Representation-Adjacent Great Expectations

On this 40th anniversary of observing a U.S. federal holiday honoring the life and legacies of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., this blog post riffs on perceptions, expectations, and inheritances across generations and cultures. 

There are so many elements to enjoy and appreciate about the characters, storylines, themes, and visual cues and queues that make Heated Rivalry compelling media. For me, Shane and his nuclear family dynamics in isolation and in the context of a racialized worldview resonate as familiar. 

An expectation of excellence projected onto and infused into a beloved only child* born to parents who endured hardship and overcame challenges in order to succeed as individuals and as a couple, these parents set high standards and expect their offspring to meet and exceed them. It's a common stereotype about Asian people. It's been my personal experience that Black people in and from African nations and in the United States aspire and strive toward greatness as the norm, not an exception. 

"Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" the Civil Rights anthem that it's believed evolved from an old spiritual echoes expectations of stamina and steadfastness to achieve one's goals. Focus. No excuses, which is where Asian cultural stereotypes and Talented Tenth ideas in Black American culture overlap in Heated Rivalry. 

The scene where reporters ask Shane a question connected to his expected superior performance in professional hockey relative to Tiger Woods and Serena Williams in their respective sports suggests that Jacob Tierney (and Rachel Reid if this scene is in the book, which I read in 2021 so I don't remember) recognizes ways in which ethnic minorities are scrutinized when they dominate in sports and other industries that are typically ruled by Anglo/white athletes and leaders. Such scrutiny magnifies pressure to be "The Model Minority" for Asian people and "One of the Good Ones" or a "Magical Negro" for Black people as viewed through a very narrow and shallow cis-het-white-patriarchal-hypermasculine-colonial-imperialist gaze. 

Is this post an obvious excuse to connect celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday with my Heated Rivalry fixation? Yes! 

Is there substantive connection between the Civil Rights work of Rev. Dr. M.L.K., Jr. on behalf of equal rights for all people, including healthy love and joy as a  default as shown in Heated Rivalry? Also, yes! 

And here's another obvious ploy: In Sinners, African and Black American cultures overlap with Asian culture in multiple ways. Reverential respect and appreciation for the spiritual gifts and legacies of our ancestors is one substantial similarity along with preservation of family integrity. 

We are all human beings created with equal intrinsic value. Every human being is multi-faceted and worthy of having the totality of their nuanced identities acknowledged and respected. Everyone is deserving of love and safety, good health and access to all of the resources necessary to protect and preserve themselves, opportunities to grow and thrive, and to experience joy and pleasure. 

Love thy neighbor as thyself commands each of us to treat people the way we want to be treated regardless of gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, socioeconomic status, physical embodiment, skin color or any other superficial trait or circumstance. It's called The Golden Rule because it enriches all of our lives when we apply it. 

*Will share my thoughts about the "lonely only-couples who have only one child on purpose are selfish" trope in contemporary romance fiction in some future post.  

[front cover of Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events 3rd Edition by Jessie Carney Smith; top border with pics of Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Prof. Toni Morrison, Pres. Barack Obama, Gen. Colin Powell, Dana Owens/Queen Latifah, center image of astronaut Mae Jemison; lower border pics of Tuskegee Airmen (and/or Red Wings?), Jesse Owens, Rev. Dr. Marting Luther King, Jr standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech] 

[page 490 under "The First Black Nobel Peace Prize Winner" entry Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is mentioned as "the youngest Black so honored" along with Ralph Bunche, Desmond Tutu, Albert J. Luthuli, and Nelson Mandela; recipients of other awards of honors fill the page]  

["A Nation Divided, a City in Flames" special edition section of The Washington Post from Wednesday, March 28, 2018 about the impacts and legacies of the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; 

beneath that is World Book Encyclopedia Vol. C from the 1963** set opened to page 469 on the "American Civil Rights" and "Decline of Civil Rights" entries followed by "Related Articles..." and "Civil Service" entries] 

[closer zoom of "American Civil Rights" etc. entries in 1963 World Book Encyclopedia Vol. C] 

What's happening to U.S. citizens at the hands of federal agents in Minnesota and other places around the country isn't new. What is new is that the targets of these atrocious actions have expanded to include Anglo/white people without distinguishing their treatment from the ways in which Black and Brown people and immigrants and undocumented people are being mis/treated. 

These are fraught times. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. 

**set given to my dad by his parents when he was a kid:-)