Life is All a Performance
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After 9/11 Gay American Desis found themselves marginalized due to both their sexuality and ethnicity (168). Performing “Americanness” became a way to navigate America after 9/11, this was often expressed through homonormativity (174). Brown bodies were labeled as foreign and queer, making it necessary to suppress their sexuality to navigate survival in a hostile society (169). This performance of homonormativity, though, had the ability to further isolate Gay Americans Desis, reinforcing LGBTQ+ acceptance as a symbol of national progress and modernity, but only for those who conform (183).
A similar dynamic is reflected in the comments of one of my classmates in another course. She pointed out how the September & October protests and counter-protests often constructed a narrative where foreign, Muslim bodies were framed as “fascists,” “homophobic,” and “backwards.” She emphasized that neither group involved in these protests benefit from the government’s actions, and both identities are being leveraged for political purposes. Reflecting on this week's reading, I connected her observations to the application of homonationalism in these protests. This framing further isolates and alienates individuals, particularly gay Muslim children, who exist at the intersection of these identities, and are rendered invisible.
Cultural Blackness is the adoption of aesthetics, style, language, and practices associated with Black (African American) communities. One way of performing cultural Blackness is through sports, like Basketball. We see this method of performance in Thangaraj's The Turban Is Not a Hat. As Thangaraj notes, participating in and co-opting components of Black culture does not equate to actual support for the Black community (381). Thangaraj writes of how this performance of Blackness, also “serves to produce alternative conceptions of ‘American-ness’ inflected by Black cultural style but, in their domain, performed through South Asian American sensibilities” (378). This performance of Blackness, in my own opinion, can also be seen as a performance of masculinity. While African Americans are stereotyped as “all brawn”, (376) and hyper masculine, and athletic (382), South Asian Americans are often stereotyped as “all brains” (376) and " non-threatening and passive " (382). Performing Blackness then becomes a way to perform masculinity. Extending this thought, I start to think of how all expressions of gender are simply a performance….
In Canada, the idea of cultural Blackness in Black communities raises unique questions. While some Black Canadians trace their roots to Loyalists, formerly enslaved Americans, or Caribbean immigrants, groups with their cultural traditions and shared historical connection to the transatlantic slave trade, the majority of recent Black immigrants are from Africa. This makes me wonder how do Black Canadians of African descent perform cultural Blackness, and how can it even be defined? I am assuming that African Americans are considered the model, but can a distinctly Canadian idea of Blackness exist? Also, I am interested as to how Black Canadians of African descent perform their Blackness in a country that often erases Black history and contributions to sustain a myth that systemic racism doesn’t exist...
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