Author Archives: samiha joshi

Hasan Minhaj, a self-identifying Muslim Indian-American comedian, assesses several tropes about Islamic cultures— from Islam being monolithic to it being inherently violent— in his show Patriot Act. These tropes, commonly used in Western society, generalize Islamic cultures and propagate false ideologies about them. Minhaj, however, incorporates the use of these tropes ironically in his segment by using comedy which is subtle, yet moving for an audience with a majority of ‘brown’ people.

Islam, labelled frequently as an ‘inherently violent’ religion, is framed episodically in the media and often only the stories that support the trope are presented to the viewers. This leads to poor treatment of the entirety of the Muslim population due to the acts of a small Muslim subgroup. Minhaj highlights this framing in his sequence where he displays news reporters discussing the issue of Jamal Khashoggi. One news reporter states that the story of Khashoggi dying inside the consulate in Turkey was “designed to protect one man” and another states that the Saudi Crown Prince “dispatched a hit squad to execute and dismember Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi”. This segment plays with the Western expectation since a majority of Americans perceived the Saudi Crown Prince as a reformer and a step toward modernist ideology. In reality, however, Minhaj points out that several Muslims knew the consequences of Khashoggi criticizing the policies that Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) and that this Western perspective was founded on little knowledge and false ideologies. In fact, Minhaj, like several other Muslims, predicted that any discourse that goes against the MBS regime would be censored since there is zero tolerance for that in the nation. To address this, Minhaj jokes, “This is the Patriot Act, or as it’s known in Saudi Arabia, “Error 404, Page Not Found,” which is an effective way to bring to light that censorship is an ongoing problem in repressive regimes.` By censoring Minhaj’s content, however, MBS played right into the Streisand effect wherein his attempt to hide and censor a piece of information lead to it spreading more widely.

To build on this idea, Minhaj addresses the trope of ‘Islam being monolithic’ which generalizes over a billion individuals that follow Islam, each of who, in reality, have an individual perspective on the religion and life itself. Minhaj consistently refers to ‘brown’ people as one entity and brings up ‘brown’ stereotypes in a comedic manner and he uses his own cultural context with a hint of sarcasm to point out the detrimental effects that labelling a culture as monolithic has on its individuals. Through this, Minhaj is able to demonstrate how the Saudi Arabia controversy targets all Muslims, despite Saudi Arabia consisting of only two percent of the entire Muslim population.

As a ‘brown’ person from India studying in a Western university, it is evident that my culture is heavily stereotyped and I believe that ‘brown’ people are not interchangeable no matter what these tropes suggest, which is why I found it refreshing that a well-known Muslim Indian-American is commenting on the negative effects that the propagation of these tropes has on a larger social group.

Amidst the indigenous art in the Multiversity Gallery within the Museum of Anthropology, is Dionne Paul’s Her First Day of School and His First Day of School, a contemporary photographic piece that serves as a symbol for the injustice that took place in Indian residential schools across Canada. The photographs are those of Paul’s children at the age of four on their first day of school, smiling and dressed immaculately in their uniforms. These photographs, however, have an old black and white overlay of the uniforms that were worn by students of residential schools which draws attention to the artist’s message modern-day schooling experiences are very different from those of Indian residential schools. Paul’s artistic statement which accompanies these artworks elaborates on the mistreatment of indigenous children, stating that these schools lacked strong curriculums, medical provision, and good quality food which is in contrast to the attention to detail put towards schooling across Canada now (Paul 2013).

Having been raised in India, there was little to no focus on indigenous studies in our curriculums since the courses mainly focused on Indian and Western narratives which lead to my oblivion towards the transgressions against indigenous communities and specifically, the treatment of indigenous children in these residential schools. The artist, however, explicitly mentions historical details in her statement which provides sufficient understanding of the trauma faced by indigenous communities for those with limited background information like myself, and this further helps evoke feelings of empathy.

Her First Day of School and His First Day of School serve as an important reminder that these brutalities did not occur far in the past, but in reality, as recently as 1975, which is why it is critical for contemporary artists to bring to light their indigenous identity and history in Western settings, such as the University of British Columbia’s Museum of Anthropology. This resonates closely with Robert Houle’s definition of an “artist-warrior,” since Paul’s work deviates from preconceived notions that authentic indigenous art is meant to look ‘traditional’ by using a contemporary style photograph print which somewhat appropriates Western art. By juxtaposing ‘Western’ uniforms with ‘Indian’ uniforms and modern schooling experiences with Indian residential school experiences in this ‘hostile territory’, she is not only able to challenge the notion that these wrongdoings against indigenous communities were not in the distant past and still do persist, but she also could construct a new indigenous identity by alluding to the past in contemporary forms (Kramer 173).

References:

Paul, Dionne. Her First Day of School. 2013, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC.

Paul, Dionne. Her First Day of School. 2013, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC.

Kramer, Jennnifer. “Figurative Repatriation: First Nations ‘Artist-Warrior’s Recover, Reclaim, and Return Cultural Property through Self-Definition.” Journal of Material Culture, 2014, pp. 161-182.

Since I was in the group that argued for the premise ‘Be it resolved that social media enables sociopolitical change,’ the readings were in line with my beliefs and simply heightened my conviction that social media is a powerful tool in times where people’s voices are suppressed. Though I have always been a proponent of social media’s ability to create social change, Castell’s article and the points raised by my peers during the debate opened me up to alternate perspectives.

Castell’s article brought to light specific events that took place during The Egyptian Revolution which had high emotional appeal and evidence that clearly supported our stance. It was particularly gripping because it showed how social media united the world for one single cause despite several differences, and it helped me understand how ‘powerless’ individuals can come together and form a counterpower against ‘powerful’ institutions like the government body in Egypt. Moreover, I found that the opposing group raised interesting points by citing historical events where social media was not accessible and thus, a revolution took place physically. These were events I was unaware about and it definitely increased my appreciation for the traditional forms of protest used in previous ages. This, however, did not deter my group’s opinion that traditional forms of protest are valuable but social media in this new age is necessary for cultivating actionable change since it appeals to newer generations. Of all these points, the most notable argument for me was from the other debate with the premise ‘Be it resolved that social media inhibits sociopolitical change,’ wherein the against group rebutted the other group’s point of how social media has negative impacts on sociopolitical situations by identifying that negative change is also counted as ‘change’. I feel as though that was a convincing argument because it takes into account the resolution directly and addresses that social media enables change, positively and negatively. This point struck out to me because, in my debate, I feel as though we were biased because Castell’s article mainly points out positive sociopolitical change so we were not able to recognize the true meaning of the premise.

All in all, my belief that social media enables social change and can complement traditional methods of protest and rebellion changed only in the sense that I, now, more strongly believe that social media is a tool that new generations must use to unite more social groups because it truly can create an insurmountable impact.

Works Cited:

Castells, Manuel. “The Egyptian Revolution.” Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age(2015): 54-94.

In August of 2015, Kelly Osbourne, a co-host for the television show “The View”, aimed to call out Donald Trump on the issue regarding immigration and the racist comments he made. Her attempt failed miserably as she made the crude statement: “If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?” The comment was not well-received by her co-hosts as well as the show’s viewers and soon after, Twitter was flooded with infuriated responses to her comment using the hashtag #QueridaKellyOsbourne. Though shortly after the controversy Osbourne released an apology on Facebook stating that she misspoke, this social media event not only raises several questions about social dynamics between the citizens of the United States of America and immigrants but also about accountability of public figures making uninformed statements regarding race on social media.

In recent years, the United States of America has had an unstable socio-political climate with regards to immigration and there has been a great amount of discourse related to the Latino community and its impact on the economy. There has been an increasing amount of antagonization of Latino communities by anti-immigrants which has resulted in several hate crimes and racial profiling, physically and virtually. Social media serves as the primary medium for the spreading of information and in this age, social media can also influence how behaviours and interactions between social groups are spread. Osbourne’s comment magnifies this existing social dynamic since it is a prime example of how the rise of such views on social media platforms can create racial conflict. By reducing Latinos all over America to a janitorial status on live network television with a viewership of millions, Osbourne proliferates the idea that Latino immigrants are solely responsible for the lower job sectors and thus are not benefitting the economy. Though Osbourne claims to be liberal, her comment suggests that her ideologies are not in line with those of pro-immigrants who believe that immigrants are not just a small part of a larger labour force, but in fact in some areas of the country, they are the labour force. This reinforces a larger social problem of the financial superiority that white people have over people of colour in the United States of America, which is evident when a rich, white individual degrades immigrant jobs on national television.

Overall, this event not only reveals how there is a social conflict between immigrants and non-immigrants but it also displays how social media can magnify those negative behaviours. This controversy, more importantly, draws attention to how public figures on social media are responsible for the propagation of misconceptions regarding several social groups and they essentially are ‘spokespersons’ that can help determine social dynamics.

Works Cited:

“Kelly Osbourne’s Remarks On Latinos And Trump Stir Viral Response.” NBC News. N. p., 2015. Web. 7 Nov. 2018.

“Latino Immigration And Social Change In The United States: Toward An Ethical Immigration Policy On JSTOR.” Jstor.org. Davies, Ian, 2018. Web. 7 Nov. 2018.

“Search Twitter – #Queridakellyosbourne.” Twitter.com. N. p., 2018. Web. 7 Nov. 2018.

In the age of new media, products and political messaging are inseparable. With the rise of political messages embedded within commercials, the intended messages encoded by the producers of such content can be decoded in several ways, taking into consideration the audience’s sociocultural context and the recent political climate. With hopes of spreading a global message of unity and acceptance, Pepsi launched an advertisement starring Kendall Jenner which faced major backlash.

The commercial, which was shortly pulled, displayed a protest that is blocked by the police until Kendall Jenner resolves the conflict between the police and the protestors by handing the officer a can of Pepsi. The Pepsi can, as said by the creative team that conceptualized this commercial, was meant to serve as a symbol for hope and resistance since it was inspired by the infamous photograph by Marc Riboud titled ‘The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet’. The audience, however, interpreted it in an oppositional manner and criticised the company of trivializing significant social issues like the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality towards minority groups and the immigration ban. Though this video displays individuals of multiple ethnic groups, such as the Asian cello player and the Muslim photojournalist, the message of diversity and multiculturalism that it was meant to denote was lost when the protest was led by Kendall, a wealthy white model, who has not struggled with firsthand oppression. The dominant ideology of the creative team was to create an advertisement that resonates with the beliefs of this generation. Using their institutional knowledge, it is apparent that the company believed that using a current influencer would be beneficial in reaching millennials. To reinforce that Pepsi stands with the values of activism and equality that the youth holds, the song used in the background is “Lions” by Skip Marley. This song connotes the importance of resistance and how the youth has the courage to fight for social justice. However, the audience does not partake in a dominant-hegemonic reading and the reception of the song’s message is not positive though it skyrocketed in the charts.

Overall, Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding is applicable in this example since the message encoded by the creators is clearly warped in the process of distribution and the receiver rejects the message. Finally, the audience is in an oppositional position which defeats the purpose of the commercial entirely which is to boost sales by creating a connection with today’s youth. Aforementioned, the majority of Pepsi’s creative team are white. Thus, one strategy to improve their production of content that resonates with the youth is to make their team more diverse and invest in detailed market research prior to the circulation of its advertisements. As a result of doing this, the company can potentially increase their product sales since they can cater to the needs of various social groups.

References

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/1644290/the-real-explanation-behind-kendall-jenners-controversial-pepsi-commercial

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/pepsi-ad-advert-commercial-kendall-jenner-police-protest-black-lives-matter-review-a7667486.html

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/critics-notebook-real-problem-kendall-jenners-pepsi-ad-991932