Within Bloom’s conversation with the nationalist barflies in Cyclops lies an interrogation of the concept of what makes a nation. Bloom remarks that the history of the world is full of “perpetuating national hatred among nations,” before Bloom seems to describe Irish identity in a unifying way, calling it “the same people living in the same place,” (12, 1422-23). But, he is met with complete mockery by his audience.
Vincent Cheng points out that the desire to establish a national identity centers around the idea of establishing oneself as a form of other. He finds an irony in this mission, identifying it as the same sort of mission as the imperialist English mission, writing “both projects, that of a racialist imperial discourse and that of a nationalist self-definition, Authenticity and identity are, although emanating from very different political positions, both engaged in defining lrishness as distinctively “other” and different;’” (Cheng 242-243). It is through this mission of othering that the barflies attempt to disregard Bloom’s opinions due to his Jewish identity. They essentially argue that being born and living in Ireland is not enough to make count as an Irish identity.
This inconsistency in discussions of Nativeness and Foreignness are reflected all too frequently in discussions of American Blackness. Despite being a group of people living in the same place as other people, people of African descent are historically (and in many ways currently, but that’s a whole other argument) treated as though being born in and living in America still does not make them part of the national identity. As portrayed within Ulysses, American blackness has taken the form of a racist caricature in the newspaper and as blackface performance. Both depictions of blackness are created by white people on a mission of othering African Americans, whether to establish a national identity or for the purpose of entertainment. Within this inconsistency lies a tension between the historical lack of acknowledging African Americans as Americans while still using their image as an export, a product of American industry and identity. Blackface and other racial caricature is an effort to control and profit off of the image of this othered group of people. This desire to control seems to be reflected in Ulysses through the manner with which Haines criticizes the milk woman in the very first episode. While this Englishman others her and regards her as lower, he expresses the desire to make her behavior reflect his own. This is the same behavior exhibited by those who utilize blackface performance: othering, yet embracing; disregarding an aspect of the foreign while trying to make it a part of the native.
