Racial Literacy and Frozen River

Racial Literacy and Frozen River INTRODUCTION Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River relates the story of two mothers – one white and one Mohawk – struggling in a cold, harsh and impoverished region in upstate New York. Driven by shared desperation, the two become partners smuggling illegal migrants through the Akwesasne St. Regis Mohawk Reservation that covers territory in both the United States and Canada. After its 2008 premiere and grand jury-prize at the Sundance film festival, Frozen River was circled by critical acclaim and international attention, including two Oscar nominations. Despite this rapid surge of interest, one of the film’s centralities – a consideration of race’s positioning in modern America – remained largely unexamined by film reviewers, audiences and award shows alike. This essay seeks to analyze Frozen River in a racial context. It first offers definitions of racial literacy as well as representation’s germaneness to it. It then examines how Hunt uncovers and challenges topics such as racial essentialism, whiteness and nation. The essay closes with an evaluation of critical response to the film, and the argument for a racial literacy strategy to viewing the film. DEFINING RACIAL LITERACY Before delving into an analysis of representation in Frozen River, it is important to establish this paper’s understanding of racial literacy. This essay relies on three scholars’ definitions. First, Lani Guinier argues for a racial literacy that functions on a macro scale. Her racial literacy tries to make the systemic factors that drive diverging interests such as race, class and geography visible. She further contends that racial literacy is contextual and functions in 2 multiples dimensions (i.e. psychological, interpersonal and structural) (Racial Liberalism to Racial Literacy 194-195). On the other hand, Frances Twine looks at racial literacy on a micro scale, citing the work done by individual families – some transracial and some interracial – in functioning in what she argues is an “anti-racial” fashion. She defines racial literacy as, “a ‘reading practice’ – a way of perceiving and responding to the racial climate and racial structures individuals encounter” (Twine and Steinbugler 344). Whereas Guinier’s definition of racial literacy looks to evaluate powerful ideological forces functioning at a societal scale, Twine examines personalized efforts to navigate a racialized world. Michelle Johnson offers yet another definition of racial literacy. She places the foundation of racial literacy in an understanding of race’s inexorable connection to language, which she claims not only describes, but also creates realities. She writes, “a theory of racial literacy begins with an analysis of race as a discursive construct…[racial literacy] intervenes in the master narrative of race as a signifier and prescriber of literacy” (Johnson 101-102). A sort of synthesized definition might read: Racial literacy is the ongoing process of examining the sources of and realities of race in the modern world. It recognizes race’s real implications on both micro and macro levels, and seeks to examine how representation and critical consumption can lead to a better understanding of and response to race. REPRESENTATION AND RACIAL LITERACY Representation is crucial to all three proposed definitions of racial literacy. It functions as the producer of race. Stuart Hall refers to race as a “floating signifier” – or as a category created by discourse, which is in itself a system of meaning. He further contends that these signifiers are relational rather than essential due to their discursive natures. He claims, “I think these are 3 discursive systems because the interplay between the representation of racial difference, the writing of power, and the production of knowledge, is crucial to the way in which they are generated, and the way in which they function” (Hall 10). In other words, representation is a crucial component to the establishment and perpetuation of racial signifiers. Because these signifiers are floating and representations can change, notions of race can duly change. Representations are not only important to racial literacy from a production standpoint, but also from that of consumption. Numerous scholars argue for the tangible impacts of the consumption of representations. bell hooks discusses the implications of gaze. She argues that spectators can either employ an uncritical gaze or an oppositional gaze (115). In her view, oppositional gaze creates “alternative texts” that allow for the formulation of new identities (128, 131). Therefore, while representations produce signifiers as Hall suggests, they can also be interrogated to further racial literacy. REPRESENTATION IN Frozen River: ESSENTIALISM, WHITENESS AND NATION Having defined racial literacy and examined representation’s real role in the formation of ideas of racial difference, Hunt’s representations can be considered. In this section, Frozen River will be analyzed through a lens of racial literacy. Hunt not only confronts her audience with overt racism, but also delves into the foundations of implicit racism. She draws attention to and then challenges essentialism, whiteness, and nation using dialogue, framing and symbolism. Hunt first presents her audience with direct, essentializing racism in the form of dialogue. When the Mohawk woman, Lila, and the white woman, Ray, first describe each other to other characters, their language is notable. Their comments are, respectively, “I bought it from some white lady,” and, “Some Indian chick tried to steal your dad’s car.” The qualifier “some” 4 followed by a non-specific racial identifier shows the women’s initial disregard for one another. Interestingly, Ray’s son responds to her statement by exclaiming, “No way. I say we go back there and kick some Mohawk ass!” The use of “Mohawk” in the place of “Indian” is significant. Steffi Retzlaff argues that choices regarding racial and ethnic labeling are revealing of underlying power structures. She claims that choosing as a “cultural outsider” to label someone as “Indian” implies a belief of cultural dominance as well as a refusal to acknowledge Indigenous identity as dynamic. She writes, “Applying the term ‘Indian’ also shows the ignorance and unwillingness…to acknowledge First Nations as distinct groups of people whose cultures and identities are not frozen in time” (612). In this way, although Ray’s son’s reaction seems more racist, his response subconsciously recognizes the uniqueness of the Mohawk nation. Hunt not only recognizes the racial tensions between the white and Mohawk inhabitants of the region, but also the differences in their perceptions of other races. She does so with a powerful depiction of overt racism: a scene where Ray, suspicious of the Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of her car, abandons their bag on the frozen river, unaware that an infant slept inside. Ray’s racial prejudices are first revealed through her dialogue with Lila regarding smuggling the Pakistani couple into America. Ray: “Wait, they’re not Chinese.” Lila: “They’re Pakis.” Ray: “What does that mean?” Lila: “They’re from Pakistan.” Ray: “Well, where is that?” Lila: “I don’t know, what difference does it make?” Ray: “A big difference!...Let’s hope they’re not the ones who blow themselves and everyone else up…Nuclear power, poison gas, who knows what they might have in there.” There are a few striking elements to this encounter. First is Ray’s jarring, unapologetic racism toward the Pakistani couple. Ray does not know where Pakistan is, nor does she know who these people are. Still, she categorizes the couple as “Muslim terrorists.” Whereas she never questioned the Chinese immigrants they smuggled across the border, Ray objects to the Pakistani 5 couple’s access to what she perceives as her nation. Conversely, Lila raises no issue with their racial identity. Their differing reactions exemplify Hall’s notion of race’s relational rather than essential meanings (Hall 8). Still, addressing overt racism is only one component to a conversation about racial literacy. Guinier asserts, “Racial literacy requires familiarity with unconscious bias as well as structural racism. It demands a far more nuanced approach than typical charges of racism or race-carding” (Guinier Race and Reality). Hunt goes past revealing blatant racism in Frozen River. She draws attention to whiteness, race’s role in nation-formation and maintenance, and race’s historical foundations. She does so using overt dialogue, but also utilizes symbolism to uncover race’s pervasive and complex web. Like with essentialism, Frozen River begins by making visible the blatant privileges associated with being white. Peggy McIntosh lists the many privileges she enjoys because of her white identity. Her twenty fifth privilege reads, “If a traffic cop pulls me over…I can be pretty sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race” (2). On numerous occasions, Ray expresses concern that she and Lila will be pulled over and consequently arrested for their illegal smuggling. Lila impatiently reminds Ray that she will not be followed because she is white. In this way, Lila makes obvious the privileges that Ray takes for granted. Hunt uses “the road” narrative to interrogate a different component of whiteness: its connection to nation-formation. Aileen Moreton-Robinson contends that race fundamentally influences ideas of rightful ownership of nationhood. She writes, “the social construction of whiteness in America is tied to the appropriation of Indigenous lands and the incarceration and enslavement of Indigenous people by colonial and subsequent governments” (xx). In their 2006 article, “Ivan Sen and the art of the road,” Adam Gall and Fiona Probyn-Rapsey examined an 6 Australian filmmaker’s use of “the road movie” genre to construct narratives about colonial legacies including race and nation. Though their analysis deals with Aboriginality and whiteness in Australia, many of their observations and conclusions regarding the cinematic use of “the road” can be applied to a racial literacy approach to Frozen River. Frozen River uses two narrative spaces, “the road” and the “no road,” to examine racial dynamics in the area.

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