Your Racist Friend – They Might Be Giants
I finally got around to seeing Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan this weekend. Let me begin by saying that it’s hilarious. All the other discussions of its political and cultural effects matter, but we should not let ourselves get so caught up in them that we forget that the first and most important question about irony in this context has to be: “is it funny?” Much can be forgiven if it makes you laugh, and if it doesn’t, there really isn’t much point in getting worked up about it in the first place.
That said, I obviously want to talk about the other stuff, too.
I’ve seen a lot of people argue that this movie is important because it reveals “the truth” about this country, exposing the bigotry hidden just below the surface of America. But I really think that gets it wrong. Or, at least, is a very incomplete explanation of what’s going on. Three reasons…
First, it is edited. They filmed for months and produced a movie an hour and a half long. That doesn’t mean what they filmed didn’t occur, but so did countless interactions far more mundane. Second, people turn into idiots in front of a camera. Countless reality shows should prove that. Third, and compounding on the previous point, these were not scenes of “real” life. In order to be filmed, people had to sign forms, and many of the scenes were staged. They certainly knew this wasn’t just normal, everyday life, which implies that there was a strong element of “playing along.” It’s particularly true in a situation like this, where Cohen goes out of his way to use Borat’s inherent absurdity to infuse the situation with insanity. It was probably a lot of fun for people to go along with Borat’s racism in a context that seemed harmless.
To put it another way, most of the people that Borat interacts with in the movie clearly understand that something is amiss. They get carried along by the the situation and begin to play roles (“racist frat-boy,” “snooty WASPs,” etc.) because that is what the situation demands of them. The suspension of disbelief required to interact with Borat in the first place gives people the chance to play a role they would normally avoid, because the altered social conventions let them feel no fear of offending.
This is not fundamentally different than what we the audience do. Think about the “running of the Jew.” Why is such a scene funny? Well, because it’s so absurd, of course. But in addition (and this is very important), it’s because this is something that would be extraordinarily tragic if it were real. It would not be nearly so funny if it didn’t mix absurdity and an uncomfortable element of truth. And, it wouldn’t be so funny if it were in ANY other context. But since it is in this particular space, we know it isn’t real and can laugh. We perceive a change of social context and so find racism funny.
I really think that’s what a lot of the people in the movie are doing, too. Borat’s intrusion into their lives is so bizarre that it breaks the normal social conditions and they find themselves saying things they would never believe themselves capable of getting away with otherwise.
Of course, some might think it damning to say that a huge number of people in this country only hide their bigotry because of social convention. Me, I don’t find it particularly surprising. That’s what society is here for, after all. Manners, desire to not embarrass ourselves, and covert normalization is an essential part of any civilization worth speaking of. And one thing to be learned from social politics like the Civil Rights Movement to Gandhi’s resistance is that changing people’s minds is much harder than shaming them into the background.
These movements didn’t win battles by eradicating bigotry entirely – they appealed to the ideals shared by most to make EXPRESSION of bigotry socially unacceptable. The former would, of course, be better but the latter is a far more realistic goal. The continuing project is to cement the new social norms so that when the next generation grows up, it never knows anything different. It is a slow and painful process, but to expect it to be anything else would be to misunderstand the whole battle itself.
That’s not to say that it shouldn’t trouble us that people would say and do some of the things they did under any circumstance. It should. But I think far too many people see “those people” in the film as beyond the pale, examples of the racist past we enlightened folks have left behind. Which I think is dangerous because it implies that racism is something done only by the ignorant, which we, the civilized elites, can simply laugh at without having to examine our own relationship to these issues.
In short, it’s important not to think that this is how most Americans truly wish they could behave. The potential to do and say these things certainly existed in them, but it took a farcical figure like Borat to unearth it. While this is of course troubling, it’s also a sign of the tolerance in our society, which lets Borat (for the most part) get away with being insane and disruptive, which plays along with him. And, most importantly, Borat demonstrates the startling demarcation between the bigotry revealed in this film and the day-to-day experience of most of us.
We shouldn’t assume racism goes away once it is bottled up (and this film hopefully will keep that realization alive for those who see it) but neither should we consider it entirely a negative that our society does a good job of forcing people to suppress these feelings. It’s not enough, but it is an important step.
And as long as we maintain the capacity to see a movie like this and laugh not only at the ignorance of others but also at our society at a whole, and a little bit at ourselves in particular, we’re doing something right.