Working on diversity

Something that caught my attention recently was a new study published addressing ethnic and gender inequalities in the workplace.

The guardian on the -workplace-diversity-study

The study, conducted by David R. Helman and colleagues, aimed to 'help solve the puzzle of why top-level leaders are disproportionately white men'. It hypothesized that a prominent signifier in the gap in power relations could be due to women and ethnic minorities being penalized for diversity-valuing behavior, while white males aren't. 

'We find that this divergent effect results from traditional negative race and sex stereotypes (i.e. lower competence judgments) placed upon diversity-valuing ethnic minority and women leaders. We discuss how our findings extend and enrich the vast literatures on the glass ceiling, tokenism, and workplace discrimination.'

link to the study

I think what is apparent here, is that the traditional negative stereotypes that run through Western discourses and ideologies have real-life effects, not only on an institutional level, but on a personal and individual level. I think one interesting topic is the delegation of work roles in society based on racial profiling. It may seem far fetched, but I believe there is some truth to the assignment of particular roles based on traits associated with stereotypes. I think what often happens is the internalization of stereotypes and perceived traits that one should take on when conforming to a particular stereotype. Racial stereotypes are not the only problem here. Often other stereotypes prescribe certain qualities, worldviews, attributes and behaviors on people, which they may not feel as if they have an option to unsubscribe to.

Another important factor in understanding race relations and inequalities within the work force is colonization. The expectation for indigenous people or ethnic minorities to adapt to Western lifestyles, and adhere to Western values and beliefs is often viewed as a given. Rarely do Westerners question the impact of day-to-day routines, and the conflicts and inequalities that indigenous people have to deal with. 

I think it is important to understand that at the heart of these discrepancies and conflicts within individuals from ethnic minorities, there often lies many cultural differences and approaches to life. The Western emphasis on the individual; a constant strive to succeed, better oneself and become independent, doesn't take into account the importance of the collective consciousness that indigenous cultures value and respect so much. The importance of Whanau, elders, an open community and a focus on holistic wellbeing, which integrates different spiritual and historical elements, often is pushed aside in Western cultures, and people from different cultural backgrounds are expected to just conform to Western ideals.

I think it is important to dissect these issues from cultural perspectives. We should also be encouraging diversity, not only in the workplace, but in all other spheres! 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/25/women-minoriites-penalized-workplace-diversity-study

http://amj.aom.org/content/early/2016/03/03/amj.2014.0538.abstrac

Non-Western Images Presented by Western Media - Chinese as the case

Ok, let's say there is ambivalence for western audience to see the east – “the east is seen as a fascinating realm of the exotic, mystical and seductive”; but, when the western media presenting the east, the eastern elements such as the characters and the traditional ideologies are marginalised.

What I've learnt from the class is the concept of Eurocentrism. It was introduced to be “an approach that takes European/western values, judgements, beliefs, and cultures as normal, natural and ideal”.The word 'middle-east' and 'far-east' are here to represent the central position of Europe. I find it important to be used here is that the white appears to be dominant, not only because of the economic superiority, but also the essentialism. The prejudices to the east are generally exist.

To make connection with media, the prejudices are presented on screen through the centralised western figures and the marginalised Chinese characters. The white appears to be mighty and is considered to be the one who holds the power; while Chinese figures appear to be passive and are waiting to be led by the western protagonists. Examples can be given here – Bingbing Fan in X-men and Bingbing Li in Resident Evil.

From these two figures the audience may observe that although they have got Chinese typical appearance, the characteristics of these figures are highly westernized. An interesting analogy we Chinese use can be given here to describe this kind of being, which is the “Yellow Banana”. Yellow indicates the skin color while the banana represents the white ideologies. Continuing with our analysis, Bingbing Fan and Bingbing Li were invited to join the western science fiction films but only for playing the walking-on roles. The purpose for casting them is to utilize their eastern mysterious beauty to attract the western audience. An evidence for this point is that the western media rarely present Chinese actors. Narratively, the role of these two female characters is simply to help the white main protagonist complete the mission, instead of expressing themselves with their Chinese figures.

Another example could be given as the Disney cartoon character – Mulan.

Even the whole story is originally taken from China and the visual elements are presented to be very traditional, it appears that the core ideologies are changed. The media has the power to change it, to change the intrinsic meanings of Chinese-ness and turn Mulan's characteristics into western style. The original version was designed to promote the necessity of respecting and being filial to one's parents. Instead, the Disney version has turned it to encourage women with the ideologies of being independent, courageous and finally the theme of feminism is brought up. The Disney tried to shape a westernised Mulan from filling in the western ideologies.

Media has the power to construct identities as well as to shape the existing culture by creating media products, for instance, the films. Film can be used as a discursive strategy to express the ideologies. Western media tends to present its own ideologies although they are trying to involve the non-western elements. The result is those elements are edited and transformed to adapt to the western ideologies.

Sources:

https://gracelefay.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/x-men-days-of-future-past-empire-blink.jpg

http://cdn26.us1.fansshare.com/photo/libingbing/li-bingbing-tv-625282206.jpg

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/disneyprincess/images/c/c0/Mulan-mulan-32266732-400-600.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130730210008

#CrimingWhileWhite?

Travelling this weekend, I picked up a copy of Black Mass from the book exchange at a (horrible) hostel in Wellington. Now, I loved this movie, and so did my friend for whom this book is a gift--but we can't deny that it has its problems. Following the life and crime of Whitey Bulger (and a whole parade of other white men), the film is exciting to say the least.

But it points to a more general trend--"Criming While White." You've probably seen this as a hashtag or something similar, and while it deserves its criticism as well, for many white audiences viewing these posts on social media does help to point out the privileges that white (especially young and wealthy) people have when it comes to breaking the law. While there's a huge difference between a cop laughing off your joint and the FBI taking your bribes while you run a violent mob, we're looking at a bigger picture here.

There's a whole slew of these movies out there, too--The Wolf of Wall Street, Madoff, etc.--and others not based on true stories, all focusing on white (male) criminals--and not getting caught. Even those that are eventually brought to "justice" often face minimal consequences (house arrest in your giant mansion isn't quite the punishment I had in mind) and have major motion pictures made about them. This ties into a whole other issue of racially disproportionate prison populations, racist sentencing, etc, But even in media, we see these kinds of protagonists again and again. White criminals are badass, or glamourous, or intelligent, or conniving enough to escape consequence. When people of color commit crimes (or act unethically) on the screen, it's probably a film about gang violence or "true crime" or drugs or maybe even partner violence. (When drugs are used in these white criminal movies, it's usually "fancy" stuff like cocaine, which of course is okay.) Of course, there are movies that don't fit into these categories--but it's definitely a trend to notice.

Cinderella Black: We Want More Black Princess

When we talk about Cinderella, people would hardly think of a black Cinderella, even though there is indeed a black Cinderella existing in 1997 TV show starring by Brandy Norwood. The specific designed black princess Tiana in The Princess and The Frog just came to people’s eyes in 2009, and 7 seven years past, there are no other black princess produced in Disney’s fairytale world. At the meaning time, Elsa and Ana in The Frozen catch people’s eyes and swipe commomers’ attitude of the new time princess. It seems the poor little black princess never came into audience’s mind and already fade off in the real world and fairytale world.

Talk to the Asian princess, there are only a few characters remain similar social and historical statues in Asia in Disney’s history such as Mulan. However, those Asian princess carry other missions rather than be a pure happy ever-after princess: they represent heroism.

We want to see a Disney designed non-white princess living in a fairytale and we indeed expect the encounter of multicultural Disneyland.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Drag Race and Blackness in the Queer Community

With the latest series of RuPaul’s Drag Race now streaming online, many are discussing their latest favourites. For me, I cannot give this show the light of day but it seems impossible to escape in certain communities and, granted, it remains worth thinking about. I give credit to parts of this blog post to friends more devoted to the series than me.

The non-conformity; the extreme 'je ne sais quoi' of the show has created a new niche in reality television and liberated us in some small way of the strict gender performativity and conformativity in society. Its celebration of queerness, satire and sass have helped introduce a new generation to a sub-genre of gay culture that used to be hidden at best and demonised at worst. However, despite its obvious highlights there remains a subtle issue that tends to go uncontested.

In a recent episode the queens were asked to perform in "RuCo’s Empire", a satire of Empire. To bring this "show" to life, the queens brought forth a modicum of black stereotypes: popping of tongues, finger snapping, head shaking and African-American vernacular. This performativity of blackness from non-coloured queens was at best trite and cliché, playing on conventions, or just plain awkward. Problematic issues similar to this are certainly not new to Drag Race. Last year, the segment “She-Male” was removed from the show because of complaints from the trans community, among them former participants of the show.

Issues of intersectionality are often difficult to navigate but in a show that has afforded many drag queens a unique platform for fame, and as an unapologetically gay show, the show deserves to better important issues in society.

Really Sixteen Candles? Really?

The “other”. A key phrase in the lecture on Orientalism defined as deviant, unnatural and strange. In other words anything that exists outside of what is considered normal (Western). And oh boy have I found an example for you. While I do love this hideously 80s movie, I can’t even begin to defend its character, Long Duk Dong…

Here is a short clip of some of his scenes so you get the general idea of the way the only Asian character in the movie is represented:

So basically Long is an exchange student staying with the main character, Samantha’s grandparents. It never mentions where he is actually from which brings up some issues that I will be focusing on in this post. He seems to be Japanese based on his accent and use of Japanese words (“Banzai!), but in this movie he seems to be viewed as basically anyone from anywhere in Asia. For example while he seems Japanese a gong chimes in the background whenever he comes onto the set. While this is obviously racist anyway, it isn’t even from the right country as gongs are Chinese. This pretty much sums up the amount of research the writers bothered to do which we unfortunately see often on the big screen, like the apparent (according to Hollywood) use of the same tools and clothing by every Native American ever.

This crossing of elements from numerous cultures serves to put those characters into the category of the ‘other’. It doesn’t matter that Long Duk Dong speaks Japanese words or that Japanese music plays as he sits at the dinner table and then is introduced into every scene with the chime of a Chinese gong, what matters is that we recognise these things as non-western and so categorise Long into the ‘other’.

Putting Long into this category serves no other purpose than entertainment. Humour is made off of his failure to understand anything going on, his crasy behaviour and the fact that for most of the movie he is just getting super drunk. As is alcohol and women don’t exist in… Wherever he is from. His character literally adds nothing to the plot, other than I guess he drives Samantha to a party at one point. But that drive is also filled with humour based on his strangeness such as him crashing the car, failing to understand a high-five and drink driving.

So basically in Sixteen Candles, the character Long Duk Dong seems to fit the orientalism lecture pretty well. His ‘Otherness’ is used as entertainment to the presumed western audience who find humour in his strange behaviours and inability to fit in to the boundaries of western society. He even seems to defy or act against some western ideologies, for example his extreme promiscuity and drinking habits.

 His character only seems to be there to create a humorous conflict between the North American and Asian identities yet we don’t even know where he is from. His actual nationality seems unimportant to the writers, just the fact that he is different to the American characters.

Still an awesome movie though…

Thanks for reading.

Is Anime Racist?

As a fan of Anime, I find it hard to call Anime racist, however there have been moments within Anime which can be deemed problematic either on purpose or due to a lack of research.

One of the biggest issues non-anime watchers raise with anime is the aesthetics of characters.

Since Anime is a Japanese creation, many assume that Anime characters should emulate Japanese people. However if you look at a cast within anime you will notice a range of bright coloured hair and eyes. This has led to many believe that anime character are trying to emulate Westerns and therefore is racist. The Anime Man, in his video “Is Anime & Manga Racist?” talks about this view of racism within Anime.

The Anime Man explains that character having brightly coloured hair and eyes, is not a way to racially categorise their characters but rather a way to keep production costs down. People of a certain race may share similar features however in individuals, facial features will be different from person to person. Doing that for every character presented in an anime would significantly put up productions costs. So having to change just the colour of hair and eyes is easier than making facial structures.

Despite this justification for why Anime is not racist due to character design, this doesn’t excuse anime for using stereotypes and culture appropriation in with Japan seems superior compared to others.

The use of stereotypes are common in earlier anime in depicting Americans. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a chiseled face is the image that American’s a portrayed as which is feed back to the Japanese.

 An amusing yet barbaric example of the use of stereotypes in anime is the following scene from Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai (Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi) shows a white man dressed as Elves and swearing unnecessary while trying to sell hotdogs.

This sort of portrayal of the white race shows Japanese characters as the civil while the White (mainly American) as wild in an urban setting.

A trope which can be commonly seen in anime is “The foreigner”. This character type is usually a white American male who cannot speak a lick of Japanese in which the characters of the anime try their hand at English to communicate with the foreigner. Communicating with a foreigner is portrayed as difficult and as somewhat a nuisance. However when a Japanese character shows success in communicating with the foreigner, they are praised by their peers. There is no doubt that knowing many languages in powerful but how it is presented in anime has a slight air of conquering another culture.

However not all anime are problematic when it comes to dealing with foreigners or the English language. A recently anime called Free! Iwatobi Swim Club it has an episode where Rin with his friend Haru go to Australia to visit Rin’s host family. It was enlightening to see a close to realistic portrayal of a positive student exchange in a popular anime. Here Rin is able to speak English decently well due to the time he spent in Australia as a youth. The conversation between Rin and his host family consists typical “how have you been these years” without being to be aware that they are speaking English.

While it is hard for anime to drop the trope of ‘the foreigner’ from life of life or parody anime, with examples such as Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, there are able to be Japanese/ Foreigner relations without having one superior over the other.

The 21st Century: Hollywood Racism in New Era

When we talk about America, people will always think about “American dream” “freedom” “equality” or other noble words. It seems that only America is judging our worlds of right or wrong. However, America’s human rights issue is not as good as it looks like. For example, the black rights movement is only decades of history, and the Asian group’s rights movement trend is even worse, At least, for the racial discrimination issue in Hollywood, it is more than serious than the common expect. As the United States as a multicultural country, white people to non-white group ratio is not as high as European countries. But the most money-making actors and actresses’ ratio of white to non-white group is much higher than the real society’s proportion.

In current Hollywood society, the black actors and actress are mostly casted in the action films, and they are not likely to appear in other genres of movies such as romance comedies. They may only play specific roles in specific films. In other word, their choices of playing roles in films are very limited compared to white groups, even in the action movies, the blacks’s choices cannot been fully respect. For example, in the 007 movies series, James Bond casting has changed numerous fitness and handsome white actors, but none of them is a black Bond. From my point of view, Idris Elba in The Wire is a rather outstanding figure to cast as James Bond. His calm and influcial voice and his moving acting is what I expect Bond to be like. If Bond has to be a Scottish white man, apart from the first James Bond actor Sean connery, all other James bond actors exist unclear nationality issue with the real bond. In addition, if we count the white actors playing non-white roles, we could not even conclude them in one page.

In 21^st century, Hollywood are indeed gradually accepting a wider range of multicultural casting for movies, but after a decade past, the progress is still slow. Non-white actors still play substantially to white actors, the blacks are, the Asian’s status are even worse.