Racial Covering, Part I [Racialicious Read-Along]

by Latoya Peterson/A Racialicious Roundtable

One of the examples Yoshino uses while discussing racial covering is another memoir.

Racial covering occurs when non-whites “act white” by modulating their behaviors. A useful example of racial covering can be seen in Eric Liu’s memoir The Accidental Asian. Liu follows the statement “Here are some of the ways you could say I am ‘white,’” with the following catalog:

I listen to National Public Radio. I wear khaki Dockers. I own brown suede bucks. I eat gourmet greens. I have few close friends “of color.” I married a white woman. I am a child of the suburbs. I furnish my condo à la Crate & Barrel. I vacation in charming bed-and-breakfasts. I have never once been the victim of blatant discrimination. I am a member of several exclusive institutions. I have been in the inner sanctums of political power. I have been there as something other than an attendant. I have the ambition to return. I am a producer of the culture. I expect my voice to be heard. I speak flawless, unaccented English. I subscribe to Foreign Affairs. I do not mind when editorialists write in the first person plural. I do not mind how white television casts are. I am not too ethnic. I am wary of minority militants. I consider myself neither in exile nor in opposition. I am considered a “credit to my race.”

Notice how Liu’s list includes all four of the covering axes: appearance (“I wear khaki Dockers,” “I own brown suede bucks”); affiliation (“I listen to National Public Radio,” “I furnish my condo à la Crate & Barrel,” “I speak flawless, unaccented English”); activism (“ I do not mind how white television casts are,” “I am not too ethnic,” “I am wary of minority militants”); and association (“I have few friends ‘of color,’” “I married a white woman”).

In this passage, Yoshino starts to really untangle the meanings of such a list, referring first to himself and how he views the Liu’s list.

Liu stresses his “yellow skin and yellow ancestors” – he has not passed or converted. Yet he believes these covering behaviors have transformed him. Observing that “some are born white, others achieve whiteness, still others have whiteness thrust upon them,” he says he has become “white, by acclamation.” That metamorphosis is also internal. Liu says that insofar as he as moved “away from the periphery and toward the center of American life,” he has “become white inside.”

My first reaction to this list is a jolt of Linnaean pleasure. Liu’s list includes all four of my covering axes: appearance (“I wear khaki Dockers,” “I own brown suede bucks”); affiliation (“I listen to National Public Radio,” “I furnish my condo à la Crate and Barrel,” “I speak flawless, unaccented English”); activism (“I do not mind how white television casts are,” “I am not too ethnic,” “I am wary of minority militants”); and association (“I have few close friends ‘of color’,” “I married a white woman.”)

But then I became puzzled. I could, with minor revisions, sign my name to this list. This suggests I have covered my own Asian-American identity as much as I have covered my gay one. Yet, these two forms of covering feel different. I regret covering my gay identity – refusing [ex-boyfriend] Paul’s extended hand or abstaining from gay activism. Contemplating my racial covering behaviors incites no such self-recrimination. It strikes me that I, like Liu, am an “accidental Asian” – someone who only “happens to be” Asian.

I believe this country is in the grip of white supremacy as it is in the grip of heteronormativity. So why is it I am so comfortable covering my Asian identity? It is because Asians are more accepted than gays? Is it because I have always had a place to elaborate my racial self? Is it because racial covering does not feel like a response based on fear?

I’ll get to Yoshino’s conclusions – and thoughts of his students – a little later. Still intrigued over this list and the subsequent meanings, I enlisted the Racialicious crew to respond. My instructions were basic:

Racialicious crew, I’d like you to go through this list, line by line. Please note which of these (if any) apply to you, and your own personal reactions to the assertions. Please try to get this to me by the end of the week.

The responses were illuminating, to say the least.

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