Research Diary

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When preparing for the Coventry event, one thing we tried to avoid was appropriating culture or eating the other which is basically taking advantage of the individuals for pleasure and assuming that they had more experience in life which in turn makes us view them as different.(bell hooks 1992)

Culture was not appropriated when doing this event because although the performers performed for our benefit, we did not take from their culture and make it our own but what we did was let them perform thier act and showcase it to the audience for them to appreciate and learn more about their culture.

Another thing we avoided was stereotyping the individuals that decided to give us their time and one way we did that was through the questions we asked during the interviews. The questions were not based on public perceptions and assumptions, but they were based on how their culture played a role on their performance.

Another thing that we did was the fact that we were diverse with our selection, we had a Portuguese singer, a Nigerian singer, a Chinese band, a Chinese dancer and an Indian dance group. We did not just concentrate on one culture because the whole point of this project was to promote and showcase culture and for that to be established, we needed to have a diversity of culture.

According to bell hooks mass culture is the contemporary location that both publicly declares and perpetuates the idea that there is pleasure to be found in the little acknowledgment and engagement in racial differences. One thing people should understand is who is referred to as “the other” and the other is basically defined as the group of people that may not conform to the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. A term that bell hooks uses on numerous occasions.

When talking about when the white supremacist resists their norms and values by following the other, this does not change anything but what it does in turn is simply showing the white people's dominance over the other due to how they can freely take their culture.

In terms of how mass culture views the other, mass culture views the other as some worth wild and curious, the other can be seen as things such as a commodity, something that can be bought or sold and it can be looked at as a desire and quoting bell hooks, she says “within commodity culture, ethnicity

 

becomes spice, something that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture”.

In conclusion the event went well, the performers came and witnessed their acts showcased to the public for cultural appreciation rather that cultural appropriation.

Clinton Nwaokorie