Week 5

Earlier this week, I read about a very disturbing incident that occurred at USC on The Washington Post the LA Times, and throughout Facebook. As I’m sure most of us have heard, USC Student Body President Rini Sampath was verbally attacked when a fraternity brother shouted a racial slur directed at her while she was walking on the row with her friends.  He shouted “you Indian piece of shit” and proceeded to throw a drink at her. Reading this story made me cringe for numerous reasons, as it is evidence that racism is still very much alive and well. However another part of Rini’s story that really shook me was how people were reacting to the whole situation. On Rini’s Facebook page, she received an outpour of support from family, friends, and peers, which is to be expected. What I did not expect was the amount of backlash that she received in the comments of The Washington Post article. One of the many comments that I stumbled upon mentioned that Rini should “toughen up” because the world is a scary place. First of all, this person is completely missing the point of the entire situation. Regardless of any other conflicts in the world, racial slurs should not be excused because they’re “only words.” Many people also commented that Rini should not be angry because she was elected Student Body President in the first place. I’m sorry, but regardless of her position at this school, the fraternity brother saw her only as a minority and attacked her out of disdain. She even mentioned in her Facebook post that once the rest of the fraternity recognized whom he was yelling at, they made their brother apologize. What if Rini was not the President? Would they have dismissed it? Other comments see this as a publicity stunt on Rini’s behalf as a way to get attention. Rini has acknowledged herself that this is not an isolated situation. Her experience is not any worse than those who have experienced the exact same thing. I just wish people would see that the racial slur thrown at Rini was simply not okay. Even if it was just this one fraternity brother (not representative of the entire student body), it is really important that this story is reaching a massive audience, as opposed to silence from minorities who have suffered in the same way. These stories need to be heard to prevent any further discrimination of minorities, whether they’re Indian, Asian, Black, Hispanic, etc. I don’t see Rini as having a hidden agenda, but I believe that she felt personally attacked, violated, and disgusted, which no human being should ever have to endure. Personally, I have not experienced such an atrocity in my time here at USC, but I feel better knowing that Rini is using her platform to inspire and educate people on an important issue. It could have been me that night- it could have been anyone. 

Week 4 (9/16/15)

     After our lecture about whiteness and racial formation, I had a very long conversation with one of my good friends Karly about how she is perceived as a Mexican-American. With very fair skin, I can see why people might mistake her for being of European descent, but she is most definitely 100% Mexican. When we defined whiteness in class, we discussed it as a racial formation, which produces different racial projects. Karly has experienced whiteness first-hand, without actually having any White blood. She explained to me that being perceived as white has its advantages and disadvantages. On one hand she enjoys white privilege, and on the other, she feels as if her personal experiences in the Mexican culture are devalued by others’ opinions.

            Karly told me several stories about how family and friends have perceived her by looking at her skin tone alone. Since she is the most fair of her family, they automatically assume that she will have the brightest future. In class, we talked about how whiteness is aimed at creating, and contesting, a dominant way of viewing the world, and operating in the world. Since whiteness is “the norm” in society, whites will likely not experience the same struggles as those of other races. They are the leading forces behind the construction of society’s ideals, and thus they displace the Other as abnormal. In Karly’s case, her family has been led to believe that being white will get her way farther in life, a concept that makes Karly really disappointed. Her family remarks about how lucky she is as opposed to her brother who is darker, despite the fact that their skin tones have nothing to with their skill and individuality.

            When Karly is mistaken for White a person by her peers, she often gets mixed reactions when she reveals her true ethnicity. Karly told me that most of her friends joke and call her a “white-washed” Mexican because of the color of her skin and her interests, which she understandably takes offense to because she is extremely proud of her Mexican heritage and partakes in many aspects of the culture.
     In another encounter, Karly became pretty good friends with a boy from her class who thought that she was 100% White.  When he finally learned that she is Mexican, out of shock he remarked, “there’s no way you can be Mexican, Mexicans are disgusting.” Shortly after, they were no longer friends because he did not want to be associated with a Mexican. Clearly, the fairness of one’s skin hold so much power that it affects how one sees the world as a whole. People who are not white are reduced to their bodies alone and are simply viewed as another race. Those who appear White or those who are White, are represented in all other social categories besides race. Even with a Mexican background, Karly is subject to white privilege and the backlash that comes with it. However, she is also scrutinized for being truly Mexican (her true self), which is wrong on so many levels.

Week 3 (9/12/15)

This week in class we talked about Josephine Baker and fetishism, which reminded me of a fairly recent Huffington Post interview featuring Sanaa Lathan that I read a couple weeks ago. Her film “The Perfect Guy” was released on September 11, but during the promotional period, she touched on the lack of diversity in Hollywood films. Since the beginning of Hollywood films, Black actors, although popular, were depicted as out of the ordinary and animal-like. They were never considered normal, but rather romanticized and fetishized.

Although much progress has been made regarding the lack of diversity in film, Hollywood still appears to be missing the point. It seems as if their versions of diversity are for the sake of being diverse and making the statement that they are open-minded. It is meant to give these Hollywood executives a better image, but the main motivation should be to eliminate the concept of the Other. We should be welcoming people of all different backgrounds in films because of their talent and ability to entertain, not because they make the product more diverse. Sanaa Lathan perfectly summed up this point when she remarked, “"I think Hollywood has a ways to go. Certainly in the last couple of years with 'Think Like A Man' and even recently with 'Straight Outta Compton' doing well," she said. “But I think the language needs to change, the language about ‘Oh, this is an Urban film or this is a niche film.' No, these are Hollywood films. And it's to marginalize us because it's like some kind of a freak thing that we’ve made all this money off this movie. That’s a problem for me.”

Instead of looking at films featuring Black actors as “Black movies” they should simply be viewed as Hollywood films. By categorizing movies featuring black actors, Hollywood is completely misunderstanding the meaning of diversity. People of all races are willing to watch these movies, and their numbers at the box office prove that people of all backgrounds are enjoying the film for its art and content. We need to reevaluate what it means to be diverse and give all races the same level of recognition.

Week 2 (9/5/15)

Before beginning COMM 458, I had never taken a course that was dedicated mostly to race and ethnicity.  Other classes that introduced race in the media often analyzed the statistics behind the unequal representation of minorities, but they never really got me thinking about my own identity. After the first two weeks of class, I have realized that I’m actually very confused about my own race and ethnicity. This weekend, I went home to my parents (I live fairly close) and I told them about this class and how it made me question my racial identity.
My entire life, I have been conditioned to say that I’m “Indian” because that’s the easiest way to describe it, but I know that my identity is much more complex.  After talking to my parents, I noticed many similarities of their experiences to those in the Vinay Harpalani article that we read. Both of my parents were born outside of the United States, my dad in Pakistan and my mom in Guyana. My dad has identified as Pakistani his entire life while my mom says that she is Indian. When people ask about our family as a whole, my parents will say that we are Indian to make it simple. While my mom’s dad is fully Indian, her mom is Portuguese and White. On my dad’s side, his entire family was born in Pakistan, and he explained to me that our ancestors were Punjabi, which is why they just say Indian when Americans ask about ethnicity. The problem is, when people ask me what I am and I tell them Indian, they automatically assume my parents were born in India, I follow Hinduism, do not eat meat, and speak another language. In actuality, my parents were born in different countries, are strictly Christian, eat meat, and speak mostly English. My brother and I were born in New York, thus my family lives a very so-called “American” lifestyle where we cook a variety of different foods, listen to American music, and even though my dad sometimes speaks Urdu with my grandma, he never taught us the language. In many ways I feel disconnected with the South Asian culture that I’m supposed to be affiliated with, but with the way I was raised, I cannot help it.

I have found that both American students and international South Asian students expect much more from looking at me, but I can never measure up to their expectations. My mom told me a story about how she was at work the other day and a White co-worker asked about her ethnicity. Ever since she told him she is Indian, he has been teasing her with an Indian accent, mocking the Indian culture. She corrects him by saying that she was not actually born in India, does not speak Hindu, and therefore would have never adapted the accent, but he continues his disrespectful behavior because it’s “funny.” In my personal experience, I’ve had many situations where I felt that I had to explain my background so that people would not stereotype me. I was eating lunch with two of my Asian-American friends and they introduced me to one of their other friends named George. After formally introducing ourselves, the first thing George asks me is, “so are you friends with all the Indians?” Knowing my complicated background, my friends were quick to jump at him and say, “hey she’s not even Indian, and she’s mixed with Pakistani, what are you trying to say?” At that point, I felt very lost because considering how mixed I am, people are still subjecting me to a single group. As a result, when people ask me what I am, I tell them American with a Pakistani, Indian, Portuguese, and White background. An Indian person might say, “oh so you’re basically Indian” while an American usually just finds me interesting… At the end of the day, I just hope that we can find a way to distinguish one’s race and ethnicity without categorizing and stereotyping. I am left confused about what box I should check, but for now it remains “Other.”