Extended Group Construction of Race
From The Extended Group
The Extended Group Construction of Race is a framework and an idea that permeates the group psyche, both consciously and unconsciously. Mostly, it is a concept rooted in either sarcasm or irony, owing to the heavy saturation of memes in group culture.
Contents |
Overview
Mainstream social scientists concur that "race" is not biologically classifiable, although historically it has been propagated as such. Race is, instead, constructed on the level of society, when individuals, usually in a position of power or privilege, assign cultural meaning to arbitrary indicators (ie. skin color) in opposition to the "other". Historical examples in Western civilizations include the phrenology charts used by 19th century British Empire anthropologists, and the anti-miscegenation and segregation laws of the United States (see 1906 Encyclopedia Britannica for more information). Given that the Extended Group is itself a unique projection of modern American society, where race has and continues to play a complex role in social behavior, a mirrored construction of race has presented itself in a number of situations.
"Asians"
Traditionally the Seattle area has been a crossroads for East Asian immigrants. Here, a high percentage of Asian American families entered the middle and upper classes between the 1970s-80s, expanding into the North Seattle suburbs. As a result, one's economic upbringing has defined relations between "Whites" and "Asians" in Shoreline in recent years, and is noticeable through the relative parity in group members' economic background. Growing up, this association was seemingly unconscious, as the XG network seemed to divide evenly, and almost exclusively, between Whites and Asians. As a result, for many group members of East Asian descent, social affiliations straddled the line between familial heritage and the heterogenous, pop-culture influenced identity identified with the Whites, creating unique individual identities. This is easily noticeable in individuals like Terry and Melvin, whose closeness is relative to similar cultural experiences, but who also identify closely with some of the tendencies of their white counterparts. While a sort of "Pan-Asian" consciousness seems to avail itself to some degree when one considers the bonds between members like Terry and Jeremy, Andy and Jamie, and subgroups like the CORE, this could be attributed to any number of things, such as shared personal interests. In one famous parody, Brett implied that Terry was in the process of "discovering" his Chinese heritage after a trip to Hong Kong in 2003[1], although Terry had actually retained his connections for years prior to this date, albeit in a less pronounced way. Despite general economic equity with their White counterparts, the "Asian guys" unfortunately have the separate distinction of having dealt with acts of racism from outside the group. However, like most group insecurities, the Asian guys have generally turned stereotypes into humorous, self-deprecating representations, or into commentaries on the cultural ignorance of White Americans in general. One example includes the time when Lukas's neighbor assumed that Jamie was in fact a Mexican exchange student staying with the Peter Family, after seeing him enter and exit the house on various occasions (an assumption met with hearty laughter by Jamie himself). In general, the Asians have presented a much appreciated familiarity with Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Korean cultures that has contributed to a larger, more enriched "Group" culture. Some examples, reduced to ironic signifiers for the sake of group humor, include Hosoonyi, hotpot, "cute things", Asian supermarkets, and eccentric fathers.
"Whites"
The shared experience of Whiteness has also played an unconscious role in the XG dynamic. Like most of western Washington, and despite the significant percentage of Asian Americans, the Shoreline area is overwhelmingly "White". Economic status, a salient feature in American notions of Whiteness, affects the subgrouping of the "White" group members, which can be seen through the majority living within the Richmond Beach area, and at one point every core member but Kevin attending private universities/colleges. However, contrary to their counterparts, the "Asians", there is a certain extent of ethnic ambiguity for the so-called "White guys". While Asher and Lukas have retained the Jewish and German heritage from their mothers respectively, rarely mentioned is their other half of heritage (this, however, is typically encouraged by most group members, for reasons that will be discussed below). Some, like Nathan, though ostensibly white, have attempted to escape the construct entirely by pleading the "mother" clause. Gavin has consistently emphasized his Scottish ancestry, despite a certain amount of skepticism in some corners. In one instance, Lukas and Lyle Peter clandestinely postulated that the "Jamieson" surname, indicative of Scandinavian origin, may be the result of indigenous Scottish and Viking blood possibly traceable to the Shetland or Hebrides Islands. Brett and Kevin share an ancestry that has also been deemed ambiguous because of their mutt-like mixture of European heritages. Another unique but less pronounced feature of group Whiteness is the presence of so-called "White Guilt". Kevin in particular has been singled out for overhyping his grandmother's American Indian heritage, as Brett and others have accused him of "making sure that (you) find this out". Also notorious for his appreciation of hip hop music and culture, Kevin honored this by parodying himself as "Akeem the African Dream", a wrestler who at one point carried the gimmick of a white man overtaken by the soul of a black African man, in the Extended Group Wrestling Federation. In line with the American tradition of sacrificing traditional heritage for shared "racial" similarities amongst whites, most of the white guys share a number of generic attributes, including but not limited to: being tall, being awkward, being hairy, being pale, being well off, and being bad at dancing.
"Others"
Perhaps because of communal attachments and other factors, certain individuals have been kept out of the spectrum of "Asianness" or "Whiteness", the most obvious being Rama, and occasionally Asher. Having his roots in South Asia, Rama is consistently tagged with epithets, perhaps due to the perceived novelty of East Indians in the Seattle area. Within the group, where the line between affectionate phrase and insult is extremely blurry, Rama has been called "the Big Indian", "shit-colored", "curry-scented", and yelled at in jibberish by various members. Outside the group, Rama is regularly qualified by his cultural identity by non-Indians, especially whites. One example is the "...for an Indian" paradox. For instance, Rama is often said to be "really attractive...for an Indian" by female acquaintances, typically White. He is also regularly mistaken for a foreign national, surprising his inquisitors when informing them that he hails from New York, with no comical accent noticeable. On the other hand, Rama himself has rejected what he views as the construct of "Indianness" amongst America's South Asian youth. He has pointed out that typically the "discovery" of Indianness is made by affluent students simply to forge an identity in the college environment that hadn't previously existed. In the case of Asher, his Jewish heritage has been overemphasized to the point where group history involving Asher is constantly under "revision". Examples include deeming Asher's consumption of pork products throughout the 1990s as breaking Kosher laws, comparing a playful wrestling bout in the Summer of 2006 to a pogrom[2], and the naming of The "Hebe down the Hill" Incident. It should be noted that the proliferation of these stereotypes is almost exclusively the work of Lukas and Brett.
In Relation to Girls
Historically, certain individuals have been pinned to specific "persuasions" when it comes to girls, providing the context for a conscious understanding of race. The most notorious example was the once rampant Asiansexuality fad, which has since died down, although Terry's love of Asian women remains, and was lampooned in 2006 in a Beach Boys Song Parody. Alternately, Andy has for some time been accused of carrying an overt "Caucasiansexuality" in his attraction to females, which has been especially active since the advent of college.
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