[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: use of culture (Re: ADVERTISING)
On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, rhys daily wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Aug 2002, Sherry Johnson wrote:
> > using (and/or abusing) African-American culture to look "cool"
>
> how come it's only black culture that you're interested in? what about
> chinese/japanese or indian (feather or dot) or the latin culture - all
> of which are used to look/make something cool.
And don't forget the use/abuse of minority ethnic groups like, oh, the
Irish (e.g., Lucky Charms cereal -- how much of the proceeds from cereals
like this really goes to support Irish culture, anyway? ;) ). Celtic
culture has been used to make things look cool for *years*. :)
There was a decent British comedy a short while back called _Maybe Baby_,
starring Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson as a couple who are trying to
conceive; Laurie's character works at the BBC or a movie studio or some
such place, and he often has to deal with an attitude-driven Scottish film
director who keeps saying things like, "God, I hate the English."
Laurie's character's best friend and co-worker happens to be black, and it
occurred to me that the Scottish character was playing the same role in
this film that black people often play in American movies; they are put
there just to say how crazy the majority culture is. The fact that
Laurie's character's best friend is black is never commented upon -- the
film is colour-blind, there -- but the film *does* keep drawing our
attention to the friction between the English and the Scots.
Jumping topics a bit, y'all may be aware that the current Archbishop of
Wales was recently appointed head of the Anglican Church, and that English
evangelicals raised a bit of a fuss when this Christian authority figure
was recently made an "honorary white druid" in a ceremony held by a
210-year-old organization devoted to the promotion of Welsh culture (past
members include Richard Burton and the late Queen Mother; the people who
run this group insist that there is nothing religious about it). Every
time I hear this story, and every time I hear the Archbishop and others
complain about how condescending the English are to the Welsh, my mind
keeps going back to that scene in one of the _Blackadder Goes Forth_
episodes, where Stephen Fry barks, "She's not WELSH, is she!?"
Okay, okay, far too much set-up for far too little pay-off, there ...
--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/
References: