August 15, 2021

"Why is the incidental cliché of describing one student as 'chocolate-coloured' worthy of embarrassed public retraction?"

"Thou shalt not employ foodstuffs when describing non-white people. As the logic of this 'rule' is hardly self-evident, I did some online digging. Any mention of the edible in reference to the oppressed is apparently 'dehumanising,' 'objectifying' and 'commodifying' (like slavery) — as if, one contributor on Reddit explains, 'characters exist to be consumed or are otherwise disposable.' ... European complexions are often 'olive,' 'honeyed' or, less flatteringly, 'doughy'; their tastes can be 'white-bread,' meaning uninteresting, or vanilla,' meaning plain. We reach for comestibles to capture colour because common foods provide a shared visual vocabulary. Thus we often name colours after what we eat. Aubergine, mulberry, raspberry, peach, orange, sage, saffron, chestnut, pecan: they itemise not only our pantry but our paint samples. Seriously, if we depict something as a food-derived hue, do we imply that what we’ve described is consumable?"

From "Authors must stand up to the language police/The cancelling of writers who use phrases like ‘chocolate-coloured skin’ will only spiral if we appease the purity zealots" by Lionel Shriver (London Times). 

Shriver is commenting on the abject apology made by teacher/memoirist Kate Clanchy after she was criticized for using the phrases "chocolate-coloured skin" and "almond-shaped eyes." 

“I am not a good person,” she grovelled. “Not a pure person, not a patient person, no one’s saviour.”

Is that groveling or is it a rejection of the notion that a writer ought to pose as virtuous? Presenting oneself as good/pure/patient/redemptive will ruin a memoir. But here's something else that ruins a memoir: trite descriptions. And that's the real crime of "chocolate-coloured skin" and "almond-shaped eyes." 

If you're a decent writer, and you see words like that coming out of your fingertips, you need to jerk your hands off the keyboard and scream or laugh at yourself. The problem isn't maybe you're not a good person. It's you're a shitty writer. You'd better see the problem yourself and edit. 

And this is a teacher, describing her students. If you're going to make your reputation by talking about them, you'd damned well better acknowledge their individuality and use fresh and specific words if you're going to tell us how they look and require us to categorize them by race.

How would you like it if your child's teacher published a memoir in which your child was described with clichés — racial clichés?

14 comments:

Heartless Aztec said...

How utterly benign to describe children in that manner. In my teacher lounge we would describe children for their propensity for committing violent crime and body count totals. Or their probable life expectancy in the illegal drug business. One of my students William "The Monster of Mayport" Wells killed seven. Five in the event and then two more after being sentenced and serving time in prison. His pasty white prison dough complexioned person finally dying in stir as it were. I can't remember who won that black humoured pool from the 1980's. There were so many.

Bob Boyd said...

I went through a ridiculously passionate love affair with these eye-shaped almonds one reckless, nut-roasting summer. Fate brought us together in the bulk foods aisle. They had chocolate-covered skin. It was wonderful, but I had to end it.

mikee said...

I'd prefer to be described by the color of foodstuffs instead of having an accurate detailing of the content of my wretched, vile character, in all honesty. Few and far between are there any notable external manifestations of an internal state of grace for any of us, among fallen, unrepentant humanity. Call me a slice of Wonderbread before, or rather than, calling me out for my failures as a human.

Bart Hall said...

Maya Angelou, call your office. She not uncommonly recited this line from an earlier African-American poet.

"The woman I love is fat And chocolate to the bone. And every time she shakes, Some skinny woman loses her home."

Scott Patton said...

Wash Post yesterday (Megan McArdle)- For more than 50 years, Washington, D.C., was “Chocolate City”
Opinion: Goodbye, Chocolate City

steve_g said...

Ann, I get that "olive-complexioned", "chocolate-colored", "doughy", and the like are common phrases, but are they really cliche? Trite?

Sometimes a writer wants to describe a person's appearance, and using familiar descriptors seems like a decent way to do that. I don't think I'd enjoy reading a bunch of weird similes describing the appearance of this teacher's kids. Variety for variety's sake isn't my preference.

But I am a boring person, and my skin is the color of Winston Churchill's ass, if it were spanked 4 minutes ago.

typingtalker said...

So ... when describing the hue of one's complexion we should first take them to Home Depot, Lowes or the Sherwin Williams store and subject them to the computerized color-detector which will come up with a suitable non-human chemical and physics based numerical description.

"The car was stolen by a (gender to be determined) with (color to be determined) skin, and (color to be determined) eyes.

dgstock said...

Piel de canela. Cinnamon skin. What a lovely euphonious description, Also a popular line of accessories. But it looks like this phrase and company may be destined for the social meatgrinder.

m stone said...

Just use "plays well with others" and be safe.

m

Bob Boyd said...

My baby could stop your heart with those nut-shaped eyes. Her skin glowed like a freshly turned earth worm. In a single night she transformed me from hopeless incel to determined volcel in the back seat of my Plymouth.

Amexpat said...

Two thoughts: First, nothing wrong in using a food to describe someone's complexion as long as it doesn't have a derogatory history towards a vulnerable minority. Not aware of "chocolate" being used as a derogatory term towards African-Americans; there's a black singing group called The Carolina Chocolate Drops.

Second, we need to get away from describing people as black or white, in a non cultural context, as it's not very precise, especially for police work. What's considered White ranges from albino to olive and Black from Ebony to light mocha.

Jamie said...

Oh, for heaven's sake. There's nothing new under the sun (to coin a... cliché). Can every writer come up with a unique, never-before-used way to evoke an image, every time she wants to evoke that image? Are things, including skin, never the color of coffee, or copper, or the flesh of a peach, or (ahem) an orange, or toast, or chocolate, milk or dark? Do we have to reinvent the wheel (to coin another cliché) every time we want to describe someone?

Yancey Ward said...

We need more monkeys at the keyboard. Lots more.

Skippy Tisdale said...

"This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city."

-- Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in response to Hurricane Katrina