This week in class, we read the lofty essay "Difference: A Special Third World Women Issue," by Trinh T. Minh-ha. My experience reading this essay was that it is difficult to read and requires a lot of background knowledge to understand its content. The main points of discussion from this reading are tokenism, authenticity, and the idea of the model minority.
Tokenism is a recurring problem as more and more programs are touting how they are inclusive and diverse. Sadly, promoting inclusivity has become trendy in some instances where minorities are used simply for their label. Tokenism is when a small number of people from underrepresented groups are shown within an organization in order to give the appearance of equality within said organization. These are some of the main problems with Diversity & Inclusion committees.
Authenticity was a difficult concept for me to grasp. This is not related to authentic vintage coins or antiques. The term authenticity in this text referred to how many minority cultures are pressured to retain their authentic traditions. This causes problems to arise. One of the biggest issues with this is that it seems to keep minority cultures staged in the past. If people of color are only showing their history, then that means they are not building a representation of their present and future. I feel as though people who only want minorities to act within their authentic cultures, are trying to repress that culture from growing and evolving as all cultures do.
Lastly, the idea of a model minority is so damaging to our current society. The idea of a model minority refers to how minorities who act in ways traditionally acceptable and praised by the majority, are put onto a pedestal for all to emulate. This means that minorities are only being praised for acting like society dictates. Most of the time, this model minority will be vastly difficult to achieve and it undermines the discriminations that people of color face while working up towards a career path or anything of that sort. This idea of a model minority only promotes those who are almost impossible to live up to while ignoring the hardships of minorities to make it seem like great feats are a bare minimum requirement for minorities to prove themselves.
An artwork that both addresses and aims to dismantle these societal structures is Shibboleth I by Doris Salcedo. This is a series of artworks of the installation art shown in Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London. The title of this piece Shibboleth was a word used to determine whether or not a person was part of the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, the Gileadites enemies, were unable to pronounce this word correctly which led to their slaughter in battle. This title of the artwork has major symbolism relating to how damaging cultural segregation is.
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| Shibboleth I by Doris Salcedo, 2007 |
When asked about this artwork, artist Salcedo explained its relationship to addressing cultural issues present in today's society. “The artist stated in 2007 that the crack in Tate Modern’s iconic space reveals a ‘colonial and imperial history [that] has been disregarded, marginalized or simply obliterated ... the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity (quoted in Martin Herbert, The Unilever Series: Doris Salcedo: Shibboleth, exhibition brochure, p.2).”
Overall, this week’s reading was very interesting and enlightening to my understanding of the world and its diverse cultures.
Sources:
Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Difference: "A Special Third World Women Issue," 1986-7
Tate. "'Shibboleth I', Doris Salcedo, 2007." Tate. January 01, 1970. Accessed October 22, 2021. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/salcedo-shibboleth-i-p20334
Hello India
ReplyDeleteI relate I really struggled to understand the author in this reading. There was so much information I was in overload.
I liked how you broke down this idea of cultural authenticity you explained it in a much better way then I tried.
Questions
What does this idea of difference mean to you? I know our reading is titled difference and wondered what you think the author is trying to say? (I am just asking because I am confused by it)
I really do not have any improvements
Veronica, thank you for commenting on my post. I agree this week was a hard read and felt overwhelming. I tried to pay attention during the zoom meeting when we discussed authenticity because it confused me as well. As for your question, I think Difference as the title relates to how difference is a good thing yet people try to capitalize off of different people. Thanks!
DeleteHello India! I really liked your blog. You added a lot of emotion and facts into this whole thing, and that is one of the reasons why I enjoy reading your blogs. You made this entire thing very interesting, and you brought up a lot of good points for your blog. I have nothing for you to improve on. It was great!
ReplyDeleteGlori, thank you for your comment. This week's reading was a hard read but I enjoyed the discussion we had in class about it. I think a lot of these concepts are new to me, so being freshly exposed to what's going on around me has made me slightly emotional. I'm excited about next week's reading. Thank you!
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteExcellent summary of this week's reading. The reading was difficult for me as well, but attending class helped me understand it better. I felt that your blog was well organized gave us the general idea of what this week's reading was about. I also appreciate the art work you chose. Overall, good job.
India,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that this weeks reading was a lofty and difficult one but I think you did a great job of extracting and summarizing some of the key points of the essay. I especially found your description of tokenism as "trendy" to be a spot of representation. It should not be a trend for different organizations and groups to be inclusive, and to that point not even truly inclusive. I also would say that authenticity was a difficult concept for me to grasp at first until I looked at it as being a constructed idea in place to, as you said, "repress" minorities and keep them as inferior. Great job with this tough topic of the week!
-Cayla