In our previous class, we saw the first twenty minutes of Stephen Frears’ film, Dirty Pretty Things. Despite only having seen a small portion of the film so far, it is already apparent to me as the viewer that Okwe, the film’s protagonist, epitomizes a person who is in the state of exception. Recall from last semester that the state of exception occurs when a sovereign power removes certain people of political agency as a means to ensure the welfare of a greater population. In Okwe’s case, he is an illegal immigrant from Africa to the United Kingdom, therefore meaning that he does not have any form of valid government issued identification. Consequently, once on British soil, Okwe is only able to hold menial jobs through keeping his identity discreet despite his medical expertise as a doctor in his native country. In essence, Okwe lives in constantly fear of being subject to legal action because the British government sanctions illegal immigrants to protect its citizens.
To complement our current study of What We All Long For, I have posted a link to the episode titled, “California Killing Fields”, from a documentary TV series that formerly aired on the History Channel named Gangland. As the name suggests, the various episodes of Gangland explore the criminal activities of prominent gangs in the United States such the Aryan Brotherhood or MS-13. This particular episode is about a predominantly Cambodian-American gang called the Tiny Rascal Gangsters (often abbreviated as TRGs) that originated in California during the 1980s. The reason that I decided to post this video was because I find that there are actually many parallels between the experiences of gang life by past TRGs members with the situation that the various characters in What We All Long For are experiencing.
The founding members of the TRGs were Cambodian youths whose families were refugees who had escaped from the attrocities of Pol Pot’s regime during the early 1980s and took up residence in the United States. “California Killing Fields” primarily presents the experiences of Vanna In, who was a former member of the gang. In mentions in the video that when his family moved from Cambodia to the United States, he initially experienced difficulty interacting in mainstream American society. Very often, this entailed falling victim to bullying by classmates of other ethnic groups. In’s initial motivation to join the TRGs was also fueled by the indifferences he had toward his family, which he claims to have involved parental abusive. In essence, similar to how Tuyen, Carla, Oku, and Jackie see themselves as being “misfits” in both their families and in society, In decided to join the TRGs in order in search of a feeling of belonging. However, it did not take long before he realized that he made a fatal mistake when he landed himself in prison for the crimes he had committed. It is also worthwhile noting that the TRGs have adopted a hip-hop style culture that emulates that of existing Black-American gangs, suggesting how the Cambodian-American youths feel a certain degree of shame over their ethnic identity in the same way that Tuyen or Carla do over their ancestral backgrounds.