This essay from bell hooks' book Black Looks: Race and Representation goes into great depth on a number of points, but the main point she makes is that people that fall under the category of "the Other" are considered by white people as something to be consumed. White people want the foods, music, and words of the Other—and to have sex with the Other—but will not un-Other the Other. As bell hooks puts it herself,
"The commodification of Otherness has been so successful because it is offered as a new delight, more intense, more satisfying than normal ways of doing and feeling. Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture."
She is essentially stating that white people do not want to have real human interactions or relationships with people they deem the Other. Instead, they want to consume them, in order to add a sense of "spice," "exoticness," or "experience" to their lives.
In the specific passage you mention, bell hooks writes about commodification of the Other. For a specific example, a film, TV show, piece of theatre, or some other work of art may be marketed to the world as being something wonderful and new because it was created by a minority/person of color, who has given the medium new "spice," new insight with their voice. However, with straight white people in charge (as they often are), that voice is often changed and made less radical or less specific to a cultural narrative in order to pander to more white people. Difference of race is often promoted in order to sell something, but the difference that has been promoted is often erased so that the white people who supposedly wanted said difference will enjoy and consume it. In this sense, the Other and their voice have become a commodity for white people to use as they please.
No comments:
Post a Comment