Kominas and Yancy
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In 2015, Maher Khalil, a Palestinian American, was almost denied access to a flight in Philadelphia because other passengers were uncomfortable with him speaking Arabic. Opening the song with Khalil’s story, The Kominas emphasize the absurdity and injustice of racial profiling.
In the music video “4 white guys,” the band members appear playing tennis as a satirical commentary on privilege, power, and race. But why Tennis? As I interpreted it, tennis is often associated with upper-class and predominantly white spaces. Kominas, by placing themselves in this “elite” setting, the band questions, “Who has access to such spaces and why?” With this, they are critiquing racial stereotypes and the concept of “whiteness” as a social construct.
I pondered quite some time on the Kominas question, and it wasn’t until I read “Look, a White!” by George Yancy that this specific question finally cleared up to me. In my interpretation, the credits did not show their real names because, according to Yancy, “apparently, only whites have that wonderful capacity to live anonymously, thoughtlessly, to be ordinary qua human, to go unmarked and unnamed—in essence, to be white. They are like Clint Eastwood’s white stock characters in his Western shoot-’em-up movies who come into town nameless and mysterious. Indeed, Eastwood’s central character is the man with no name. This is the portrayal of white liberalism, perhaps at its best.” (p.4). In this statement, Yancy addresses how whiteness comes with the privilege of being anonymous or unmarked, meaning white people in this society can exist without having to be questioned constantly for their race. On the other hand, people of color are more often than not, defined by this, unable to move with the same anonymity through life as a white person. By not revealing their real names, Kominas is challenging the notion that whiteness is the only identity that can exist without a label, claiming the same space of anonymity and universality white people have always had.
Last but not least, the pizza thing at the end of the video, in my opinion, represents Western culture. Specifically referring to how minority or immigrant cultures are expected to blend into this dominant culture. Pizza represents the pressure these communities feel to “fit in” and adopt these elements of Western culture. “It Will Kill Us All” reflects how forced assimilation can be dangerous. The pressure to conform and suppress one’s cultural identity can lead to the loss of individuality and heritage. It represents the erasure of unique identities and homogenization of diverse cultures.