Private Mark Graham, un/known soldier: not just any body can be a citizen

Abstract

On 4 September 2006, Private Mark Anthony Graham, a 33-year-old black Canadian, was killed in Afghanistan in a so-called friendly fire incident. An elite athlete prior to his military career, Graham, who was born in Jamaica and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, had also been a member of the Canadian 4 × 400-metre relay team that competed in the 1992 Olympic games. This article examines the mainstream television and print media accounts that emerged following Private Graham's death to explore the connections between race, masculinity and discourses of national belonging. For example, media narratives emphasized Graham's physicality and track and field career, rather than his status as a citizen-soldier who died in the service of his country. I argue that the prominence ascribed to Graham's corporeality signals his racial alterity, a delineation which facilitates his exclusion from white settler society. Moreover, beyond revealing the enduring legacy of Canada's history of anti-black racism, I suggest that the media's treatment of Private Mark Graham is indicative of the reconfiguration of white cultural nationalism in post-9/11 narratives of citizenship and Canadian identity and efforts to reinstate white men as the true embodiment of masculine heroism and patriotism.

Soldado raso Mark Graham, soldado des/conocido: no cualquiera puede ser ciudadano

El 4 de septiembre de 2006, el soldado raso Mark Anthony Graham, un hombre negro canadiense de treinta y tres años de edad, fue muerto en Afganistán en un incidente de los así llamados fuegos amigos. Un atleta de elite antes de su carrera militar, Graham, quien había nacido en Jamaica y crecido en Hamilton, Ontario, había sido también un miembro del equipo de carrera de postas de 4 x 400 metros que compitió en los Juegos Olímpicos de 1992. Este artículo analiza los relatos de los principales medios de televisión e impresos que surgieron después de la muerte del soldado raso Graham para explorar las conexiones entre raza, masculinidad y discursos de pertenencia nacional. Por ejemplo, las narrativas de los medios enfatizan la fisicalidad de Graham y su carrera de atletismo, en vez de su estatus como un ciudadano-soldado que murió al servicio de su país. Sostengo que la prominencia atribuida a la corporalidad de Graham señala su alteridad racial, una delineación que facilita su exclusión de la sociedad de colonos blancos. Además, más allá de revelar el persistente legado del racismo anti-negro en la historia de Canadá, sugiero que el tratamiento de los medios hacia el soldado Mark Graham es indicativo de la reconfiguración del nacionalismo cultural blanco en las narrativas de la ciudadanía y la identidad canadienses post once de septiembre y de los esfuerzos por reinstaurar a los hombres blancos como la verdadera encarnación del heroísmo y el patriotismo masculino.

马克．格雷厄姆士兵，不知名／知名的军人：并不是每人皆可成为公民

2006年九月四日，一位三十三岁的加拿大黑人马克．安东尼．格雷厄姆士兵，在阿富汗一次所谓的友军炮火误伤事件中遇难。从军之前身为一名精英运动员的格雷厄姆，出生于牙买加，并成长于安大略省的汉密尔顿，过去亦曾是代表加拿大参加1992年奥林匹克体育竞赛四人四百公尺（4 x 400 meter）接力赛的成员。本文检视主流电视和出版媒体在格雷厄姆士兵死亡之后出现的报导，以探讨种族、男性气概和国族归属论述之间的关联性。例如媒体叙事强调格雷厄姆的体能及其田径事业，而非其为国牺牲的公民—军人身份。我主张，对于格雷厄姆肉身的杰出性之认定，显示出他的种族异己性，该描绘并使其排除于白人的垦殖社会。再者，在揭露加拿大反抗黑人种族主义的历史遗绪之外，我将主张，媒体对待马克．格雷厄姆士兵之道，更意味着911事件之后，公民权叙事与加拿大身份认同的白人文化国族主义重构，以及恢復白人男性作为男性英雄主义与爱国主义的体现之努力。

Keywords::

• black male athlete
• masculinity
• citizenship
• anti-black racism
• national identity

Palabras claves::

• hombre negro atleta
• masculinidad
• ciudadanía
• racismo anti-negro
• identidad nacional

关键词::

• 黑人男性运动员
• 男性气概
• 公民权
• 反抗黑人种族主义
• 国族认同。

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the editor Peter Hopkins and the anonymous reviewers for the feedback and suggestions they provided during the revision of this article. I am also grateful to Joannie M. Halas for telling me about the Globe and Mail feature article about Private Graham and to Mary G. McDonald for her comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

Notes

^1. See the Journal of Black Studies issue on Blacks in Canada 2008, 38, and Race & Class, 2010, 52.

^2. I have taken the title of this section from an article with a similar name written by Morrison (1990).

^3. CBC News, 6 September 2006.

^4. Due to the limitations of space, primary consideration is given to Ben Johnson. However, there are a number of situations that involve Donovan Bailey, notably an interview that he gave to writer Michael Farber in Sports Illustrated magazine, just prior to the 1996 Olympic games, where he won two gold medals (the 100-metre and the 4 × 100-metre relay). Bailey was cited as saying that Canada is ‘as blatantly racist as the United States’. These remarks generated an uproar, and Bailey would later say that he had said the opposite, that Canada ‘is not as blatantly racist as the U.S.’. For his part, Farber admits that he could have misinterpreted Bailey's remarks, given that the article was written some time after he conducted the interview.

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Delia Douglas

Delia D. Douglas is a sociologist whose research and writing are interdisciplinary in nature, drawing upon critical race theory, multiracial/transnational feminisms and cultural studies. Her areas of interest include necropolitics: violence, everyday racism and racialized hostility, sport, the media, social justice and the law, and anti-racism and equity in the academy.