Race and Identity in Straights Travels with My Ex and Yaqubs The Washing - Essay Example

May 13, Race and Identity in Straight’s “Travels with My Ex” and Yaqub’s “The Washing” A person’s race can evoke a sense of pride and stability, but it can also stimulate a lifetime of oppressed existence. Two stories treat race in opposite ways: one depicts a positive experience of meaning and fulfillment because of race, while another endures repetitive humiliating incidents because of racism. In “Travels with My Ex,” Susan Straight narrates how a supposed-to-be-normal-and-happy family outing turns into a hostile racial profiling incident. Reshma Memon Yaqub, on the contrary, fondly talks about race in “The Washing,” although her racial identity is steeped in her cultural and religious beliefs. These articles have similar ethos, pathos, and logos in discussing the themes of race and identity, but they use different forms, tones, and symbols to denote divergences in their racial identities. The authors are valid sources of their topics on race because Straight is a white woman who married an African American, which makes her a credible source of racial profiling, while Yaqub is an American Muslim. Straight expresses that racial profiling is rampant in the state of California. During the traffic, they “talked about how many police cars [they’d] seen that summer, how everyone [they] knew was getting tickets, how The Scholar and The Baller had both gotten their first citations this year under dubious circumstances” (Straight). Their experiences match others, wherein black people go through recurrent humiliating and baseless racial profiling. Even the black adolescents had their share of racial profiling, which shows how widespread it is. Straight demonstrates that, as an ex-wife of a black man and as a mother of black teenagers, she knows what she means when she talks about racial issues in America. Yaqub is not African American; she is an American Muslim who wants to experience the ritual of washing the dead. Her race makes her a credible source of her beliefs and experiences too. Like Straight, Yaqub narrates her experience of washing that is connected to her racial identity, an identity which is inseparable from her religious beliefs: “In Islam, it is a tremendous honor to give a body its final cleansing. The reward is immense -- the erasure of 40 major sins from your lifetimes record” (1). Yaqub’s experience of race is legitimate because her race and religion are interconnected. These authors have ethos that comes from their actual racial experiences or identities. In addition, both writers use words carefully to convince readers of the validity of their experiences and beliefs. Straight does not simply say that her ex-husband is black. She describes his identity through an analogy between what he is to white cops and who he is to his family and whose lives he touches. On the one hand, “[h]e’s the six-four Black Guy, the one that fits the description, the one who was seen carrying the shotgun earlier…the one who “attacked” a campaign worker in Pittsburgh…the one you make up” (Straight). On the other hand, he is “in reality the one who gets out of his car to help a woman change a tire and she nearly falls into a ditch, she runs away so fast” (Straight). Straight shows what racial discrimination means through the real-life experiences of her ex-husband. Yaqub also uses particular words to depict her racial identity. She says: “Because my parents and their peers moved here from Pakistan as young adults, most of them missed the natural opportunity to wash their own parents or grandparents bodies when they passed away overseas” (Yaqub 1). She notes that she is Pakistani, but, just as significantly, she is an American Muslim (Yaqub 1). She describes that her racial identity intertwines race and religion. These writers use words that prove that they are convincing sources of racial experiences and beliefs. Besides ethos, these writers employ pathos by emotionally connecting with their readers through sharing an important family experience and narrating how racial differences can evoke racial sentiments. Straight shares an intimate family experience to help her audience see her as a normal family woman. She is not talking about a random experience, but a significant social outing for they will celebrate her daughter’s eighteenth birthday. She even lets the audience into her world by telling them her family’s nicknames. She calls her daughters The Scholar, The Baller, and The Baby, while her ex-husband is Feets. She makes her readers feel that their family is like any other family. Straight shows, nevertheless, that race strongly shapes their experiences. They are the ones who get “citations…under dubious circumstances” (Straight). They are normal people who suffer abnormal experiences because of their race. Yaqub also shares an intimate family experience. She washes the body of her grandmother-in-law, a ritual that requires certain procedures and decorum: “In the ritual Islamic bathing, the body is to be given the utmost respect” (Yaqub 2). She describes these steps and beliefs carefully, in order to help her audience feel respect for their traditions. Yaqub and Straight are not ashamed to share a piece of their lives to help their readers emotionally connect to them as human beings. A difference in their pathos, however, is that Yaqub uses religious and cultural appeals to demonstrate the importance of religious practices to her cultural identity. She explains the washing through cultural and religious beliefs. For instance, “According to Islamic practices, family members of the same gender as the deceased are expected to bathe and shroud the body for burial” (Yaqub 1). Religion dictates cradle-to-grave rituals. Yaqub also shows collectivistic cultural values. She notes that after the washing, she hugged “each of the body-washers and thank them deeply for their help” (Yaqub 2). She treats these strangers as family because they have treated a deceased family member as family. They all value their social context that unites them as Muslims across racial boundaries. Besides pathos, these articles use logos in illustrating that their racial identities directly affect their experiences, although they share opposite ones, in that Straight experiences racial discrimination, while Yaqub goes through religious appreciation. Straight shows the grave wrongs in a society that practices racism. They get pulled over because, as Feets says, they have a “[c]ar full of black kids in the OC” (Straight). Driving while black is a crime, and to treat it as a crime is one of the worst examples of broken moral logic. Yaqub does not have the same negative experience because she focuses on her race’s journey towards religious appreciation. She states that washing is “actually something [she’d] wanted to experience for a while” (Yaqub 1). She looks forward to affirmations of her racial identity through these religious practices. These writers depict the large role of race in influencing their identities through how it shapes their lived experiences. Aside from logos, these works have different forms, where Straight uses a climactic end with a surprising revelation, while Yaqub stays on point with discussing the washing’s effect on her identity. Straight does not directly say that she was married to a black man because she uses race-neutral words in the beginning, when she was describing her husband. The effect is a surprising twist at the end, as she reveals that Feets and Laurie are black. The ending is ghastly: “…another [police officer] held the barrel of his shotgun against Feets’s skull, pushing it farther and farther until the opening seemed to be inside his ear, under his huge Afro” (Straight). The form is subverted in a figurative sense; they are supposed to be a normal family enjoying a normal day, yet their happy day is ruined because of racial discrimination. Yaqub is far from expressing the same hostile experiences, although she started with an unsure note: “I hadnt planned to wash the corpse. But sometimes you just get caught up in the moment” (1). The main tension in her story is her lack of preparedness for an important cultural and religious ritual. The form of her article focuses on the solemnity of the washing and how it affects her identity. Straight uses a climatic twist at the end, while Yaqub is clear about her identity’s rituals from the beginning until the end. Besides different forms, these writers use dissimilar tones, where Straight uses a pessimistic-turned-shocking tone because of their social and economic issues as middle-class whites and African Americans, while Yaqub uses a solemn tone because of the formality and sanctity of the washing ritual. Straight talks about being broke and having a failed marriage. The economy is depressing too: “A California economy in shambles” (Straight). The pessimistic tone turns into a shocking one when a police officer stops them and immediately points a gun at Feets’ head. Their questions are not neutral, but menacing: “Where you from? Where’s your license? Where’s your car? Is it stolen? Why are you here? Why aren’t you in Riverside?” (Straight). The last two paragraphs give goose bumps to surprised readers who are shocked that this sweet, struggling family is a victim of widespread racism in American society. Yaqub, on the contrary, uses a solemn tone. She describes some of the beliefs when washing the dead: “Not only is it to stay covered at all times, but the washers are to remain forever silent about anything negative or unusual they may witness” (Yaqub 2). She uses words to emphasize the sanctity of the ritual. These writers have different tones because of the different experiences they encountered. Apart from tone, these writers use different symbols to support the theme of race. Straight uses the freeway as an ironic symbol for freedom and progress. She says: “The I-91 freeway. Four lanes each way, often the most congested in the nation” (Straight). The congested lanes stand for the lack of progress towards racial equality. At the same time, the freeway is not free at all. Straight notes that she and other families are frequently stopped. The freeway is free for whites only. Yaqub uses washing as the symbol of washing one’s sins and starting anew. Washing is not about the cleaning of the dead’s body alone because it is also “a tremendous honor to give a body its final cleansing. The reward is immense -- the erasure of 40 major sins from your lifetimes record” (Yaqub 1). Washing is a cleansing process because it is an honorable service for one’s family. In addition, the washing implicates the start of a better life. Yaqub mentions that they believe that Dadee is dead but she gains what she has reaped in her life: “…she can continue to earn blessings based on what she has left behind-- through righteous offspring who pray for her forgiveness, through knowledge that she has spread to others, or through charitable work whose effects outlast her” (Yaqub 2). Yaqub reflects on Dadee’s death, which has implications on how people should live their life. Her racial identity believes in starting anew, this time, as an inspiration from the dead. These writes use different symbols that capture the impact of race on their identities. Straight and Yaqub show the dominant role of race in shaping their identities because race colors important life experiences. They have ethos, pathos, and logos in describing racial identities because of their experiences and beliefs, but they have differences in forms, tones, and symbols. Straight shows the horrors of driving while black, while Yaqub celebrates the religious and cultural significance of the washing of the dead. They may have two different tones, one shocks the readers, while the other makes readers feel pride for racial identities, but they leave an essential message about the themes of race and identity. Race cannot be hidden or erased. It appears in human characteristics and tinges everyday experiences. Most of all, race exposes the two sides of American society: its cultured humanity and its racist inhumanity. Works Cited Straight, Susan. “Travels with My Ex: Intolerance and Fear on the Freeways of the OC.” Believer (Oct. 2010). Web. 5 May 2015. Yaqub, Reshma Memon. “The Washing.” The Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 5 May 2015. Read More