![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatI read somewhere on my flist that this was International Blog Against Racism Week (IBARW). Could have been last week, hard to keep track. Although I've always wondered why just do one week or one day in particular? Why not to do it frequently? Or spontaneously? I spend my working life with schedules and procedures...they annoy me in my personal life, perhaps for that reason?
At any rate, it struck me while I pulled the vacume around my apartment this evening that when people blog against racism or talk about it -- we talk about the negatives. LJ user Rahriah (I think I misspelled that), asked a week ago if anyone knew of any examples of "counterfail" as opposed to "racefail"? She could find hundreds of examples of "fail" but not many of "counterfail" - that is so sad. No wonder people die of high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer...all this negativity that we drill into one another's brains. I think this as I sit with a ice pack around my neck, recuperating from a tough day. Tough week. Tough year. Walking throught this year has felt a bit like trudging through thick muck. One slow footstep at a time.
Below is a list of five - six works that I can think of, off the top of my head, that helped me see a race or culture or ethnic group other than my own in a new and fresh way. That discussed our cultural wars in a positive way and not just a negative one. Painting a complex portrait. Most of them were not seen this year. And while they may not on the surface be viewed as positive, overall they provided a positive message about the ethnicity they were discussing.
These are the rules of the meme, by the way, should you wish to play:
Recommend at least five things, not by you and not by someone from your culture or race but from a race outside of your own that made you perceive that culture in a positive light and rethink race relations.
1. No More Tears Sister - this is a film about a family who left Sri Lanka in exile. They are Native Tamil and Sri Lankan - both races. The film is about two sisters and their relationship and how the cultural and racial conflict in their country has disrupted and hurt and oddly strengthened their family. On the surface this film feels like a tragedy. But it is not, in some respects it is a tribute to the family and the people at the center of the story - who against all odds have managed to stay a family, to maintain even a world away in a different culture, aspects of their own cultural heritage, and have continued to fight to educate others regarding what they themselves experienced but in a positive and nuturing way. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. And it is about how two races can come together in marriage or even two nationalities in the making of a film, and appreciate one another's experiences. A documentary film that I caught at the NY Human Rights Foreign Film Festival (at least I think that was what the festival was called) - it has also been shown on PBS and can I suspect be rented on netflix. If you get the chance to see this film, don't pass it up.
2. Kindred by the late great Octavia Butler...Octavia Butler is a female African-American science fiction writer. I read Kindred about six years ago for a book club. It is one of those books that leaves you forever changed. The book is about a couple, a white man and a black woman - who individually and for separate reasons are pulled back into the Pre-Civil War South. The story is a time-travel tale, but unlike most time-travel tales there are costs. And it is also about slavery and our history, and love. Like No More Tears - on its surface it feels tragic, and it does go into detail about how slavery can destroy a family or a person - but the outcome is positive and it shows us why owning or controlling another is poisonous to our own soul. A complex book with a strong and powerful black heroine at its center.
3. Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - which discusses race and American Political history as well as World Affairs from the perspective of an African-American Man raised by a White Mother in a various cultures.
4. PERSEPOLIS written by a woman from Iran about her life in Iran - the film version. A French film, made in English and French, based on a graphic novel about a woman's upbringing in Iran. Talk about multicultural. The film taught me things about Iran I'd never known - such as the fact that it is Persia not Arab. That it was not always Islamic. And the girl's life in Iran was not all that much different than my own. She struggled with some of the issues and the same fears - a world away.
5. The Kite Runner written by a man from Afghanistan - the book and later the film, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they take you out of yourself and into a culture outside your own. The book is about Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, during it, and after the Talmad took over. Tragic in some respects, inspiring in others...it too is about race and class. And how a man finally rises above his own prejudices.
6. Everybody Hates Chris - a situation comedy focusing on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock growing up in the inner city. Not on any longer. But did survive for about three-four years. It's also an interesting counter-point to The Cosby Show - which was also about a black comedian's family.
The older I get the more I realize that race only serves as a barrier between us if we let it. The world bites and barks and stomps. But sometimes if you whisper, it doesn't. If you let it all wash over you like the tide. Doesn't mean one shouldn't fight...one should, to educate oneself, to keep an open mind. To not give into old assumptions and prejudgments. Not as easy as it sounds...but I've seen signs of encouragement. There are more minority actors and actresses as leads on tv shows now than there had been in the past - the cable explosion has aided that advancement somewhat. Not as many as I'd like, but more than there used to be. And while I still can count on the fingers of one hand the number of minority writers that I've read, they are multiplying. There are presses and imprints that serve solely minority writers - I know I found them in Writer's Market. The world is changing. Slowly. One painfully slow footstep at a time. But I see the changes. The information revolution has helped - we can now talk to people we couldn't before - people who do not live in our own country, city, town or next door within seconds. Total strangers. And often without knowing their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. This I think is a wonderful thing. It challenges stereotypes. Whoever thought the greatest melting pot would end up being inside a computer?
At any rate, it struck me while I pulled the vacume around my apartment this evening that when people blog against racism or talk about it -- we talk about the negatives. LJ user Rahriah (I think I misspelled that), asked a week ago if anyone knew of any examples of "counterfail" as opposed to "racefail"? She could find hundreds of examples of "fail" but not many of "counterfail" - that is so sad. No wonder people die of high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer...all this negativity that we drill into one another's brains. I think this as I sit with a ice pack around my neck, recuperating from a tough day. Tough week. Tough year. Walking throught this year has felt a bit like trudging through thick muck. One slow footstep at a time.
Below is a list of five - six works that I can think of, off the top of my head, that helped me see a race or culture or ethnic group other than my own in a new and fresh way. That discussed our cultural wars in a positive way and not just a negative one. Painting a complex portrait. Most of them were not seen this year. And while they may not on the surface be viewed as positive, overall they provided a positive message about the ethnicity they were discussing.
These are the rules of the meme, by the way, should you wish to play:
Recommend at least five things, not by you and not by someone from your culture or race but from a race outside of your own that made you perceive that culture in a positive light and rethink race relations.
1. No More Tears Sister - this is a film about a family who left Sri Lanka in exile. They are Native Tamil and Sri Lankan - both races. The film is about two sisters and their relationship and how the cultural and racial conflict in their country has disrupted and hurt and oddly strengthened their family. On the surface this film feels like a tragedy. But it is not, in some respects it is a tribute to the family and the people at the center of the story - who against all odds have managed to stay a family, to maintain even a world away in a different culture, aspects of their own cultural heritage, and have continued to fight to educate others regarding what they themselves experienced but in a positive and nuturing way. It is about the triumph of the human spirit. And it is about how two races can come together in marriage or even two nationalities in the making of a film, and appreciate one another's experiences. A documentary film that I caught at the NY Human Rights Foreign Film Festival (at least I think that was what the festival was called) - it has also been shown on PBS and can I suspect be rented on netflix. If you get the chance to see this film, don't pass it up.
2. Kindred by the late great Octavia Butler...Octavia Butler is a female African-American science fiction writer. I read Kindred about six years ago for a book club. It is one of those books that leaves you forever changed. The book is about a couple, a white man and a black woman - who individually and for separate reasons are pulled back into the Pre-Civil War South. The story is a time-travel tale, but unlike most time-travel tales there are costs. And it is also about slavery and our history, and love. Like No More Tears - on its surface it feels tragic, and it does go into detail about how slavery can destroy a family or a person - but the outcome is positive and it shows us why owning or controlling another is poisonous to our own soul. A complex book with a strong and powerful black heroine at its center.
3. Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - which discusses race and American Political history as well as World Affairs from the perspective of an African-American Man raised by a White Mother in a various cultures.
4. PERSEPOLIS written by a woman from Iran about her life in Iran - the film version. A French film, made in English and French, based on a graphic novel about a woman's upbringing in Iran. Talk about multicultural. The film taught me things about Iran I'd never known - such as the fact that it is Persia not Arab. That it was not always Islamic. And the girl's life in Iran was not all that much different than my own. She struggled with some of the issues and the same fears - a world away.
5. The Kite Runner written by a man from Afghanistan - the book and later the film, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they take you out of yourself and into a culture outside your own. The book is about Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, during it, and after the Talmad took over. Tragic in some respects, inspiring in others...it too is about race and class. And how a man finally rises above his own prejudices.
6. Everybody Hates Chris - a situation comedy focusing on the childhood of comedian Chris Rock growing up in the inner city. Not on any longer. But did survive for about three-four years. It's also an interesting counter-point to The Cosby Show - which was also about a black comedian's family.
The older I get the more I realize that race only serves as a barrier between us if we let it. The world bites and barks and stomps. But sometimes if you whisper, it doesn't. If you let it all wash over you like the tide. Doesn't mean one shouldn't fight...one should, to educate oneself, to keep an open mind. To not give into old assumptions and prejudgments. Not as easy as it sounds...but I've seen signs of encouragement. There are more minority actors and actresses as leads on tv shows now than there had been in the past - the cable explosion has aided that advancement somewhat. Not as many as I'd like, but more than there used to be. And while I still can count on the fingers of one hand the number of minority writers that I've read, they are multiplying. There are presses and imprints that serve solely minority writers - I know I found them in Writer's Market. The world is changing. Slowly. One painfully slow footstep at a time. But I see the changes. The information revolution has helped - we can now talk to people we couldn't before - people who do not live in our own country, city, town or next door within seconds. Total strangers. And often without knowing their gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. This I think is a wonderful thing. It challenges stereotypes. Whoever thought the greatest melting pot would end up being inside a computer?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-05 01:30 am (UTC)Also...would agree on the election...while some people voted based on race or gender, most did not. Most voted based on the person and the issues, not on the color of their skin or their gender or ethnicity.
And I think that is a positive thing. Particularly in a country that not too long ago would not allow inter-racial marriage or interracial schools. We've come a long way since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-11 05:29 am (UTC)I read The Kite Runner last year. I found most of the plot developments predictable, but Hosseini really paints a picture of Afghanistan & what it was like for people living there during the changes the country went through over the decades before & after the Soviet invasion. (At first it bothered me that there were so few women characters, but considering what the Taliban did to women, maybe it's just as well....)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 01:01 am (UTC)He wrote a second novel with female characters - but it got mixed reviews and was well, what you say above is more or less proven. Not a pleasant book.
Part of the problem with the publishing world, specifically in the US, is the lack of minorities who get published - who get their voices heard. There are a few who've graced the bestseller lists or you find on the shelves of your local B&N,
but not as many as there should be.
Too many white male writers and not enough of everyone else.;-)