Week 8 - Baldwin Hills , "The Heart of Black L.A."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-black-voters-20121108,0,661227.story

This article in the L.A. Times titled,"Among voters in the heart of black L.A., pride pride in Obamaabides" perfectly embodies the description of the "floatingsignifier" that Stuart Hall says race is. The newspaper implies thatBaldwin Hills, a neighborhood home to "middle-class, black LosAngeles," votes for Barrack Obama mostly because of his race.

Stuart Hall describes three types of perspectives to racial difference in his lecture. First, he explains therealist approach in which real genetic differences area  reality and manifest themselves in real things in the world "i.e. behavior, intelligence,disposition etc." Second, he describes the purely textual/linguisticapproach which argues that there are no real differences between races but instead these differences are created in cultural stories of racial differences and deeply embedded in cultural representations and practices. Thirdly, he presents his position, the "floating signifier" perspective, which argues that there are racial differences between people, along with a lot of other differences - but these differences are only given meaning andhighlighted by the discursive position given to them. Therefore these meanings aren't fixed, but change over time. 

This article doesn't take the purely textual/lingistic approach because it highlights how black middle-classAmericans in Los Angeles support Obama because he gives blacks more power in a world where they still feel discriminated against. It quotes one man who says "America continues to be and always has been culturally biased, Jim Crow standards of beauty." It also doesn't take a realist approach because there is nothing in the article that suggests that African Americans are any physically or mentally different from any other race. Instead, it presents the "floating signifier" perspective. Because of our historical and cultural stories, there are culturally-embedded practices that segregate blacks from whites. Many times in the article  interviewees mention historical figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Jim Crow and although these people, living in a nice neighborhood in Los Angeles, have a similar social status to many other whites, they still feel that a black presidential figure will help them more than a white one. "Not just for blacks, but all races - schooling and medical insurance and jobs and so many different things. Everyone needs someone fighting for them," one woman says. 

 

I visited Baldwin Hills in order to see where and how the interviewees lived and whether it was actually any different from the white middle class in Los Angeles. Besides the color of skin of the residents, I could not find one single difference. The neighborhood was situated on top of a hill overlooking Los Angeles (similar to many other middle-upper class neighborhoods in the Los Angeles region) and had wide,nicely paved roads and sidewalks with colorful trees and beautiful houses. They even had "Neighborhood Watch" signs - adding the security and protection dimension necessary to keep middle-classes feeling safe. I actually found myself wondering why there were only black people living there. Besides race as a floating signifier, I could find no reason as to why there weren't a multitude of middle-class people of all races living in Baldwin Hills.

  My observations coincided with the arguments made in the article in the course book by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, "The Continuing causes of Segregation"  which said that "As the proportion of blacks in an urban area rises, progressively higher levels of racial segregation must be imposed in order to keep the probability of white-black contact within levels that are tolerable to whites" and that "African Americans continue to be denied full access to US housing markets." Whether this neighborhood was originally inhabited by whites who then left once a larger percentage of blacks moved in, or whether they moved here because they felt unwelcome in neighborhoods with a white majority in Los Angeles, Baldwin Hills is evidence of race as a floating signifier that enhances social difference.

 

As I exited the neighborhood, I noticed an oil drill on the side of the road. I couldn't help but wonder if this sort of environmental manipulation would've been located so close to a middle-class neighborhood if it had been one of white instead of black majority.