The existence of the West through an Orientalist lens

[safiya_sillah]

From Said’s multiple definitions of Orientalism, I understand it to be an umbrella term for various discourse and academic research and theories surrounding what we know as the “Orient”, as well as more concrete, material evidence of its influence within European/Western/Occidental culture, institutions, and academia. According to Said, the simple fact that this supposed “Other” part of the world is referred to as the “Orient” is Orientalism, since Orientalism is considered “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) “the Occident”” (2). Through the Orientalist lens, the European identity and culture has been solidified due to the strongly established distinction between the East and the West, or the “Orient” and the “Occident”, however I find that Muñoz’s ideas relating to disidentification and white being considered as “lack” further solidifies this notion (Muñoz). That is to say that Europe would have no culture, nor a stable presence in and as part of the “Occident”, without the existence of the “Orient” and their strongly contrasting existences. I find it interesting that Said argues, through his definitions of Orientalism, that the West is defined by the existence of the “Orient” since it is viewed as the “Other” (lack), but it is simultaneously considered the West’s involvement with or in the Orient, which creates a sort of circular relationship between the two.

In a similar vein, Bald’s recounting of African American men passing as “Hindu” or “East Asian” supports Said’s definition of Orientalism since they were using their assumption or understanding of the “Orient”, at a time when “the stakes of movement across the South’s dividing lines were high”, to their benefit (52). The belief that these African American men could use the stereotypical “politeness, servility, and self-exoticizing airs” of the Bengali peddler validated and accentuated the preconceived ideas that Americans had towards the “East” or the “Orient” (Bald, 52). This ties closely into Said’s definition of Orientalism, such that the African American men passing as “East Asian” were indeed making a statement and arguably restructuring the perception of the “Orient” within the “Occident” based on their own assumptions of it. By doing so, they benefited from Orientalism as the Western ideas and stereotypes surrounding the “East” were perpetuated by African American peddlers and they used the contrast between the two parts of the world to their advantage as it “allowed them greater safety and mobility” when selling their goods in other segregated cities, but only temporarily (Bald, 52).