Response: Whiteness and the American Ballroom

This article of work regarding ethnographic fieldwork is more akin to a personal narrative more so than a piece of scholarly work. If the author intended to focus on "whiteness" as a theme; its dynamic when juxtaposed again the Other, it would have succeeded if the focus remained as such. Instead, so much of what appears to be the original intent is lost by the insertion of the author as a subject or participant.

It is possible to create a work in which the subjects, theories and case studies are presented without the added narrative difficulties of being both apart of the group by race and wholly separate from the group by socioeconomic status. If the project surrounded race, why then is Mr. Lin not presented as a separate note of conversation. The issue of whiteness is wholly incomplete as the Other incorporates not simply those peoples of South American and African heritage, but of Asian and to a greater extent, far eastern European as well. This is blatantly overlooked, but certainly highlights the issue of being a folklorist and studying one's own group. The author is no more aware of the issues of whiteness than her subjects. The "instability" that is discussed in the introduction is not carried throughout the study.
Although the researcher makes mention of the survey and the great percentage of responses received, the details of the survey are not discussed. If the idea of whiteness can be discerned through comparing dance styles, would it not prove beneficial to examine how these styles came to be as a remark of the stature they hold in modern society? Surely these thoughts on dance as a metaphor for race and body identity are long standing ideologies that require more than a cursory historical purview. By focusing upon the setting of the
researcher, her proximity and difficulty, she is not able to extend the research into the reality of these two dance forms being created for two separate purposes, and because of which, the lore that surrounds them is not based upon race as much as it is based upon formality and custom. It is disappointing to see such an opportunity to examine the origins of "whiteness" as a evolution into form and "civility" be wasted. In addition, this idea of whiteness is also surrounded by status, in which case, Mr. Lin is accepted within the corridors of whiteness by his ability to attain the status required. By overlooking such polarized realities, the ability to move beyond what a laymen's general overview can observe is lost.