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Matt Melbourne Professor Margaret Debelius HUMW 01107 December 10 2013 Do Whales Eat Girl Scouts? Although youth organizations like Girl Scouts officially strive to make the world a better place,1 these juvenile microcosms of American society can offer insight into the more adult problems that plague a country. ZZ Packer gives life to this occurrence in her short story Brownies that describes a racially-charged encounter between white and black Brownie Girl Scout troops at a campground in 1980s Georgia. The black protagonist and Brownie, Laurel, attempts to make sense of race and ethnicity in a harsh reality of real discrimination and childhood malice. Although the story predominantly describes relations between black and white girls of suburban Atlanta, Laurel and her troop mates often make allusions to other cultures; Packer expresses the harmful cycle of cultural appropriation with allusions that lack cultural contextualization and encompass contradictory imagery. Laurels allusions to other cultures demonstrate her tendency towards cultural appropriation. At first, she describes Troop 909 leaders hairdo as that of an ancient Egyptian, continuing to describe her pose as sphinx-like holding [a banana] in front of her like a microphone (10). This use of ancient and sphinx-like contradicts her use of microphone, as this modern technology contrasts the ancient monument in size, purpose, and epoch. Moreover, Laurel makes this analogy without any discussion or analysis of Egyptian culture. She focuses solely on the appearance of a certain icon of Egyptian history, suggesting that her
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"Facts about Girl Scouting." Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts of the USA, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. <http://www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/facts/>.

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cultural unawareness leads to her cultural appropriation. This idea progresses as she describes the hairdo as heavy drapes, insinuating that Laurels appropriation of Egyptian culture to her own blocks her from the true person behind the hair, as drapes do with light (22). Similarly, Laurel describes Octavia as cross-legged an embittered Buddha, which succeeds in attributing the posture of cross-legged-ness to Buddhism while neglecting to consider any other element of the religion or its tradition (7). In fact, Laurel creates a contradiction of sorts in describing a Buddha as embittered, as Buddhist texts teach to harbor compassion and understanding over resentment and bitterness. This ignorance implies that Laurel would think in different, more empathic ways if she had real knowledge of Buddhist ideals (as opposed to superficial image of cross-legged-ness). In a way, the girls lack of cultural education begets further ignorance. Packer adds to this portrayal of Laurel by including the passage about the campgrounds bathroom description, which hints that the wooden rafters coming together in great Vs [like the] inside of a whale alludes to the Bible story of Jonah (12). In this story, God has Jonah swallowed by a whale after repeatedly criticizing him for his lack of sympathy for the people of Nineveh, an enemy society of his homeland Israel. This narrative mirrors how the girls from Laurels troop sees Troop 909 as their enemies and ignores all but their race in their discussion and interaction. Laurels troops physical place in the bathroom suggests they, like Jonah, lack cultural awareness and consequently face an imprisonment of sorts. The analogy proposes that their freedom rests upon their empathy with the girls of Troop 909. In a manner similar to Laurel, the other Brownies lack cultural knowledge and empathy. This ignorance even extends inwards in terms of Octavias Greek name. The narrative does not mention of the origin of Octavias name. Furthermore, her character contradicts the historical persona of Octavia, the sister of the Roman Emperor Augustus and fourth wife to Marc Antony,

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who some experts believe was identified with the Greek goddess Athena by the people of Athens (the goddess of wisdom).2 This contradiction brings attention to Octavias ignorance of her names roots and the potential virtues of knowing its origin and namesake. In other words, her unawareness of her names origin begets a tendency toward further ignorance in her actions. Additionally, this idea of cultural ignorance permeates Octavia and Arnettas description of the white girls in Troop 909 as Caucasian Chihuahuas [though] neither Arnetta nor Octavia could spell Chihuahua, nor had ever seen a Chihuahua (3). Their phrase Caucasian Chihuahua contains several racial offenses. To begin, the use of Caucasian Chihuahua indicates an inherent incongruity that further reveals the girls unfamiliarity with foreign cultures. For one, a Chihuahua cannot be Caucasian as only humans have racial identities. However, the contradiction develops further by using a foreign dog breed that originates in Mexico. The girls craft this phrase, with an absence of any other reference to Mexican culture in the story, suggesting their knowledge of Mexican culture to have no depth. In fact, they had neither seen nor could spell Chihuahua, which proves their unfamiliarity with the foreign dog, and by extension, foreign culture. In another instance, the girls demonstrate their ignorance of cultural appropriation when one says they never see stars on Oneida street, compared to the many they see at the campground (19). Paradoxically, the Oneida were a Native American tribe, whose name became a road presumably in their suburban hometown. Although their age exempts them from any culpability, this use of a tribal name in American, suburban society indicates an attempt to incorporate foreign cultures into ones own society. The irony of naming a road that has a starless sky after a culture embedded in nature furthers the sense that cultural appropriation engenders the assimilation of other cultures into the dominant cultural majority. If the girls enjoy
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Raubitschek, Antony E. "Octavia's Deification at Athens." JSTOR, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/283451?seq=1>.

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the stars, they could benefit an education of nature from a Native American perspective. Instead, this example of cultural appropriation becomes inextricably linked to the girls cultural ignorance. The storys last moments describe the interaction between the girls as Laurel recounts the story of her father using the Mennonites to paint his home. This conversation reveals how cultural ignorance inhibits an intercultural empathy between generations. Laurel realizes the malice in her fathers intentions (having a white man serving a black man for free) as the words uncoil from her mouth (27). The use of uncoil implies Laurels involuntary, mechanical connection to the idea that derives from her father. Her fathers indifference to the humanity of the Mennonites re-coils his feelings to be released in his daughter. Laurel refers to this cyclical phenomenon in saying, When youve been made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others (27). This occurrence emerges first, however, when the leader of Troop 909 describes one of her Brownies as echolaic or as a child who echoes other people, especially their not-so progressive parents who might use the n-word (23). Although less subtle, this reference signifies the greater trend that children literally echo cultural insensitivity. Packers uses serveral strategies to elucidate the complex relationship between ignorance and cultural appropriation in the modern setting of Girl Scouts in Georgia. Part of this pattern is part of natural, human comprehension or an effort to make sense of ones self in the context of the surrounding world. However, struggles between races and societies can distort this process, having toxic effects on children and their relationships with people different in any aspect. The Girl Scouts mission for world improvement would hopefully encompass the ideal of encouraging relationships with (rather than the appropriation of) girls and cultures different from ones own immediate communities. Remarkably enough, Girl Scout cookies can parallel the ignorance of

Melbourne 5 the girls in the troop. With names like Samoas, Dulce de Leche, Ol Ols, and Tagalogs, I cant help but wonder if many of the girls have any idea that these names carry any more significance than the cookies that they sell.