For a small taste of some of the issues on cinematic portrayal of the "other," check out the trailer for the movie. Note how "exotic" music and dark color is used to signify the "other" aka the 'enemy' aka crowds of angry/poor black people (notice how the music changes when the American soldiers appear). The whole movie is a mess of poor judgment ranging from the subtle to the blatant.
Maybe this leads into a post soon about how the media treats Africa...or maybe I will just direct you here for starters. I am going to bed.
See Also:
Color of Freedom
Freedom Writers
Ballet Requiem
Of Beetles and Angels is a fabulous memoir in which a man talks about his experience of moving from Somalia and being educated in the states. He talked about the persecution he faced among other things. My favorite line was the way his dad would say, "And if you do this, this, and this, then you will be LOST!" He said this over and over again. I loved that line.
ReplyDeleteLooks good! It think he is actually from Ethiopia and was refugee in Sudan. Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteAaargh! It's been so long since I read it. I could have sworn he was from Somalia. Hmmm. I wonder if I heard about another news article about kids from Somalia having difficulties around the same time and just forged the two together? I don't know. Dang, but memory can be so odd. Yeah, but def. check it out. Oh, I came across this book that looks amazing and I'm telling everyone about it. It's called Destined to Witness and it's supposed to be the only account of the Holocaust from a black man's perspective. The story just looks so powerful.
ReplyDeletePost I received via email:
ReplyDelete'"Black Hawk Down" is not a story. It's not fiction. It's the story of how the Somalis reacted to a UN peace-keeping force in Mogadishu. American soldiers were killed by the forces of local warlords while trying to hand out food to starving people. Their job was to free Mogadishu from the control of the few rich, deprave warlords that were allowing their fellow Somalis to starve. Our forces were participating in a humanitarian mission in Africa and were attacked for it. Americans don't hate Somalis. Most people don't know where Somalia is. We didn't invade Somalia. We didn't try to conquer it. They weren't defending their city. Please, please, please, for the love of god, use the intellect that I know you have and make sure you know what you're talking about before you speak.'
The above commentator wishes to remain anonymous.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my post was about the movie itself and its director’s choice of portrayal of Somalia. I am as well informed about the war in Somalia (and the US’s role in it) as my consumption of local news media allows, and although I do have qualms with several US policies towards many countries in Africa, my beef in this post was entirely about the movie itself and was not addressing the actual people and events of the Battle of Mogadishu. Perhaps I didn’t make that clear in the post. I will do so.
This film was hailed for its realism, but I found that in every aspect of its depiction of Somalia (culture, language, appearance etc), it falls far short. It is a common problem with movies, and I want to start the dialogue on this forum about cinematic media and race. I found the movie, and often media in general, to be objectifying, patronizing, and exoticising of those not from the US or Western Europe. There is a tradition in the American media of portraying people from African countries as either pure evil or as in helpless poverty. These critiques are not original ideas, and more information can be found here, here, and here.
As far as the American opinions about Somalis, I simply base my statement on the numerous comments I have heard upon arriving in Columbus. As for not knowing the country’s location…is American ignorance about Somalia supposed to make me feel better about its portrayal in the media? In fact it makes matters worse when people don’t inform themselves of how/where their government is acting and then allow the entertainment media be their source. Yikes!
Hey Katelin,
ReplyDeleteThe links to additional information didn't show up on this post. I'd love to see them.
Just watching and learning. I haven't seen Black Hawk Down but I have heard about the military operations there.
Dang. I hate it when that happens. Thanks for your comment and thanks for letting me know about the links.
ReplyDeleteThese are the ones I had before:
http://best.complex.com/lists/The-50-Most-Racist-Movies/black-hawk-down
http://www.africanevents.com/Essay-RaymondTB-WesternMedia.htm
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Workshop/chavis98.html
http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article108.html
I am sure you might have better ones. These were a quick search. There are more about Black Hawk Down out there (google the title and race/ism/ist), but couldn't find very many that talked about it calmly and without a lot of the anger that results from the pain that some of these movies can cause.
Dang. I hate it when that happens. Thanks for your comment and thanks for letting me know about the links.
ReplyDeleteThese are the ones I had before:
http://best.complex.com/lists/The-50-Most-Racist-Movies/black-hawk-down
http://www.africanevents.com/Essay-RaymondTB-WesternMedia.htm
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Workshop/chavis98.html
http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article108.html
I am sure you might have better ones. These were a quick search. There are more about Black Hawk Down out there (google the title and race/ism/ist), but couldn't find very many that talked about it calmly and without a lot of the anger that results from the pain that some of these movies can cause.
Looks good! It think he is actually from Ethiopia and was refugee in Sudan. Thanks for the recommendation!
ReplyDeleteThe above commentator wishes to remain anonymous.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my post was about the movie itself and its director’s choice of portrayal of Somalia. I am as well informed about the war in Somalia (and the US’s role in it) as my consumption of local news media allows, and although I do have qualms with several US policies towards many countries in Africa, my beef in this post was entirely about the movie itself and was not addressing the actual people and events of the Battle of Mogadishu. Perhaps I didn’t make that clear in the post. I will do so.
This film was hailed for its realism, but I found that in every aspect of its depiction of Somalia (culture, language, appearance etc), it falls far short. It is a common problem with movies, and I want to start the dialogue on this forum about cinematic media and race. I found the movie, and often media in general, to be objectifying, patronizing, and exoticising of those not from the US or Western Europe. There is a tradition in the American media of portraying people from African countries as either pure evil or as in helpless poverty. These critiques are not original ideas, and more information can be found here, here, and here.
As far as the American opinions about Somalis, I simply base my statement on the numerous comments I have heard upon arriving in Columbus. As for not knowing the country’s location…is American ignorance about Somalia supposed to make me feel better about its portrayal in the media? In fact it makes matters worse when people don’t inform themselves of how/where their government is acting and then allow the entertainment media be their source. Yikes!
Dang. I hate it when that happens. Thanks for your comment and thanks for letting me know about the links.
ReplyDeleteThese are the ones I had before:
http://best.complex.com/lists/...
http://www.africanevents.com/E...
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Wo...
http://www.medialit.org/readin...
I am sure you might have better ones. These were a quick search. There are more about Black Hawk Down out there (google the title and race/ism/ist), but couldn't find very many that talked about it calmly and without a lot of the anger that results from the pain that some of these movies can cause.