Social Tranquility In The Melancholy Of Race, By Ann Cheng

Imagine a world of complete and utter uniformity. Where everyone possesses the same physical features, acts in a similar manner, and shares identical emotional constructs. What is gained is a perfectly homogeneous society where humans mingle in unquestioned social tranquility. What is lost is beauty; the unique features that define a person from the ideals of normalcy. But what does it mean to be “normal” and when did society decide to establish this preconceived idea of the physiognomy a perfect human should be built upon? What makes those who are “closer” to this normalization feel superior and those who are not feel as though they must assimilate with their other racial counterparts? It therefore becomes an issue of race. As humans seek

We fear differentiation because it makes us feel as though the legacy of our ego will fail to dissipate into the future. It is counterproductive pursuing social values that disintegrate our unique identities rather than striving to uphold the sum of characteristics that grant us our worth. In the reading, “The Melancholy of Race”, by Ann Cheng, we can see the reemergence of lingering issues involving race discrimination in our society. The problem: primarily those of the white, Caucasian, population feel as though it is justified, morally and through the law, to discriminate those of varying ethnicities and religion. For example, in the case of Brown vs. Board of Education that is acknowledged in the text, the “separate but equal” previous court ruling in the Plessy vs. Ferguson case was overturned for public institutions involving blacks and whites in

In order to feel as a valuable addition to society, those of differentiation feel the need to assimilate to the current culture out of fear of what will occur if they do not. When we experience fear, it is because the things that we value the most are in danger. In this case, it is our dignity and self-worth. Racism gives the notion that one group is over and above another in all aspects of social standing and physical, and mental capabilities. If we do not assimilate to the dominant crowd, the fear is that we will be alone and society will perceive our humanistic worth as undervalued to what we appraise it at. America “may be said to operate through the institutional process of producing a dominant, standard, white national ideal, which is sustained by the exclusion-yet-retention of racialized others” in the country (Cheng 10). For many blacks throughout the nation, especially during the time of the civil rights movement, the rational response is to submit to fear; requiring people to succumb to the white culture that floods the country. As a nation built on the foundation of “white nationalism” and the slogan “all men are created equal,” it is difficult for those of varying ethnicities to contribute to such a civilization dominated by one culture. Those who are racialized thus fear to rebel against the established white