The West and the Rest has an awesome rhyme to it, for sure, but so does the content of the lesson. Interesting points of discussions were brought up in class that lead me to having these conversations with friends and peers outside of SAE. I have shared my experiences on these in the post class section. But as for the lesson, white supremacy was a hot dialectical topic that had a lot of students pitch in with growing concern to the BLM movement and cultural appropriation.
Pre Class
While reading the online lesson, a lot of things came to mind all at once. These revolved around issues on White Supremacy and Cultural Appropriation. I took the test on White Privilege and ended up with 25% percent as a result - interesting...
The TED talk video on Cultural appropriation was incredibly insightful. Here were some of the things that immediately stood out to me from the video.
The list of singers that had used cultural appropriation such as Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and more hadn't credited the original culture for stealing another minority’s culture to gain fame.
Miley Cyrus was praised for the use of the hiphop/black culture whereas the originators of the dance (for eg: twerking) were being punished for it.
White supremacy reveals a state where minorities are powerless in determining what is and isn't cultural appropriation because White pop stars/celebrities end up becoming famous for stealing one's culture when the culture was ridiculed in the first place.
During Class
Class was F U N. The topics we shared, the insight we exchanged and the way the we learnt through different stories was incredible!
We spoke about how holding an American Passport gives you a certain kind of privilege. Joshua shared his experience on how some of his Brown skinned friends were stopped from entering a club in Dubai when he wasn't because of the colour of his skin, despite them all being Indian. I went onto sharing my experience on how people would seem friendlier to me when I tell them I'm from Goa because of their interpretation of how Goa looks like for its exotic beaches and lively culture. But more importantly, it's how Goans try to take that extra effort of getting a Portuguese passport (because the Portuguese colonised Goa in the past and people still believe they have Portuguese blood in them - like my family). It's alright, I guess, but not when it goes up to the point when those with a Portugues passport consider themselves Portuguese and look down on their fellow Goans. It just sparks internalized hatred for your own culture (*I have shared a story in the post class section about a discussion I had with two friends from Hong Kong on internalized hatred for one's country due to the effects of White supremacy*)
We then discussed how humanity is always on a race for things - a race to the Moon and now a race to find a vaccine for Covid 19. This sparked up quite some topic of interest because of how everyone wants to be that country that comes up with a cure for this nightmare. However, there could be side effects because a vaccine takes a while to be tested and approved by the health ministries. It is SUPPOSED to be for the people, not for the profit or fame for a country. But this is how screwed up our society has been.
Post Class
Post class got me pondering on this subject a little more. It is interesting to realize how majority of the internet has a "western personality" due to the dominance of internet users stemming from first world countries such as America. It has developed white supremacy on our everyday lives from food, to fashion, to music, to the prestige you can uphold if you speak fluent English in a non native country. I had a few discussions with some friends outside of SAE and it was interesting to hear their points of view. They are as follows.
A friend named Asma took interest in the White Privilege quiz I shared on my Instagram story. She asked for a link to the quiz and got a 54 percent. We then discussed how she's privileged because of her ethnicity in a Muslim country - if she gets caught with the police, they wouldn't be too harsh on her because she knows the language and follows the same religion. However, we proceeded to discuss how Westernization is "almost like losing your own culture" because you get so self-absorbed into what is deemed as a supreme culture of living.
From another perspective, two friends (Richa and Prava) from Hong Kong and I had a really intense discussion on how White supremacy has brainwashed people. We began talking about how sexuality is viewed as a taboo in India after the British rule. This topic evolved into how white culture's impact on India has caused so many twisted ideologies about:
skin color - glorifying fair skin by manufacturing fairness beauty products and creating a standard of beauty with "fairer, lighter skin"
British who stole $45 trillion dollars from India and robbed the country from its wealth
Internalized hatred for one's own culture and race which has been curated from white supremacy
Inferiority complex has bred people to believing white is superior - and is being upheld by non-whites too
Below are some screenshots for our detailed discussions:
Creative Media Project
Sooooooo, we worked on the first draft of the edits this week and its coming along sooooo well!!!!! Im so excited to see how this turns out. Here's a little snippet I edited, although a lot more effects and overlays will be added later...
The second draft will be done hopefully by Monday and Wednesday of this upcoming week and we should be done from there!
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