Someone actually said that we should be grateful to the almighty american Selena Gomez because she’s “accepting of our culture”. Why should we be grateful? We don’t owe you gratitude or anything else. We don’t need you to approve of our culture and traditions. Indian culture is used at the advantage of American media only when its advantageous to them - and otherwise left to be belittled when it serves them.
And now we should be grateful? Why is it that when Indian women wear the bindi - and not the pretty, dainty, sparkly thing, but the “big red dot” that is so commonly mocked by people in the West - it’s an absurd thing, but the moment an American popstar rocks something that doesn’t belong to her - it’s suddenly okay, cool, exotic, ethnic, tribal, sexy. They want some parts of India - the parts that are deemed acceptable by Western society, but they want to leave the other parts out that are too ‘ethnic’ for them, such as turbans, or the Sikh khanda. You want the pretty little tidbits of India yet you don’t want Sikhs to have a khanda with them at school?
They want that Middle Eastern feel so their songs can sell, while at the same time there on the news is ongoing racism towards people of ‘brown’ ethnicity, South Asians, Middle Easterners, North Africans. ‘Brown’ culture is being applauded on one side while at the exact same time being highly frowned upon (past the point of verbal racism) for being terroristic and violent. They want that third world country feel when it serves them advantageously while at the same time they mock and hate it.
(via faineemae)
