... ." Further along, one of the psychologists quoted in the article claims that "Even people who believe to their core that they do not have prejudices may still have negative associations that are not conscious."(p.4) The point of the article is to show how the amygdala--the irrational, threat-assessing, "fight or flight" portion of our brain--controls our way of judging people and things that are no threat at all. Brainwashing is briefly discussed, and we can make a connection to that extreme practice and the way in which our brains reach for extremes when we have to deal with "The Other." The brainwashing mechanism, they say, is "similar to the way the brain learns normally. In brainwashing though, the new beliefs are inserted through a much more intensified version of that process." The article goes on to assert that such a "... manipulation of belief happens every day. Politics is a fertile arena, especially in times of anxiety... . 'Stress affects the brain such that it makes people more likely to fall back on things they know well–stereotypes and simple ways of thinking'... ." (p.5)

I hope it is clear why I've quoted from this article. I want to ask us–myself included–how we collude in reinforcing society's assumptions/presumptions/biases around "The Other," even when we happen to be one of those who is "othered." I believe I must dig into this unpleasant but necessary business of facing our own ethnic biases in order to begin to understand why, first, there are hardly any lecturers of African lineage employed in dance departments at British universities and, secondly, why hardly any scholarly research into the history of African peoples dancing in the UK has been accomplished. What is it in African-based ethnicities that scares us? Why are we so ready to assume white–whatever that is–as normative and everything else either an exotic, savage, or simply irrelevant deviation from that norm? What is so upsetting to our comfort level that we haven't found a way to allow "black" into our comfort zone? As Scott Malcomson succinctly put it, and as quoted in my most recent book, "Under pressure, whiteness could make room for many shades of white, even Irish Catholic, Jewish, Turkish, or Egyptian white. It could not, on the whole, accommodate black white." [Note 4] "Why not?"– is the question... .

I should inform you that the British issue is not so different from what's going on in the United States. I don't have the stats–the figures–but the information is readily available: peoples of African lineage are underrepresented in academia in general, with fewer receiving advanced degrees and even fewer going into university faculty positions. Then, when we get to the particulars of dance in academe, the stateside situation is rather dismal, given the number, size, and scope of college dance departments and programs across the nation. What's also disturbing is that some of the few positions held by African Americans are occupied by "stars": David Rousseve, Dianne McIntyre, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Bebe Miller and, recently, Rennie Harris. In other words, high-profile black choreographers and artistic directors of the top caliber are called upon to fill the ranks of academia, thus giving the appearance that dance department are hiring black faculty. But watch out for appearances. The message sent is that one needs to be extra special and "proven," if you will, to be both black and in academia, whereas white scholars can make their name in the process of holding those positions. Of course, the same obtains with white stars holding academic positions, but there are so many other white faculty members that it balances out. John Perpener (at Florida State University), Tommy DeFrantz (at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Melanye White-Dixon (at Ohio State University), and me (Emerita Professor from Temple University)–we are some of the very few exceptions to the star-system of hiring black faculty. And we all have very high visibility: our very existence in this rarefied realm is an affront to the assumption that people of African lineage don't do research, that we are people of the body, rather than the mind!