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

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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. Gall and Probyn-Rapsey argue that roads are tied to colonial histories

(425). They write, “[roads] have facilitated and maintained colonization and dispossession…[roads] lead into, onto and through someone else’s already culturally inscribed land” (426). In other words, roads represent colonial nation-building. When we first encounter our characters, we find Ray sitting in her car – a space that Gall and Probyn-Rapsey would argue her whiteness entitles her to (426). On the other hand, we first meet Lila as she walks down the side of the road. In this way, it is symbolized that the road – that is the perceived normative space in America – is denied to her.

Lila’s methods of accessing the road are even more intriguing. Gall and Probyn-Rapsey maintain that in Sen’s films, Aboriginal characters gain access to cars and the road in three ways: under intense scrutiny, without the driver’s awareness (i.e. illegal means), or through white facility (436). Lila’s admission to the road occurs in each of these three ways in Frozen River.

She initially gains entry to the road by taking Ray’s husband’s car – an example of illegal means.

She later gains access to the road under the continued presence of law enforcement. The movie closes with Lila’s full admission to the road through what could be argued is “white philanthropy.” When the two are implicated for their illegal smuggling efforts, Ray decides to bear the responsibility for their crimes, and asks Lila to live in her house and watch her children when she is in jail.

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In addition to the road’s symbolic function in representing nation, it also provided a location for direct dialogue between Ray and Lila regarding their perceptions of nation. Ray repeatedly rejects the notion of the Mohawk nation’s legitimacy. Their first encounter occurs when Ray confronts Lila about taking her husband’s car. Lila responds, “Go ahead, they’ve got no jurisdiction here. This is Mohawk territory.” Ray counters, “This is New York State, so quit the bullshit and give me my god damn keys.” Another example lies in their first crossing of the frozen river. Ray expresses concern about being caught by the border control, and Lila says,

“There’s no border here. This is free trade between nations.” Ray rolls her eyes and says, “This isn’t a nation.”

While the road is used to symbolize white nationhood, the “no road,” the frozen river, is used as a counter-representation of nationhood. Its existence underlines the fact that perceptions of roads are not universal (Gall and Probyn-Rapsey 432). When Lila and Ray first approach the frozen river, Ray asks where the road is. Lila informs her that there is no road, but a path. To

Lila, it is the Mohawk road – a path joining her nation. To Ray, it is dangerous and unstable, and represents her inability to maintain illusions of the “white fantasy” as defined by Ghassan Hage.

Hage asserts that the “white fantasy” depicts whiteness as an aspiration that defines itself by what it is not, and uses non-whites as “enriching factors” (120-121, 128). Ray’s desperate domestic situation has effectively destroyed the white fantasy. She travels the “no road” – a space separate from her perceptions of nationhood – in an effort to reclaim it. Her white fantasy is laid out when she explains to her young son what will happen to their old trailer. Ray explains,

“We’re gonna flatten it and send it to China…they’re gonna melt it down and make it into little toys…they’re gonna send them back here so I can sell them at Yankee Dollar.” To Ray early in the film, the non-white world exists to enrich her own.

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In addition to revealing race’s complicated influences, Hunt also creates representations that challenge them. Hunt’s characters remain unessentialized – their complexities are given foundations in individual hardships. Hunt seeks out transcendent images that bind humanity together such as motherhood and friendship. By the film’s close, the audience is aware that both women are driven to smuggling because of their struggles to attend to their families. Neither woman is better or worse equipped to do so. Furthermore, despite Ray’s blatant racism against the Pakistani couple, both she and Lila immediately and instinctively knew their duties to recover the bag upon learning the couple’s child was inside.

Their experiences lead to the development of a deep friendship that enables the construction of new identities. When Ray decides to take the blame for their smuggling venture, she makes the decision with the understanding that her whiteness will afford her a less severe sentencing than Lila. In this way, she acknowledges and releases some of her white privilege. On the other hand, Lila’s expanded role as mother of Ray’s children redefines nation and belonging.

The last shot in the movie depicts a new trailer – a product of Ray and Lila’s joint earnings – driving down “the road” towards Lila. In this way, nation is removed from whiteness, and colonial precedents are challenged.

Having established Hunt’s many successes in a racial literacy narrative, it is important to acknowledge her potential shortcomings. First is the fact that Lila is a supporting character. The fact that Frozen River is structured centrally around Ray’s story cannot be ignored. Furthermore,

Lila, a Mohawk character, acts as a guide to Ray, a white character. This flicker of racial stereotyping stands alone, but should not be overlooked. It reveals the persistence of racial signifiers even in counter-representations. Last is the depiction Lila’s removal from the Mohawk nation and entry into the American nation as a victory. Although Frozen River repeatedly

9 challenges notions of whiteness, it falls into the trap of regarding an altered American nation as superior to the Mohawk nation.

CRITICAL RESPONSES TO Frozen River AND A CALL FOR RACIAL LITERACY

Given the depth of Hunt’s examination of race in the United States, it is surprising how the country’s body of film critics responded. An NPR film critic offered the following summary of the film’s title characters: “One…is a beleaguered wife and mother trying to hold her family together after her husband leaves. The other…is a sullen, hostile Mohawk woman” (Turan). This assessment is alarming from a racial literacy standpoint. First, Ray’s character remains unraced and universal, whereas Lila is essentialized as Mohawk. Next, only Ray’s character is described as a struggling mother, even though Lila is one as well. Rather than offering background for

Lila’s disposition, the critic leaves her Mohawk identity to account for her “sullen, hostile” nature. He does not address racial commentary in the film.

What is there to gather from such a reaction to Frozen River? I argue that his feedback is exemplary of the need for a greater number of racial literacy approaches to film viewing and critique. Even when representations are produced with the best intentions, they must be met with the sort of critical gaze described by bell hooks. Frozen River provided discussions on various elements of race’s social constructions and realities, but these efforts cannot be appreciated or improved upon without a more racially literate body of critics and viewers.

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Works Cited

Frozen River. Dir. Courtney Hunt. Sony, 2008.

Gall, Adam and Fiona Probyn-Rabsey. “Ivan Sen and the art of the road.” Screen 47 (2006): 425-439.

Guinier, Lani. “From Racial Liberalism to Racial Literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Divergence Dilemma.” The Journal of American History 91 (2006): http://www. historycooperative.org.

Guinier, Lani. “Guinier in Chronicle of Higher Education: Race and Reality in a Front-Porch Encounter.” Harvard Law Review Jul 2009: http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2009/ 07/30_guinier.html.

Hall, Stuart. Race, The Floating Signifier. Dir. Sut Jhally, 1997. Transcript available at http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/407/transcript_407.pdf.

Hage, Ghassan. White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Annandale, NSW: Pluto Press, 1998. hooks, bell. “The Oppositional Gaze.” in Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. 115-131.

Johnson, Michelle T. “Race(ing) Around in Rhetoric and Composition Circles: Racial Literacy as the Way Out.” Dissertation from University of North Carolina (2009): http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/listing.aspx?styp=ti&id=1874.

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” 1989. Published online at http://www.nymbpp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf.

Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. Talkin’ Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2000.

Steinbugler, Amy C. and Frances Winddance Twine. “The Gap Between Whites and Whiteness: Interracial Intimacy and Racial Literacy.” Du Bois Review 3 (2006): 341-363.

Turan, Kenneth. “A ‘Frozen River,’ Treacherous and Deep.” NPR Morning Edition 5 Aug., 2008. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93280688.

Retzlaff, Steffi. “What’s In a Name? The Politics of Labelling and Native Identity Constructions.” The Canadian Journal of Native Studies 25 (2005): 609-626.