Blogging against White Supremacy: A hodge podge of sorts

I really wanted to post something about "blogging against white supremacy" earlier- but have been a little busy, and I've also been debating about what to blog about, considering how wonderful the posts at Yolanda's and elsewhere have been, I just didn't know what to contribute. Anyways, today is a good a day as any to post about this, last time I checked white supremacy was still rearing it's ugly head all over the place.

Originally, I wanted to post about my experiences with racism in "La Belle Province", Quebec, in response to this report in which 59% of Quebecers proudly declare that they are racist (report coincidentally released on MLK's 78th Birthday). It's one thing to say 'everyone is slightly racist', it's another to declare that you are one. Considering that I lived for more than a few years in a small predominantly anglophone town in Quebec, i thought my experiences would be timely for both blogging purposes and as a response to the report.

But, alas, the heavy hand of Germaine Greer has incited me to blog about something I never thought I would blog about - "Bollywood" (or in this case a Bollywood celebrity). I am specifically using the Shilpa Shetty example because a) it's a micro-level analysis that has macro-level implications and vice-versa b) because it's timely c) I was already gonna post about white-supremacy.

I must also first explain why I dislike Bollywood by linking to an excellent "How to read Bollywood" guide here. This is a fabulous resource and if anyone has a similar "Hollywood Literacy guide" site available please post it in the comments.

On with the show:

So this horrible show called "Big Brother" has this huge cast of washed up has-beens, and amongst this list is actually, quite oddly - a not so washed up, not has-been, Shilpa Shetty. You see, even before Shilpa Shetty vocalized her experiences with racism on the set of Big Brother, I was really scratching my head why an A-list Bollywood celebrity (and that too, someone as glamorous as Shetty) would even want to participate in a reality show of all things. It's like putting Julia Roberts or Charlize Theron on Big Brother, it just doesn't make sense.

But then of course neither of those two would ever subject themselves to such humiliation for a measily $600K, whereas in Rs. that's quite a lot. Also, as Indian fetish rises in the "West" someone like Shetty might use this as a 'launching pad of sorts' for a non-bollywood career - as she points out here.

Granted Shetty is kind of full of herself, but seriously which A-list celebrity isn't? But when someone, who I'm starting to believe has it out for "Pakis", Germaine Greer really ought to reconsider what she says here before she goes around peddling the idea that "Shetty brought this upon herself", get this - by being "annoying". Read, "annoying" means 'not being able to come up with actual reasons why Shetty is being hated". Can't fathom why Britons would treat Ms. Shetty as a second-class citizen Ms. Greer???? Here's a clue - could it be about White Supremacy and the feelings of entitlement facilitated by being a co-conspiring imperialist nation, maybe?

So this is where my post is going to get 'messy' because my thoughts are all over the place and I'm really just going to have to put them in point form.

What is "white supremacy," really?

Well, let's say as a general rule it's feeling a sense of superiority to POC and therefore that you as a white PERSON (male or female) deserve more than people of colour. How does white supremacy manifest itself?

At the Macro-level:
- in trade policies
- free trade agreements
- "development" strategies (including 'population control', 'pollution control' strategies only enforced on developing nations)
- immigration laws
- deportation laws
- barriers to education
- geopolitical divisions both externally and within White Imperialist Countries, aka 'the West'
- 'cultural' imperialism and that includeth the sacared TV (we the enlightened west and you are the backwards 'rest')
- allocation of resources
- distribution of wealth and a global economic system of domination that does not factor in colonial asset accumulation (both externally and internally)
- labour laws both externally and internally (if women are the sex class, POC - all POC, are the 'service class')
- entitlement to the natural resources of POC lands (externally and internally)
- brute force (torture and violence)
- exoticization/devaluation of POC cultures
- 'ownership' and 'objectification' of POC bodies (from the slave trade to sex trafficking, slave trafficking, use of illegal immigrant labour)
- technocracy
- delusions of meritocracy
- militarism
- the legacy of colonialism and it's newer manifestations of 'imperialism'
etc....

At the micro-level white supremacy manifests itself as (and this is where I draw in the Shetty fiasco):

A: By the Supremacist: (To get the full weight of the interactions of the BB household, take a look at the youtube vids in which Shetty stars)
- Reaping the benefits of all of the above
- insert a tonne of psycho-social benefits as well.
- entitlement to harass, intimidate and ridicule a WOC because she is 'below you'. (would the primarily white women of the BB house harass and intimidate a MOC in the same way?)
- always questioning the other vs. learning about/from the other, believing mainstream sources of information vs. POC lived experience.
- identifying individual POC's strictly on the basis of their 'race' vs. their individuality. (for ex; in one episode one woman says she won't be giving a present to the "Indian" - as though Shetty doesn't have a name)
- believing and acting on the ideologies that POC are backward culturally and financially, therefore they should be eternally indebted to white people for whatever they recieve (Shetty claims someone in BB told her 'to go back to the slums').
- accepting POC labour as a 'given' AND ridiculing POC at their 'inability' to 'properly' perform such labour. (a cooking example follows below). Because POC labour is 'worth less' than 'hardworking white people's labour'.
- treating POC's needs as invisible.
- Claiming cultural 'relativism' when things are and often should be about simple human decency, an example follows below. (POC seldom do this without 'legitimate' reason).
-etc...

B: On the POC (and yes, there are many similarities here with other oppressed peoples and of course WOMEN as a group): In this short 1:43 seconds Shetty unintentionally says everything and more (Edited to add: this video was intended as a promotional video to introduce the UK audience to the BB cast, but the funny thing is - it entails a lot of forsight on Shetty's part)..


- feelings of always having to work a lot harder to prove the samething that a white person has accomplished. Shetty says so when she says, "Even if I was a maid-servant I'd want to be the best one". Before you say "that could be any individual", contextualize this into the fact that she says so FOR the BB audience, not for an Indian one.
- carrying the weight of your entire race with you - because you are not an individual you are your race. Shetty again says "I'm representing Indian culture". Um, last I checked there were over 2 million South Asians in the UK (the largest population of south asians diaspora), haven't they already done enough representing? No - cause our 'work is never done'.
- the above leads into having to qualify the behaviours of your less than 'perfect' counterparts. Like why do 'pakis' breed so much, why do they bargain for cheaper shoes, why do they eat/sit/drink/shit/clean their shit/talk the way they do?
- Comparing yourself to the "STANDARD" i.e the white standard, because you know like White people are normal. Shetty says so when she has to 'identify with whiteness' - i.e. "I'm like the Angelina Jolie of Bollywood", you can see the clear look of discomfort as she winces when she says that too, but tries to laugh it off.
(I know someone out there is going to say - well, it's only because everyone, knows who Angelina Jolie is - and of course I would say - "why does everyone know who Angelina Jolie is?").
- Having to consistently prove your credentials. Shetty talks about how special she is and how she has an entourage - cause it's almost as if she KNOWS that being in a household with a bunch of washed up white folk who are half as good looking as you, means you're going to be treated like trash.
- Wanting a piece of the pie. Really, is there anything wrong with this? No.
- Showcasing your culture and trying to get rid of derogatory stereotypes. In one episode Shetty cooks (her service) some Indian 'curry' for the house. After one woman gets 'grossed' out by it (rule #1: eat the curry - don't live with the curry-maker) - Shetty is hurt and tries to talk it over with a friend. Of course his advice is "You're a world apart"... Shetty realizes that asking for 'equal rights' is asking for too much.

Oddly enough Greer acts like the the 'grossed out' white woman at Shetty's cooking because supposedly "Shilpa likes to be seen cooking. She looks utterly virtuous while she is doing it,". You know cause Germaine - women are always 'virtuous' when they are in domestic servitude - right?... I guess the mommy wars are over now, dang those Filipina nannies are just going to have to get "real jobs" now.

This list can go on and on....

To further her argument, Greer does a huge disservice to all feminists, she pulls out the biggest faux-pas, the 'sex-class' trumps the 'service-class' card: " But it's a funny old world, to be sure. You can call her a "dog". Sexism is fine. What you mustn't do is call her a "Paki". As if to be Pakistani was to be worse than being a dog. Our very tenderness on this issue is the flip side of racism, and still part of the same coin."

If I haven't said it before - I'll say it now: I can't peel away the skin off my genitals. So there it is - when people call Shetty 'a dog' it's only because she's a WOC, not because 'she's being insulted as a woman' but because she is being insulted as a WOC. Explicitly they could have called 'Shetty' a "Paki-dog", would that have been clearer to you Ms. Greer? And how do you not get that saying "Paki" is almost like saying the "n-word"? It's not the same as saying "aussie" anyday. Or do you not see how the "n-word" is offensive when used to refer to a colonized peoples?

This isn't the first time Ms. Greer's had it out for the "Pakis", she once accused Monica Ali of being too much of a 'half-breed' to "authentically" (whatever that means) write about the experiences of the Bangladeshi diaspora.

It's fine when Memoirs of a Geisha (written by a white american guy 'who on a whim can channel his inner Japanese Geisha') sells a zillion copies and re-sells it again in movie-form, but all hell breaks loose when a WOC writes about anything - she must be put in her place, who is she to take ownership of speaking on behalf of the experiences of other WOC? What could she possibly know?

See Ms. Greer, no WOC needs lessons from you on how to 'identify' racism, we know very well what it is - and you as a WHITE FEMINIST (TM) just really ought to be the one taking notes for fuck sakes. Now go on and write for a bunch of pornstubating mantellectuals at Penthouse please. Or better yet, you could continue with taking photos to facilitate a paedophile's wet-dream, like you did in volume 1. You know cuz, taking half-nekkid photos of young boys is really like turning tables on the menz. *rolls eyes*.

The long-standing tradition of how WOC are never believed about anything continues (Greer's example is just a tiny little micron of it), ironically the one thing that is consistent between the Duke rape case, Greer's vision of Shetty and Mineko Iwasaki (the woman 'behind' Memoirs of a Geisha), is the predominant belief that the only reason WOC ever say anything is because they're really the 'vilest of whores' who can be 'bought off' with a quick payment because really that's their main aspiration. Cause you know when we say something - it's only for 'the attention' or the money and therefore our concerns are not 'as legitimate'.

More than 30,000 people have written to Channel 4 complaining about racism, Tony Blair and the Indian parliament have weighed in on this but Germaine Greer sees it fit to 'blame the victim'. The truth is - if white supremacy exposes itself at the micro-level to someone as 'important' as Shetty - how can England keep perpetuating illusions of multi-cultural 'meritocracy' and still reap the rewards of POC labour at the macro-level.

This 'Paki' is out for now, Shubhratri Greer Memsahib.