Orientalist Imaginings - Do they have their Perks?
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To the Western eye, the cultures of the Near and Far East have always been exoticized - these places are seen as far from one’s own full of people who are backwards, dangerous, but at the same time vulnerable unlike Westerners who are modern, rational and “civilized”. The West’s fascination with all things Oriental could be advantageous for all those that are perceived as such, if they choose to act according to the White gaze. This can be seen in Vivek Bald’s piece, where he talks about Black men in the segregated South passing as Indians by choosing to perform Indianness for the White gaze, selling “exotic Oriental” garments to unsuspecting White tourists enamoured by South Asia. This way, these Black men were not only able to make a living for themselves but also navigate life in the segregated South, especially when it came to physically traversing and moving about. But this relief was short lived, as when the turbans came off, they went back to being Black men, subject to all the discrimination that came with living in an anti-black society. Thus this embrace of Orientalism comes with a trade off - one can choose to live off the White gaze, succeed economically and make a name for oneself, but be beholden to dehumanizing stereotypes about yourself and your culture, or you can choose to challenge the system but struggle immensely while doing so.
The video for Batalvi makes a case for when orientalist rhetoric can be spun on its head to create something that is just for the marginalized audience. Batalvi appears to have all the elements of an Orientalist fever dream - with women dancing in traditional clothes, men on the streets with guns, and unknown to the white audience, completely unrelated Perso-arabic letters as “subtitles”. This music video probably seeks to subvert the Orientalist image, and create somewhat of an inside joke unbeknownst to the the White western audience.
In conclusion, since we are living in a White supremacist society where the dignity of people of colour is determined by how much they are worth to White people, playing up Orientalist stereotypes to win favourable treatment comes at the cost of reducing oneself to do so. But refusing to do so could spell further discrimination by means of exclusion and active violence.