What is Race? What is Ethnicity? Readings for todays lecture ...
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
What is Race? What is Ethnicity? Readings for todays lecture: - Neofotistos, Vasiliki (2008). “The Muslim, the Jew, and the African American: America and the production of alterity in Borat.” Anthropology News 24(4): 1317. - Russell, John (2013). “Don’t It Make my Black Face Blue: Race, Avatars, Albescence and the Transnational Imaginary.” Journal of Popular Culture, 46(1): 192-217 REVIEW of what we have learnt so far: - How do humans produce meaning? o We looked at the reduction of meaning through signs and symbols, through discourse, participation strategies, performance, and imitation - In terms of what meanings are produced, we took a look at Canadian Identity, the appropriation of First Nations in Canadian Identity, production of Native Americans, and how “others” are produced - We looked at semiotic strategies, anthropological concepts, and many definitions Outline of todays Lecture: 1) How are race and ethnicity produced in film? - What are the stereotypes? - How are they produced? (Invisibility/absence, albescence, reassignment, through allegory, the grotesque, and more!) 2) Can popular culture offer a critique on stereotypes of race and ethnicity? 3) Are we breaking away from the stereotypes, or re-instilling the same old stereotypes in new and subtle (or overt) ways? - Examples in readings: District 9, Avatar, Borat - Film: Mickey Mouse Monopoloy Think about “Race” - Ideology: the beliefs and values of a society that are a product of sociocultural and political processes, which masks this historical process, resulting in the seemingly natural and unchangeable nature of these beliefs and values o Now because it happens though social processes and political processes, the things that we do and experience are masked through time o Therefore appears normal (because they seem familiar and occurred through time) o In fact, they are not natural or commonplace, there are the result of these process through time.
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
Quotes from the Russell article to start off: - “Speculative fiction… should by definition provide a canvas to give free rein to the imagination, to boldly go where no trop has gone before” (Russell 2013: 192) o So he is saying that through speculative fiction, sci-fi, this imaginative genre, by its very nature, its should permit us the idea to move beyond the imaginative and our understanding of the world and diversity o You should see ethnicity and race representing in non-stereotypical ways. But in fact he finds that it produces commonplace about ideologies about race based on what already exists in popular culture o And that is because popular culture is a product of humans, is also in meshed in historical context, social processes and political processes through time o Hence the representations are basically mirroring the ideologies in our society - This genre of movie has “… consistently failed (or refused) to imagine blacks in ways that seriously challenge existing stereotypes of blackness and that subvert the imaginative and assumptive architecture of contemporary racial discourse” (Russell 2013:192) o These representations are subtle (not really in your face), and that they work through subtly o It is cemented by our discourse Images and Ideologies of Blackness: Invisibility and Concealment - Because blackness is invisivile and concealed, the audience doesn’t realize the prevalence of them Avatarism and Buffonary - Avatarism: “black” physically absent, represented as something else - Star Wars and Transformers “… utilize burlesque to ethnically and racially mark robot and human actors…” as black (Russell 2013: 200) - Example: Jar Jar Binks jive talking buffoon, From Star Wars: the Phantom Menace Hyper-Sexuality - Sexual predators and African Queens - Examples: King Kong, Alien 1979, Alien 1986 Images and Ideologies of Blackness: Albescence: “Act of Becoming White” - He basically argues that this is a product of who is producing the films - Basically comes down to mark demands what people want and what will sell Racial Re-assignment - Foreign investments and market demands “white” leads
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
-
Race represented in essentialized forms o Examples: Japanese Anime – race as names, hair styles, clothing… o There is no other race represented physically Appearances of race for comedy depends on stereotypes o Taking on the practice of blackness through reproductive acts of the “black face” o Certain stereotypes circulate through popular culture
“White Washing” - The absence of diversity, ethnicity, race… - “The future is white”: pop culture reproduces social hierarchies – white dominance and normalcy - When diversity is present, it is white washed o Examples: Earthsea book turned TV show, fashion magazines, and celebrity photographs Alien Reassignment - Alien alterity metaphor for blackness - “White” looking aliens morally and technologically advanced - Ex. Star Trek: No “Superior” aliens identified AS black and not marked by Otherness o Represented through something else - Existence of black actors, but stick to cultural norms (ex. Day the Earth Stood Still) Can Movies Break Away from Stereotypes and Offer a Critique, or Do They Re-Instill the Same Old Stereotypes in New and Subtle (or Overt) Ways? - District 9 - Avatar - Borat District 9 - Metaphor of xenophobia, post-apartheid violence - Africa as place of savageness and violence o “Prawns”: violent, unintelligent… o There is still the representation of blackness in the “others” of the aliens. The blacks that do appear as humans, they are represented as extremely racist - Zimbabwe “others” and Nigerian stereotypes, or satire? o Comments on the conflict on the conflict in south Africa - Villains – white vs. black? Avatar - The author suggests that they were more successful in making a commentary - Again in avatar, Russell says they use an interesting strategy here:
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
-
-
Didactic blackface o The main characters take the forms of these avatars so they can learn about these populations. But he is saying that it is meant to gives you an idea of “how it is in someone else’s shoe” o What it really does, that it continues the white perspective understanding of the other. o White eye/ I witness authority vs. black testimony o This ends up promoting the idea that racism can only be understood in white eyes who experience it Allegory confronts and at the same time, evades stereotypes o Commentary on racism o Attitudes about Others o Concludes that its difficult for film markers to
Borat - Allegory and the grotesque o Show representations of ethnicity and exaggerated… so much so to make us think if these stereotypes are normal - Representations of Kazakhstan o America’s other? o Muslim Other (post-911 discourse), exs - Exposing stereotypes and social commentary through the grotesque? o Exposing anti-Semitism o African Americans and social class/ marginalization Final Thoughts - Anthropological perspectives on race - Power of popular culture (film example) to produce meaning - Production of meaning in subtle ways - Underlying ideologies – normalized
What is Race? What is Ethnicity? Readings for todays lecture: - Neofotistos, Vasiliki (2008). “The Muslim, the Jew, and the African American: America and the production of alterity in Borat.” Anthropology News 24(4): 1317. - Russell, John (2013). “Don’t It Make my Black Face Blue: Race, Avatars, Albescence and the Transnational Imaginary.” Journal of Popular Culture, 46(1): 192-217 REVIEW of what we have learnt so far: - How do humans produce meaning? o We looked at the reduction of meaning through signs and symbols, through discourse, participation strategies, performance, and imitation - In terms of what meanings are produced, we took a look at Canadian Identity, the appropriation of First Nations in Canadian Identity, production of Native Americans, and how “others” are produced - We looked at semiotic strategies, anthropological concepts, and many definitions Outline of todays Lecture: 1) How are race and ethnicity produced in film? - What are the stereotypes? - How are they produced? (Invisibility/absence, albescence, reassignment, through allegory, the grotesque, and more!) 2) Can popular culture offer a critique on stereotypes of race and ethnicity? 3) Are we breaking away from the stereotypes, or re-instilling the same old stereotypes in new and subtle (or overt) ways? - Examples in readings: District 9, Avatar, Borat - Film: Mickey Mouse Monopoloy Think about “Race” - Ideology: the beliefs and values of a society that are a product of sociocultural and political processes, which masks this historical process, resulting in the seemingly natural and unchangeable nature of these beliefs and values o Now because it happens though social processes and political processes, the things that we do and experience are masked through time o Therefore appears normal (because they seem familiar and occurred through time) o In fact, they are not natural or commonplace, there are the result of these process through time.
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
Quotes from the Russell article to start off: - “Speculative fiction… should by definition provide a canvas to give free rein to the imagination, to boldly go where no trop has gone before” (Russell 2013: 192) o So he is saying that through speculative fiction, sci-fi, this imaginative genre, by its very nature, its should permit us the idea to move beyond the imaginative and our understanding of the world and diversity o You should see ethnicity and race representing in non-stereotypical ways. But in fact he finds that it produces commonplace about ideologies about race based on what already exists in popular culture o And that is because popular culture is a product of humans, is also in meshed in historical context, social processes and political processes through time o Hence the representations are basically mirroring the ideologies in our society - This genre of movie has “… consistently failed (or refused) to imagine blacks in ways that seriously challenge existing stereotypes of blackness and that subvert the imaginative and assumptive architecture of contemporary racial discourse” (Russell 2013:192) o These representations are subtle (not really in your face), and that they work through subtly o It is cemented by our discourse Images and Ideologies of Blackness: Invisibility and Concealment - Because blackness is invisivile and concealed, the audience doesn’t realize the prevalence of them Avatarism and Buffonary - Avatarism: “black” physically absent, represented as something else - Star Wars and Transformers “… utilize burlesque to ethnically and racially mark robot and human actors…” as black (Russell 2013: 200) - Example: Jar Jar Binks jive talking buffoon, From Star Wars: the Phantom Menace Hyper-Sexuality - Sexual predators and African Queens - Examples: King Kong, Alien 1979, Alien 1986 Images and Ideologies of Blackness: Albescence: “Act of Becoming White” - He basically argues that this is a product of who is producing the films - Basically comes down to mark demands what people want and what will sell Racial Re-assignment - Foreign investments and market demands “white” leads
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
-
Race represented in essentialized forms o Examples: Japanese Anime – race as names, hair styles, clothing… o There is no other race represented physically Appearances of race for comedy depends on stereotypes o Taking on the practice of blackness through reproductive acts of the “black face” o Certain stereotypes circulate through popular culture
“White Washing” - The absence of diversity, ethnicity, race… - “The future is white”: pop culture reproduces social hierarchies – white dominance and normalcy - When diversity is present, it is white washed o Examples: Earthsea book turned TV show, fashion magazines, and celebrity photographs Alien Reassignment - Alien alterity metaphor for blackness - “White” looking aliens morally and technologically advanced - Ex. Star Trek: No “Superior” aliens identified AS black and not marked by Otherness o Represented through something else - Existence of black actors, but stick to cultural norms (ex. Day the Earth Stood Still) Can Movies Break Away from Stereotypes and Offer a Critique, or Do They Re-Instill the Same Old Stereotypes in New and Subtle (or Overt) Ways? - District 9 - Avatar - Borat District 9 - Metaphor of xenophobia, post-apartheid violence - Africa as place of savageness and violence o “Prawns”: violent, unintelligent… o There is still the representation of blackness in the “others” of the aliens. The blacks that do appear as humans, they are represented as extremely racist - Zimbabwe “others” and Nigerian stereotypes, or satire? o Comments on the conflict on the conflict in south Africa - Villains – white vs. black? Avatar - The author suggests that they were more successful in making a commentary - Again in avatar, Russell says they use an interesting strategy here:
The Cool Culture Soul Machine: The Anthropology of Everyday Life Lecture 5 – May 22, 2013
-
-
Didactic blackface o The main characters take the forms of these avatars so they can learn about these populations. But he is saying that it is meant to gives you an idea of “how it is in someone else’s shoe” o What it really does, that it continues the white perspective understanding of the other. o White eye/ I witness authority vs. black testimony o This ends up promoting the idea that racism can only be understood in white eyes who experience it Allegory confronts and at the same time, evades stereotypes o Commentary on racism o Attitudes about Others o Concludes that its difficult for film markers to
Borat - Allegory and the grotesque o Show representations of ethnicity and exaggerated… so much so to make us think if these stereotypes are normal - Representations of Kazakhstan o America’s other? o Muslim Other (post-911 discourse), exs - Exposing stereotypes and social commentary through the grotesque? o Exposing anti-Semitism o African Americans and social class/ marginalization Final Thoughts - Anthropological perspectives on race - Power of popular culture (film example) to produce meaning - Production of meaning in subtle ways - Underlying ideologies – normalized
