"Catcher in the Rye" has been one of my favorite books since high school; I always found Holden Caulfield to be a relatable personification of my still-prevalent teen angst, saying and doing things that the meek, reserved person I was throughout most of grade school found admiringly bold and audacious.
As luck would have it, we recently read Catcher in my freshman writing-intensive seminar. Because I’m now older and wiser (so I hope) than I was when I first read the book, I didn’t identify with its infamous protagonist as heavily I once did. Still, our delving deeper into the historical and sociopolitical context of the novel proved it more telling of a work — for its own time as well as ours — than I’d originally thought.
Soon after our class finished the story itself, we read an article titled “Holden Caulfield Is Not a Person of Color,” concerning the racial and social framework of the Catcher era and essentially asserted that the novel cannot be fully, if at all, understood outside the scope of its protagonist’s white, male, upper-class lifestyle.
Though the entire article was a fascinating discussion of entitlement and general white obliviousness, the point that stood out to me the most was that, despite "Catcher in the Rye’s" proclaimed “universal relatability,” the protagonist’s struggles exist only within the context of his own systemic privilege. His story is unique to a specific sector of urban Caucasian upper-class life — in essence, it portrays the life of someone who fits into a very minute part of what comprises its readership.
This point is proven in particular with the author’s regard to ethnicity; Holden is ubiquitously assumed — by intent of the author — to be white, but it is never explicitly specified. Additionally, this holds true regarding all of his peers and acquaintances throughout the novel. In fact, ethnicity is only ever mentioned when the character isn’t white, and even then it’s only used as a means to prove some sort of point or evoke some sort of stereotypical connotation.
In doing this, "Catcher in the Rye" perpetuates centuries upon centuries of institutionalized Euronormativity, a system of omission and misrepresentation that still pervades our media and segregates our society into two distinct categories — “white” and “other.” In most every instance, white people in media find it nearly impossible to portray people of color as individuals, free-thinking and independent of their ethnicities. They are collectivized, nothing more than stereotypes and general “otherness” based entirely on the color of their skin. Race is no longer an attribute or an identifier; it’s a classification, an implication, a box that limits who you are and what you can be.
In today’s white-dominated film and literature industries, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of unique, personalized stories for every type of white person imaginable — crossing lines of gender, sexuality, class, interests, you name it — but people of color are still typecast to fill token roles that are explicitly given to them because of the traits associated with different ethnicities. Even our history textbooks tell everything from the perspective of the white settlers and skim over the horrific consequences of things like slavery, imperialism, and the Native American genocides. There is a definite pattern of what is said and what is not, and it all has a monumental impact on how we view ourselves and our peers.
Because of this variety and lack thereof, respectively, white people are seen as individualized and free from the constraints of any widely recognized ethnic connotations while people of color are yet viewed as identical, carbon copy members of their own races.
The system is self-perpetuating, and it’s often fatal; it robs people of color of any context outside the stereotypes we give them, and punishes them for those associations even when they don’t conform. Human beings are caricatured and stripped of their humanity, and the repercussions exceed lack of representation, often at the cost of lives.
It contributes to police brutality; people like Terence Crutcher, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, and so many more were seen automatically as mindless threats rather than as individuals, because of the color of their skin. Even after their deaths, many don’t regard them as victims, and their murderers are praised and consoled.
It contributes to the “credibility” of Trump’s (among others') rhetoric against Muslim and latinx people, who are collectivized, ostracized, and villainized based on the actions of a select few, which are most of what is reported on in the news and depicted in film.
It legitimizes white criminal apologists — Brock Turner, Elliot Rodger, and Dylann Roof are all given excuses for their crimes and consoled for their punishments, and the sentiments that prompted their actions are still widely held.
Now, after all that, I don’t mean at all to say that people of all races and ethnicities can’t relate to Holden Caulfield or any other white characters in media, because that’s nowhere near true, but I argue that it’s pretty damn unfair of our society to provide white characters as the only option, a disproportionate amount of the time.
I’m also not saying that there are no successful people of color in media; there are incredible people like Shonda Rhimes, Kanye West, and Viola Davis (and the list goes on and on) who have created and are featured in some of the best books, movies, music, and TV shows out there. There are stories to be told and worlds to be imagined but this system of white privilege, domination, and admiration is determined to keep people of color out of mainstream media.
In my opinion, it's not at all hard to cast a person of color in a role typically held by a white person. There are actors who would thrive in protagonist roles if Hollywood weren't so white-dominated. Contrary to what we see in their depictions, characters like Harry Potter, Daenerys Targaryen, Captain America, and so many more don't have to be white. And it's not hard (or unprofitable, for you pseudo-economists out there) to stray from that. There are shows like Hamilton and Sense8 whose casts are mostly non-white and are absolute mainstream phenomena.
However, for as many steps as the media could take to fix the representation issue, this isn’t a problem that can be fixed with one blockbuster smash hit or a bestselling book series. It’s deep and it’s ingrained, and it requires that each and every one of us step back and reconsider the way we think. As institutionalized as the mindset is, it may seem like a challenge, but it's only a matter of examining your circumstances and holding yourself accountable to stand up to the issue as much as you can. Write articles, give lectures, obnoxiously post on Facebook about it if you're compelled to. This is a problem that won't disseminate from the top down; we as individuals are responsible for making sure that we lift up the voices of those who are being pushed down.
We can’t keep acting like white is the default and ignoring the real, painful consequences of that mindset. Lives are at stake and there is blood on our hands, and it is our own responsibility to restore an equilibrium.
