Week 7: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Those with a Heart Will Take the Bride) - Aditya Chopra

This film is a classic love story with a twist. It comes complete with dreamed romance turned reality, forbidden love/strife, culture, comedy, drama, and of course a fairytale, happy ending. No wonder the film became one of India’s most popular hits. It takes off with the leading woman, Simran, and leading man, Raj, meeting on a trip touring Europe. Initially there is no real spark between the two, in fact they are greatly annoyed by each other. Raj comes off as a “player” who’s a major jokester and immature. Simran is much more in line with following the traditional Indian behavior of woman yet she’s also partially a feminist. They clash continuously until fate brings them to unexpected circumstances forcing them to spend a lot time together. During this time, Simran’s wild side and Raj’s sensitive side come out allowing them to realize they’re a much better match than they would’ve ever expected. By the time the two realize they’ve fallen in love it’s too late, their time together is up. Aware of Simran’s arranged marriage back home, the two part heartbroken.

Soon after, Simran’s dad finds out she’s in love and he moves the whole family back to India in effort to preserve their culture and traditional values. Viewing their American home as temporary, the dad has always longed to one day return to the way of life he once knew in India and a major part of this is keeping the families promised an arranged, traditional Indian wedding. In Simran’s family, the males dominate over familial decisions and the women as a result, as Simran’s mom expresses with heartache, tend to be the ones who sacrifice the most.

Meanwhile, Raj’s charismatic father convinces him to go after his true love no matter what it takes. He tries to pass off as the groom-to-be’s good friend in order to spend time with Simran before the wedding and attempt to win over her family’s approval. Raj will not elope with his love until her dad gives him Simran’s hand in marriage.  In this instance, it can be interpreted that the men have greater authority as Simran’s fate is left amidst her dad’s refusal to bless them and Raj’s refusal to elope, despite Simran’s wishes to break from her handcuffs of tradition. However, it’s difficult to make assumptions using only an outsider perspective because one cannot truly understand the dynamics of unfamiliar cultures. In collectivistic cultures, as many scholars have explained, family can not only be a priority but part of an individual’s personal identity. For this reason, Simran’s relationship and attachment to her tradition can become complicated to understand from a Western background. She may seem to want to break away but deep inside also have a greater wish or need to uphold her family’s values.

Furthermore, despite the male’s having a ruling voice, they are not completely inconsiderate of the women’s desires and age is another major factor. When Simran’s grandmother comes into the picture, the men and Simran’s dad especially show great respect and reverence to her. In fact considering the respect towards all the women, there is a prominent display of appreciation for the women’s hard work in cooking and prepping for the wedding. There is an unstated mutual agreement between the men and women in terms of effort towards the family that can easily be missed or misinterpreted. Eventually, Raj’s true intentions come out and the plotline becomes very messy. A lot of people experience disrespect and some end up in deep emotional and physical pain. In a dramatic ending, Raj boards a train intending to leave back to America defeated but stares Simran’s dad off in the last seconds who is holding Simran back from running to him. He succeeds in transmitting through eyesight the pure love he feels for Simran and just in the nick of time her dad frees her, giving them his blessing. The lovebirds finally unite as Raj desperately pulls Simran onto the moving train and the happily ever after commences.

Question:

It was harder for Raj to receive approval to marry Simran from her father than her mother. This can be due to his deep roots in traditional practices and privileged experience as man blurring his sensitivity towards the women's experience of sacrifice. That said, would it be equally as hard or harder for Raj to get approval from Simran's grandmother, being both a woman and showing great insistence for Simran's arranged marriage?

Audio: Tujhe Dekha Remix - theme song remix (:

http://youtu.be/zz4T6kJF-CI

-Rosario Orta

1. Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda. “When Minorities Migrate: The Racialization of the Japanese Brazilians in Brazil and Japan.” Reader. 

This reading is about the issues concerning the Japanese diaspora living in Brazil as well as Brazilian immigrants living in Japan. Both immigrants have ways of expressing their ethnic identity as well as face certain acts of racism around different communities. Race is mostly determined with physical features such as skin color and in this case, Japanese people are associated with slanted eyes in Brazil. The Japanese moved to Brazil because there was much poverty for agricultural workers in Japan and Brazil was one of the few countries that let them work in their country. Japanese Brazilians in Brazil also called Brazilian nikkeijin are faced with people calling them “japones” based on their eyes and multiple ways of interpreting this is that either Brazilians look down at Japanese people thinking that they may take over their country, or that they are embracing Japanese people by calling them Japanese. It’s similar to how Chicano people call Asian people “chino” although I believe it can be offensive in some people’s views, it’s a cultural thing such as kissing on people’s cheek when meeting someone or having eye contact with people or the language we speak these days. It’s also amazing to some Brazilians actually because some have never seen a Japanese person and are often excited to see some. Brazil even considers Japan to be a first world country and have much respect for that country. Japanese people cannot escape their treatment despite how much of their Brazilian identity they show and prove just because of their face. It’s similar to many countries that associate the importance of skin color where it measures wealth, ethnicity, and more.

Most Brazilians moved to Japan for better opportunities because Japanese jobs paid much more than in Brazil. There, they are forced to learn a new language along with adjusting a new culture. Some Brazilian immigrants have difficulty being there such as sitting in a kneeling stance and eating the food. In fact, some Brazilian immigrants try to retain their culture by speaking Portuguese and dress Brazilian to let others know that they are not Japanese and should not be treated like one.  It’s usually because Japanese people tend to treat everyone the same because they believe if people look Japanese then they are Japanese. Also, those who are mixed race also have trouble with being Japanese if they identify more with their Brazilian culture because Japanese people tend to look down on Japanese people who do not act proper Japanese. It’s like that in most ethnic groups where communities like Vietnamese people tend to look down on Vietnamese people who cannot speak Vietnamese and more.

From this reading, we understand that there is marginalization in other ethnic groups outside of the U.S. and relates to our class on diaspora and globalization. Immigrants are forced to move for financial opportunities and have to adjust to a new lifestyle. They face societal assimilation pressures and stereotypes just like in America and therefore, race and ethnicity is socially constructed  and changes in different countries for different groups.
-Tri-Thien Nguyen Lam

From Youtube. - Forgotten In Japão: Education in the Brazilian Dekasegi Community

Questions:

1. Is it possible to retain one's identity and culture in another country? If so, what ways and methods can one do to retain it? Could you do it?
2. Why aren't there many cases where Americans migrate to another country for better financial opportunities? If there are, what are some examples? Would you do it if you were in financial trouble?

2. Bernard Scott Lucious. “Into the Black Pacific: Testimonies of Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian Displacements.” Displacements.

Lucious introduces the narrative of the "Black Pacific" which he describes as another "counterhegemonic discourse" that calls attention to the narratives of blackness that roots itself in Asian diasporas (122). "Black Pacific" goes beyond "Black Atlantic" (transculturation of African diasporas which can be traced back to the history of the Atlantic slave trade throughout the areas it has affected such as the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and the Americas). It entails the emerging lived-experiences of the Afro-Amerasian, an identity which Lucious describes not exclusively belonging to just "African-American or Asian-American or African Diasporic or Asian Diasporic, but is all of these at once" (122).

He details how the Black Pacific manifests in the interstices of three diasporas. The first diaspora is described to be the blacks who came to serve in the United States army starting in the 1850's. They were sent all over the Asia-Pacific during wars like the Spanish American War, World War II, and the Korean and Vietnam wars. The second diaspora happen to be the "military brides" or "Asian-American immigrant" as a result of the first diaspora's presence in the Asia-Pacific (123). The diaspora is made up of the Asian womyn who pursued affairs with American-military men. They often faced backlash from their families and communities for betraying their race and nation. The third diaspora are the result of the first two. They detail the lives of the children who are a product of black military fathers and mothers whose lives are tied to the Asian Pacific.

Lucious sees "Black Pacific" as a transnational term which is a "concept that signifies cross-cultural exchanges, linkages, or identities that emerge as two or more cultures converge" (123). He aims to recount the narratives of Black resiliency in the Asia-Pacific. He uses testimonies to illustrate the challenges that many Afro-Amerasians faced whilst living in Vietnamese diaspora which concentrating on three important aspects: Black testimony, colorism, and contact zones. Black testimony recognizes the importance of the Black narratives in Vietnam and how the accounts of discrimination faced by man black men and their children contribute to the emergence of  the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian. Colorism is an important factor to recognize, especially in regards to how the Vietnamese community received Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians. Skin color is always taken into account when operating in Vietnam and contributes to the discrimination many darker-skinned Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians. This discrimination based on skin-color can be seen in the displacements it produces which plays out in the contact zones that are within and beyond Vietnam.

The "Black Pacific"which is made up of black histories in Vietnam and the testimonies of Afro-Amerasians presents an "epistemic challenge to the Black Atlantic's dominant discourse on blackness" (151). It reshapes the idea of blackness which can be seen throughout the resiliency of the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasians and their endurance through the many challenges they face due to their complex identity.
-Casey Nguyen

Tran Van Hai is an Afro-Amerasian who started his own family in Vietnam. His story can be found here: http://amerasianvoice.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/tran-van-hai/

Questions:

1. In what ways does the "Black Pacific" pose a challenge to the "Black Atlantic" in terms of defining blackness?
2. What parallels can be seen between the Vietnamese Afro-Amerasian identity and the Vietnamese, African-American identity that finds itself in the diasporas that formed after 1975?