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Tag Archives: culture

Skin and Race

I’ve had to hold off further analysis of the Race chapter until I’d completed the book as issues of race are prevalent in the entire book. Paul Gilory (chapter 8) explains how race has to be socially and politically constructed to secure and maintain ‘racialization’ and diversity today, despite the ideology being born as a distinction of skin colour during the colonial period. One aspect that was not discussed in the book is First Nations cultures. I personally come across this issue often in my own artistic work as people in Canada question my right to various ideology, imagery and symbolism. I’m from Eastern Europe, where we have populations that have a similar belief system as that of the North American aboriginals. My own great-grandmother was a village healer or white witch; though I would not necessarily define myself as “aboriginal”, the issues between traditional beliefs and those imposed by Christianity, colonialism and mass media are of great interest to me. Aboriginal cultures (especially those of Europe) are even less evident in the race/culture debate than African or Asian populations due to the belief they simply no longer exist. There are also many aboriginal people that are now of mixed decent and are facing discrimination from both sides, here O-Mie makes a great point that racism – “It’s not races we fear or judge, it is cultures, and not understanding them”. As exemplified by O-Mie’s quote- there are plenty of cultures and aboriginal peoples of every skin colour, including white as seen in the Sami people of Finland and the Setos of Estonia and Russia. The focus on race as defined by color is faulty to begin with but is even more problematic when groups or individuals do not fall under their socially defined race or culture.

Culturalism: Appropriated

In class we explored the pop culture timeline (Chapter 2 and 3: culturalism) which begins largely with the Victorian era where industrialization and mass production create the climate for the collection of culture. The introduction of human rights movements in the 1950s and later the introduction of the internet, sparked the expansion of social justice movements all over the world. These factors have all created a new social justice phenomenon today: cultural appropriation.  Wikipedia‘s definition is “the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group”, usually that of a minority. This is especially interesting when compared to last week as well when we watched a clip from The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema and Zizak stated “The other is the one who tries to steal our cultural enjoyment”, now Zizek was discussing racism specifically, but the same idea clearly prevails. There is no argument that stealing important or even sacred objects and imagery is wrong; however, many cultures have naturally overlapped in ideologies and traditions due to close proximity and trade which is not accounted for in the colloquial use of this terminology. Globalization has simply accelerated this process significantly and allowed for discussion of even some more taboo subjects of various cultures; this is not always a negative but usually a positive as everyone can learn from world events and problems. However, it is interesting to note that this concern over cultural appropriation, while stemming from good intent and political correctness, now is being used to spread racism (“reverse racism” is in fact just racism) and isolationism or the separation of all cultures and, subsequently, knowledge. It is impossible to undo the effects of globalization or looking back further, colonialism. Are there any solutions to both preserve various cultures and continue their trade today or is there any benefit to attempting isolationist tactics?

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