Pop culture bloggings

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.