Said said constant Orientalism, Bald said good Orientalism, and I said Big Dawgs reversing Orientalism

[pinaki_siwach]

The imaginative meaning of Orientalism is a “constant” (Said, 3), because it not only transpired into reality but was forced upon the raw reality. With Orientalism, the issue was not having left some remarks of the West onto the colonies but having to force through restructuring, authorizing, and pressing it on Orients. What was done by the French and British Orients was far from a soft power influence, they wanted to “whitened” our spaces in our homes. This draws a connection to the residential schools, what was done to the natives to fit into this “society” was not a choice but rather oppression. If I were explaining this to my six-year-old niece, I would give her an example of today’s world. We are currently living where cultures are imposing different realities in different spaces but without being coerced about it. If she would like a gelato or a kulfi or a purin for dessert, is her choice without having the pressure to love an apple crumble? I know this example might be dumb but she’ll get it.

I would have never known about the connection of the Black community and Indians if I hadn’t read Bald’s chapter. To answer if Blacks or Brown people could use Orientalism to their advantage would have to do with the specific cases. I think it is only possible in certain geographical spaces, Bald did a great job showing how Blacks could change their identity to get better access and Browns go about their business in a Western country. But it still lingers in my mind how the cities were not in the UK or France where it was celebratory. There was an advantage to an extent but to look at it as a whole, Orientalism has done harm more than good.

This is a great start to talk about the music video, I liked it so much that I have watched it three times by now. In my opinion, it was a masterpiece, I have never watched something like this before and the way the clips are composed is insane. The repetitive use of old movies and the lyrics is a way of showing how to own a space for brown culture in the whitened space. What does it truly take to make a home in whitened space, do we need to prove that we’re better off or we’re even better (we = east). Wait this exactly is happening in the rap culture right now, Big Dawgs by Hanumankind blew up the internet and what the artist is crafting is honestly making a home in a whitened space.