Electric Arches is a collection of poetry, visual art, and short stories by Eve Ewing. The book was originally published in 2017 and centered on the experiences of a black person in the streets of Chicago. The author is of African American descent and takes a critical look at American society to show the daily struggle of African-Americans who must navigate institutional and individual bias. Her poem retells the experiences of past and present Black figures combining realism with a pinch of fiction to depict an unfair society that on paper guarantees equal rights for all regardless of race, but perpetuates a system that is inherently discriminatory against racial minorities. This essay will explore the theme of racism as explored in Eve Ewing’s Electric Arches and will utilize critical race theory to achieve this objective.
The basic premise of critical race theory is that race is a construct of society and not a characteristic that defines and makes human beings distinct from one another. Despite the obvious lack of differences between people, critical race theorists argue that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist and function to maintain the social, economic, and political dominance of the White majorities (Ladson, et al., 25). They also maintain that racism in the United States is a normal experience for most people of color and not an aberration despite the elimination of overt racism and racist laws that characterized 20th-century America. Consequently, racist behavior that many racial minorities face today takes the form of microaggressions where verbal and behavioral slights communicate the racist intent in an interaction between a racial minority and a White person in America. This implicit bias based on racism is present even in people who vehemently proclaim that they are not racists. Finally, critical race theorists also argue that members of racial minorities undergo differential racialization where particular stereotypes are attributed to them depending on the needs of the white majority. For example, Black people are depicted as simpleminded laborers and servants with a childlike mentality and comfortable with their subordination.
Critical race theory assumes racism is normal in American society. One poem where racism is covered in great detail and shown as a normal occurrence by the author is titled “The Device.” The device is a reference to a kind of time machine that allows Black people whose voice was suppressed and silenced. When talking with the old woman after the device was completed, the young girl tells her grandmother, “the device allows us to talk to you even though we are far apart” (Ewing, 79). In the poem, the Black people in the United States came together to make a machine that allows them to talk to their ancestors. The purpose of this device was to give voice to people to people who had been denied a voice decades ago by the majority White population (Skillman, 370). The device has a symbolic and literal meaning as it symbolizes the desperation that Black people in the US undergo as they try to learn their history only to learn the version that was written by those who constituted the majority population. The overarching desire of the Black people who construct the machine is to recover the history and learn bits of their identities through their ancestors.
Eve Ewing’s use of fiction, reality, and the surreal in the Electric Arches strengthens the racism theme. On one side, she offers an ideal situation which is then faced with the stark realities of one today’s life. In “The Device,” a fictional device that enables communication with the ancestors illustrates the brilliance of Black people. As the author noted in her poem “it was not like a George Washington kind of thing where one Black negro with a smoldering iron made some magic and puff, a miraculous device. It was an open source kind of situation….” (Ewing,2017). However, in reality, racial stereotypes that perceive Black people as simpleminded and happy to take orders from white people expose the contradictions between an ideal world for Black people and the world in which they are living. This is the reality for most Black people in the US where their abilities are not objectively measured or assessed. Rather, their qualities and abilities are inferred from stereotypical characteristics that have existed since the emergence of race as a social construct.
Critical race theory highlights the changing nature of racism in US society. These changes are captured in Ewing’s work. As a Black author, Ewing reflects her life experiences and those of millions of Black people in the US in her work. Throughout the multiple works she covers in the book, she shows the changing racial dynamics in Chicago. For example, in the short story titled “Thursday Morning, Newbury Street” she explores the topic of microaggressions that are the result of a new form of covert racism. In particular, she explores the emotional and mental effects of microaggressions with her mother worrying about what would become of her following her last visit to the therapist (Ewing). The descriptions of real-life experience with racism that characterize her work makes racism a recurring and ever-present theme throughout the book. These reflections about her life and of millions of other black people lend credence to the assumption that racism in American society did not end with the end of the Jim Crow laws. Rather, racism took on a more covert form, and once in a while, it rears its head for all to see.
Institutional racism and its part in subjugating racial minorities is another concept widely discussed in critical race theory. Eve Ewing also looks at past events with a view of showing how institutional racism worked against the Black population. For example, in the poem titled “July, July,” she references the 1995 heat wave that killed hundreds of people in Chicago with a majority being from poor Black neighborhoods. This disaster and its consequences for Black people in Chicago reflect a form of racism that could be classified as environmental racism (Ewing). For reference, Black people died at a higher rate at the time because some had no money to purchase an air conditioner, others were afraid of sleeping outside because of high crime rates, and others could not open their windows for fear of being robbed. For a nation that spends billions on foreign wars, the tragedy of the 1995 heat wave in Chicago is an apparent callous attitude towards Black people and a manifestation of environmental racism.
Electric Arches by Eve Ewing may be considered an ideal framework for critical race theory. In critical race theory, laws and legal institutions are presumed to be inherently racist and aimed at elevating white supremacy at the expense of dignity, respect, and justice for people of color in the United States. Ewing’s work in Electric Arches exposes the individual and institutional racism that Black people face regularly. It is also a validation of the assertion that racism is common in America as critical race theory posits (Perlow, et al, 18). Despite the race being a social construct designed to elevate White people and justify their atrocities against Black people, it continues to permeate society. Instead of the Jim Crow laws that once applied in many Southern states, new forms of covert racism hiding behind microaggressions face many Black people today. The Chicago fire referenced in the poem “July, July” by Ewing is one example of modern-day racism. In this example, hundreds of Black people died because of institutional racism.
The personal experience with racism that Ewing references in her work mainly centers on Chicago. However, they have a universal application because they are not unique to Chicago. Most Black people in the US can relate to Ewing’s experience and the experiences of the people she references in her work. The universality of racism makes it a social and societal issue that requires constant highlighting to sensitize people about it with the intention of modifying behavior towards Black people in the US. However, such efforts normally end up being politicized as highlighted by the politicization of critical race theory in some states which are oblivious to the realities people of color face each day.
Eve Ewing’s collection of poetry, visual art, and short story in the book titled Electric Arches explores several themes. The most apparent theme from reading her work in the theme of racism. While exploring this theme, she uses fiction and real-life experiences of Black people to highlight a reality that so many Black people face in the United States. Poems such as “July, July” and “The Devise” highlight realities that only Black people who have lived through them would understand. Her work does not shy from exploring both individual and institutional racism. By boldly highlighting racism as an issue in American society, she shows that while discrimination due to race was banned several decades ago, it still exists in many forms today. Her work resonates and aligns with the premises of critical race theory which posits that law and legal institutions in the US are inherently racist and that racism is commonplace in the US.
Works Cited
Ewing, Eve L. Electric Arches. Haymarket Press, 2017.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria, et al. Critical Race Theory in Education: A Scholar’s Journey. Teachers College Press, 2021.
Perlow, Olivia N, et al. Black Women’s Liberatory Pedagogies: Resistance, Transformation, and Healing within and beyond the Academy. Springer, 2017.
Skillman, Nikki. “White Faces, Black Hands: Race, Counter history, and the Poetics of the Letterform.”ASAP/Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 2022, pp. 359–384. Web.