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The P assing of Time: An Examination of Racial Masking in

Chang Rae-Lee’s Native Speaker and W.E.B Du Bois’s “Of the Coming of

John”

Racialization and xenophobia in America marked an era of

inequitable treatment for both African Americans and Asian

Americans throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Racial differentiation created, upheld, and served social and

economic purposes regarding minorities. Assumptions permeated

mainstream culture about what it meant to be American as opposed

to foreign (African or Asian), thereby rationalizing continued

oppression and marginalization—politically, economically, and

socially—of the African and Asian populations in America.

Literature and art portrayed images that acted as lenses through

which people learned about the world around them. Stereotypes of

Asians and African Americans were woven throughout media,

literature, and theater, serving to heighten racist ideologies

about the foreign “other” in an attempt to perpetuate cultural

distance and difference. As Lisa Lowe argues, “this distance from

the national culture constitutes Asian American culture as an

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alternate formation that produces cultural expressions materially

and aesthetically at odds with the resolution of the citizen in

the nation” (Lowe 6). Therefore, racial ideologies constructed

at the national level perpetuate cultural binaries.

Novels such as Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu and cartoons captioned

“Yellow Peril” reinforced the xenophobic sentiment. African-

American images in film and animated cartoons fared no better.

D.W. Griffith’s silent film The Birth of a Nation, in addition to the

Coon and Black Sambo caricatures, implied a savagery that

belonged solely to nonwhites. White America—considering itself

superior in civility, intelligence, and moral character—took

great pleasure in blaming criminality, immorality, and

primitiveness on the African and Asian cultures. Unfortunately,

twenty-first century cinema did not bring a major shift in

driving notions of race and identity. Films such as Frank

Darabont’s The Green Mile (1999) and Ron Howard’s Gung Ho (1986) are

culpable in continuing to shape race and place in America. To

negotiate the oppressive spaces, some minorities have chosen to

wear a racial mask to survive in a white-dominated world.

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According to Shelby Steele, racial masking is a type of

survival mechanism for minorities to navigate the modern world

(62). It can make the difference between successfully integrating

into American society and being trapped on the outer limits—

sometimes both. However, what are the costs? For many, masking

can mean faking an identity that causes an internal cultural

crisis while trying to achieve access in otherwise closed

world. Masking plays a significant role in circumventing racial

inequalities. However, it creates a perpetual instability in

minority individual’s identities as they are compelled to perform

projected identities constantly to maintain a level playing

field. Nevertheless, successful or otherwise, minorities hardly

escape what Du Bois describes as a “double consciousness” (2)

experienced when one tries to negotiate space and race beyond

color lines. It is “always looking at one’s self through the eyes

of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that

looks on in amused contempt and pity” (Du Bois 2). Therefore,

even success can compromise oneself in moving forward socially,

politically, and economically.

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Change Rae Lee’s Native Speaker (1995), and W.E.B. Du Bois’

chapter “Of the Coming of John” in The Souls of Black Folks (1903)

present nonwhite subjects who have adopted racial masking to

“offset the power differential” (Steele 62) and navigate

heretofore closed socioeconomic spaces.

This paper examines the stasis of racism in the United

States from the twentieth to the twenty-first centuries by

looking at protagonists in both Du Bois’ “Of the Coming of John”

and Lee’s Native Speaker in successfully navigating white spaces

through racial masking.

In Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s,

Michael Omi and Howard Winant examine the significance of racial

categories and their roles in shaping racial identities. The book

explores how racial classes are constructed on myths and

stereotypes that are used to dictate, perpetuate, and drive

social, economic, and racial meanings—in turn, explaining how

these stereotypes reinforce social inequality. Omi and Winant

posit that “racial ideologies suggest that these racial myths and

stereotypes [are difficult] to expose as such in the popular

imagination” (23) because they are too important in upholding

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white hegemony. Thus, it becomes difficult for minorities to

sidestep the bifurcation: They are constantly defining themselves

through the eyes of the dominant culture, with masking seeming

like the only option.

In Lee’s Native Speaker, protagonist Henry Park struggles to

locate and ground both his Koreanness and Americanness. It seems

that everyone else is able to describe and identify the layers

that define his intricate parts. Similar in its duality, Du Bois

writes in The Souls of Black Folks-Henry is torn between his American

environment and his Korean background. Most of his struggles are

a result of his trying to shed layers of his Koreanness and adopt

visions of whiteness, playing up his prescribed “model minority”

role (Prashad 42). At the start of the novel, we find Henry

wounded by the death of his son Mitt and the subsequent departure

of his white wife, Leila, a speech therapist. By way of

explanation, Henry recalls his life as a child, growing up in a

traditional Korean household in America, where his parents

(particularly his father) placed insurmountable value on getting

ahead by keeping their heads down, ensuring successful navigation

of white spaces and taking great care not to make waves. They

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were “impressing Americans” (Lee 57) or impressing upon Americans

that they, too, possess “money [and] perfect credit” (Lee 57);

unlike African Americans, they did not pose any danger to the

social structure. Although Henry questions the need to emphasize

that they deserve space among white Americans, he grows up

embodying the same need to communicate allegiance to everything

American—even at the cost of denouncing his Korean heritage in

his aspiration to be like whites.

In keeping his identity as a model minority, Henry’s

consciousness is an empirical illustration of the constructed

African-American–Asian binaries that Vijay Prashad explores in

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting. Like white Americans, Henry finds

himself in opposition with African Americans. If Henry and his

father are “Asians [who] are good citizens and hardworking; they

do not need state assistance…” then African Americans are “bad

citizens and lazy” (Prashad 44). These identifiers are reinforced

at several points throughout the text: first when “some black men

[rob his father’s] store and taken him to the basement and bound

him and beaten him up” (Lee 61). Henry also tells of practicing

English and being taunted by blacks for doing so. He recalls:

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“Yo, China boy,” the older black kids would yell at me

across the blacktop, “what you doin’ there,

practicing?” Of course I was. I would rewhisper all the

words and sounds I had messed up earlier that morning,

trying to invoke how one girl who always wore a baby-

blue cardigan would speak. . . . the words forming so

punctiliously on her lips her head raised….Alice

Eckles.” (Lee 208)

Here, Henry practices to attain the same relationship with

language as his white classmates, while facing scorn from his

black counterparts. This further supports Asian and African-

American tensions. Where Henry favors the middle-class positive

perspective on education, the African-American kids seemingly

disregard it. Although these incidents occurred in his childhood,

they illuminate nationally constructed opposition and binaries—

what Frantz Fanon critiques in his book The Wretched of the Earth as

one oppressed group assisting or furthering the idea that black

is bad and white is good. Henry never uncovers the societal-

imposed principles that affect social relations and notions

surrounding race, nor does he recognize how they affect his own

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family or his feelings of insecurity and alienation. What is

evident, however, is Henry’s continual need to escape and dismiss

his Korean side, eliciting his parents’ strange behavior as he

begins to establish himself as white.

Interestingly, by the time Henry reaches adulthood, he has

honed his masking skills to perfection—to the point where he is

the citizen who no longer needs to be managed but instead manages

himself. Still, Henry’s adoption of white Americanness only

complicates his identity, as he can never truly denounce every

part of his Korean culture. To sustain his model position in

white America, however, he consents to labels ascribed to him by

others. This is illustrated clearly by his white wife: Leila

hands him a list of descriptions she believes comprise his

identity—illegal alien, follower, traitor, and false speaker of language, to

name a few—Henry ironically cosigns it, making copies as one

might a birth certificate or other official document.

Interestingly, he discards the original soon after. His act of

copying and then carrying it around “to reside permanently [next]

to his body, in [his] wallet, as a kind of personal

asterisk . . . in case of accidental death” (Lee 17) furthers his

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agreement. Henry’s need to preserve through reproduction creates

what he believes to be a tangible record of himself and

elucidates Henry’s masking; his copying further symbolizes his

transformation and counterfeiting of himself. Henry is ever

hiding his authentic identity.

This reproduction of false self and performance of model

minority is most evident in his work as a spy, as Henry expresses

the importance of his carrying out the prescribed role of

traitor:

I had to show the staff that I possessed native

intelligence but not so great a one or of a certain

kind that it impeded my sense of duty. This is never

easy; you must be at once convincing and unremarkable.

It takes long training and practice, and understanding

of one’s self-control and self-proportion. . . .

Hoagland would talk for hours on the subject. He

bemoaned the fact that Americans generally made worst

spies. Mostly he meant whites. (Lee 155)

In other words, Henry’s Asian background makes him perfect

for executing deceit as a traitorous spy to people who share his

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cultural background; this lends itself to the stereotypical

suspicion and threat assigned to Asians. In addition, it

legitimizes the idea of Asian Americans as the model for other

minorities to follow. Conversely, it plays up the idea of whites

being incapable of espionage, especially when it means performing

betrayal of identity.

Nevertheless, it is through this performance of model

citizen that Henry is able to attain social and material success.

His lack of cultural responsibility and exploitation of a double

identity (both Korean model minority and native English-speaking

American) permit him to navigate and access white social spaces

with ease.

As demonstrated earlier, Henry works hard to maintain his

assimilation into American culture through his perfection of

language. Identical to the Black Martinican subject whom Fanon

presents in Black Skin, White Mask who undergoes a “lactification”

(29)—a whitening of oneself through erasure of native identity

and replacement with the values, desires, and language of white

counterparts. Henry tries to dismantle every trace of his accent;

he worries it will ruin not only him but also his son. He reveals

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that it was Leila who read stories to Mitt, that he “never felt

comfortable reading aloud, even when [he] was in high school and

college, and I didn’t want to fumble or clutter any words for the

boy just as he was coming into language” (Lee 212). Although

those high school and college days are behind him, he maintains

the fear it would “handicap him, stunt the speech blooming in his

brain, and that Leila [his white wife] would provide the best

example of how to speak” (Lee 212). Henry’s anxiety that somehow

his Korean accent might impair his son also speaks to his

feelings about his Korean culture in contrast to white American

culture.

At the end of the novel, Henry has supposedly evolved and

rids himself of his instability regarding identity. He has left

his job and takes employment with his wife as a second pair of

hands. However, his evolution is not quite complete, as he is

still reliant on his wife for the definition of who he is, with

her actions and voice ending his story: Leila continues to work

in her job as the bearer of language while he acts as her “speech

monster” (Lee 348), someone children look at to make sure his

voice moves in time with his mouth as Leila. Through his wife,

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Henry continues to seek the definition of his authentic self.

Thus, his role as “helper” to his wife is essentially just

another mask.

Du Bois’ essay “Of the Coming of John” written 92 years

earlier also deploys a narrative of masking, but the protagonist,

“John Jones,” does not use it to “laticfy” his identity; instead,

he uses masking as a means to elevate the colored people of the

south through education. When we are introduced to John, we learn

that he is a good-natured but irresponsible young man who has

been sent to a well-off school by his mother to be educated. She

wanted him to achieve access not necessarily to a white space,

but rather to a place above the color line. John’s experience at

school begins tumultuously as a result of his ignorance of the

world around him, but he soon finds that with hard work and

dedication, he can find his way. However, with edification comes

enlightenment, and with enlightenment, awareness. Eventually,

John grows out of docility and into a young man of depth and

confidence. Where Henry Park sheds his true self to assimilate,

John sheds the blindness that comes with ignorance and the

disillusionment he had experienced before going off to school.

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Essentially, John establishes through education and experience a

greater self-awareness and grasp of reality that had eluded him

before. Conversely, this transformation also brings about his

recognition of the veil and with it the line of demarcation that

Du Bois explains as a “peculiar sensation” that results in the

viewing of oneself through the eyes of a race who believes you

are inherently inferior (9). Although John does not himself feel

inferior, he cannot grapple with the idea of living a life

stifled by the veil:

Thus he grew in body and soul… and a new dignity crept

into his walk. And we who saw daily a new

thoughtfulness growing in his eyes began to expect

something of this plodding boy… He grew slowly to feel

almost for the first time the Veil that lay between him

and the white world; he first noticed now the

oppression that had not seemed oppression before,

differences that erstwhile seemed natural, restraints

and slights that in his boyhood days had gone unnoticed

or been greeted with a laugh. He felt angry now when

men did not call him “Mister,” he clenched his hand sat

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the “Jim Crow” cars, and chafed at the color-line that

hemmed in him and his. (168)

John’s level of consciousness inspires in him a regard for

freedom, and he can no longer function in the South because he no

longer regards the veil as a natural occurrence—he sees through

the illusion of white superiority. At this juncture, John makes

up his mind that he must go home to try to solve the Negro

problem and sets out to accomplish this. Although John

understands that his objective is a difficult task, he wants

desperately to open a school where he can instill the same value

of self that he has learned in the hearts and souls of Negro

children:

Here is my duty to Altamaha plain before me; perhaps they’ll

let me help settle the

Negro problems there,—perhaps they won’t. ‘I will go in to

the King, which is not according to the law; and if I

perish, I perish.’” And then he mused and dreamed, and

planned a life-work; and the train flew south. (171)

To satisfy his desire to open a new school, John returns

home to seek approval from the town’s white Judge, a man who

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holds the ideology of blacks as a subordinate race who should

remain in subservient positions. This exchange presents a

challenge as John is forced into a role he consciously rejects

but has to agree to (at least on the surface) since the mayor

tells him that he will grant his request if he recognizes the

Negro race as inferior:

“You’ve come for the school, I suppose. Well John, I want

to speak to you plainly. You know I’m a friend to your

people. I’ve helped you and your family, and would have done

more if you hadn’t got the notion of going off. Now I like

the colored people, and sympathize with all their reasonable

aspirations; but you and I both know, John, that in this

country the Negro must remain subordinate, and can never

expect to be the equal of white men. (174)

It is obvious from the judge’s behavior that the circumstance for

the Negro people in the south is one of extreme oppression. Du

Bois uses the judge’s sentiments about race and place to

elucidate the racial climate in the south during the 20th

century. In this light, we come to understand the complexity of

not only John’s plight, but the plight of men of color trying to

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rise above the veil. John, like most colored men during this

period, understands that he must take the risk of masking for the

angle of advantage if he wishes to elevate his own race.

Therefore, when he is asked to confirm his satisfaction with the

state of race and inequality in the south he agrees:

Now, John, the question is, are you, with your education and

Northern notions, going to accept the situation and teach

the darkies to be faithful servants and laborers as your

fathers were,—I knew your father, John, he belonged to my

brother, and he was a good Nigger. Well—well, are you going

to be like him, or are you going to try to put fool ideas of

rising and equality into these folks’ heads, and make them

discontented and unhappy?” “I am going to accept the

situation, Judge Henderson,” answered John, with a brevity

that did not escape the keen old man. He hesitated a moment,

and then said shortly, “Very well,—we’ll try you awhile.

(174)

John agrees, but it is clear that the situation will prove to be

impossible for him not to enlighten the students at his school,

and as readers we can tell that his words belie his intent. Thus,

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John does address notions of equality through his teaching of the

French Revolution. It is evident that John’s circumstance

dictates his position and why he has to conform in the eyes of

the judge to gain access to a space that would grant his race

intellectual elevation and psychological emancipation—

essentially, a place above the veil. Therefore, John makes

concessions and conforms to fit a subordinate role in order to

achieve his aim of educating African-American children. For John,

the danger lies not in conforming, but rather in not conforming.

His false mask of humility and servility is a necessary

adjustment in order to access the limited system of education for

African-American children in his hometown of Altamaha.

Unfortunately, the judge learns of John’s teachings just as

John begins to make headway with his students. It appears that

although John is successful with deceiving the Judge, his

students and their family members are not as adept to playing the

game and as a result of pride or happiness talks a little too

much about the learning taking place at the school:

“Heah that John is livenin’ things up at the darky school,”

volunteered the postmaster, after a pause.” What now?” asked

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the Judge, sharply. “Oh, nothin’ in particulah,—just his

almighty air and uppish ways. B’lieve I did heah somethin’

about his givin’ talks on the French Revolution, equality,

and such like. He’s what I call a dangerous Nigger.” “Have

you heard him say anything out of the way?” “Why, no,—but

Sally, our girl, told my wife a lot of rot. Then, too, I

don’t need to heah: a Nigger what won’t say ‘sir’ to a white

Man… (176)

As a result of John being found out, the Judge, who is furious

at the thought of educated blacks kicks John and his pupils out

of the school, closes it. Not long after this, a tragic turn of

events involving results in John’s death. However, despite

John’s death he is able to transcend the color-line in a way that

Henry Park is unable to; though he does conform by responding to

the judge’s expectation of him externally. His performance is

made on conscious level and does not rob him completely of

autonomy internally. John understands the task and the

expectation of most Negroes as this becomes most evident when he

goes away to school. Part of his success belongs to the judge and

his own idiotic ideology that African Americans are a lesser

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race. In his mind, it is obvious that he has convinced himself –

to some extent- of John’s harmlessness in teaching the young

children from his community.

The judge smothered by his own preconceived ideas of African

Americans and their level of intelligence allows John to open the

school. John recognizing the script he is to perform conceals his

abilities, intelligence and most importantly, his intentions well

enough for the judge to grant him access to an otherwise closed

space.

What becomes apparent, then, is that the judge in all his

ignorance cannot imagine an African American man skillful enough

to trick him. He not only expects subordination of will, but he

relies on it. John’s response of “I am going to accept the

situation” (174) disarms the old Judge who then feels easy enough

to allow John to teach Negro children. Yet, it becomes clear that

the masking behavior of John allows him to exist, if only for a

short portion of time above the veil.

Drawing on the psychological dissonance Asian and African

Americans in America experience at the hand of racialization,

W.E.B Du Bois and Change Rae Lee illuminates the cultural

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inequalities minorities face as a result of racial categories. In

addition, the choice of masking some minorities make to escape

these categories that often result in limited resources spaces by

masking for social and economic advantage.

Works Cited

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford:

Oxford University Press,

1903. Print.

Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. Grove press, 1967.

Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Vol. 390. Grove Press, 1965.

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Lee, Chang-Rae. Native Speaker. Penguin, 1996. Print

Lisa Lowe. Immigrant Acts: on Asian American Cultural Politics. Duke

University Press, 1996.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. "Racial formations." Race, Class, and Gender in the

United States 6 (2004): 13-22.

Prashad, Vijay. Everybody was Kung Fu fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the

Myth of

Cultural Purity. Beacon Press, 2002.

Steele, Shelby. A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He Can't Win. Simon

and Schuster, 2007. Print.