Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Front-Stage and Back-Stage

Summary

Nicky Hamilton, C'99 speaks on the concept of two-faced racism elaborating on how racism exists in the "front stage" and the "back stage." She provides tips on challenging back-stage behavior and explains how these actions play a role in dismantling racism. 

Video Transcript

Hi, this is Nicky Hamilton. I'm a graduate of the class of 1999 and currently serve as the director of community development with the Office of Civic Engagement. As part of the allyship training, I want to talk about a concept that Dr. Paige Schneider and I covered in the intergroup dialogue class, we teach at Sewanee. The concept was developed by sociologists Leslie Houts Picca and Joe Fagan documented in the book, Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage. Picca and Fagan looked at the journal and diary entries of 626 college students as part of a class assignment. They found that many, if not most, white people presented two faces when they talked about race. They refer to these two faces as occurring in the frontstage and backstage. Front stage is a performance arena where many, if not, most whites now understand that overtly racist attitudes, emotions, and behaviors are usually to be concealed. 

The front stage occurs when white people find themselves in public spaces, especially diverse spaces, such as schools, workplaces, etc. And here, they use guarded language. Backstage are private settings where white people find themselves among other whites, especially friends and relatives. In the backstage, much of the overt expressions of blatantly racist, thoughts, emotions, interpretations, and inclinations happen. So here in the backstage, because white people are with friends or relatives, they can reliably expect not to be called out. So the idea is that way people operate on an unspoken agreement, not to police each other. Even those with strong sympathies for minorities will at the very least tolerate racist forms of expression. Here are some examples for the backstage face reported by students as Sewanee. 

So one student reported that white students in McClurg commented about Sunday food options as being blocked food. And they were obviously talking about fried chicken. So here are examples from Picca and Fagan's book that they refer to as joking performance. A student said, "My friend picked me up from the airport and while we were driving, he was talking about one of his new roommates. He said, 'In a joking manner. Oh yeah, Nate finally got a job. It's about time.' Then he laughed and said, 'Except he's kind of dumb. He can't do anything. So he has to work in the warehouse with the Mexicans.'" After having said that he laughed again, like he had just said something hilarious. So when the friend called him out, he told her to stop being PC. 

There are other categories, Picca and Fagan point out such as employing race whispering. An example is a restaurant employee retells that a fellow server told me in an animated voice that he had just had a great night and even got a compliment. And then he dropped his voice into a whisper and said, "And they were black." And then another instance is of employing code language. For example, using "you people" or "bad neighborhoods" or "they" and "them" to mean persons of color. And another category is not mentioning racial issues. So people will say, I don't see color. I just see people. 

So you can see how conversations in the backstage can continue to perpetuate racial stereotypes. Someone who interprets a racist performance will usually be asked, "So what's the matter with you" or "Don't you have a sense of humor" or "Stop being PC." So my charge to you is pay attention to conversations and interactions and observe backstage behaviors. Reflect on your own backstage behaviors and then challenge backstage behaviors of your peers and family. By doing this, you are actively dismantling the comfort of your peers in perpetuating racist and stereotypical remarks. So dismantling racism is difficult work. It's not going to be easy, but we all have a role to play, especially white people. So ask yourself, "Do you understand events, exchanges, or other racial cues differently when you observe and listen intentionally and with some degree of racial consciousness?" So for further information, I encourage you to please read the book Two Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage. So thank you so much for your time, and thank you for your commitment to anti-racism.