Notes from Global Studies Cafe Discussion: Keira, Kat, Gill, Asana, and Nicole (scribe)
Revisiting Stuart Hall on globalization: local and global; old vs. new
OLD
– culture based on exclusion: monarchy privileges the ‘royal blood’; anyone outside the monarchy does not benefit
– Englishness excludes everyone
– the imperial nature of superiority and interacting with others
– royalty created a claim for knowledge and superiority
– the dominant defines the submissive
NEW
– erosion of the nation-state
– postmodern – technological advances = more intense, temporal, fragmented experiences
– weakens the concept of the nation and national boundaries
– McDonald’s – unique in every culture & capitalism HAD to react in order to survive
– capitalism flows THROUGH the local
– there must be some appeal to diversity and specific cultures
– Is there exploitation through this trust?
–> capital is more coercive and manipulative, not as blatantly exploitive
RHETORIC OF ETHNICITY:
“People do not see you the way you see yourself.”
– How is ethnicity defined?
– disassociation of words vs. history vs. usage
The is a blog called Native Appropriations, which critiques the overwhelming presence of incorrectly appropriated Native American clothing, patterns, and imagery in modern mass culture. There is clothing at Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters claiming to have ‘Navajo’ or ‘Cherokee’ prints, and the ‘ethnic’ or ‘tribal’ style has been touted by designers recently. But is apparent that the usage of these terms to market the wild, free spirits of those on the cusp of style has eradicated the history of the Native American culture from which it was formed.
Hall’s definition of ethnicity: the place where one speaks; the expression of the local
– identities are not dug up from the past, it is rediscovered in the present
– traditionally, ethnicity has meant NON-WHITE
– Hall’s definition is not as raced-based; more relational … shared meaning
– How do we describe these things? Ourselves?
(English-ness becomes taken for granted because everything was defined AROUND it)
– How did it evolve that U.S. IS American?
–> Stems from dominance of the new global order?
– the image of what American IS and how we do not all ‘fit’ that image anymore
– every culture has its word for ‘outsider’
– The hybridity of our identities through movement; conceptualizations constantly in flux
“Even the way you speak is accented, so that means you are accented.”
Champions of social justice, equality, Marxist theory, and being citizens of the world.