Comedians poke fun at every aspect of life and culture, so it logically follows that those affected by Orientalism write jokes about it. One example is comedian Kumail Nanjiani, who acts in and produces movies and TV shows in addition to being a stand up comedian. Nanjiani grew up in Pakistan, and frequently makes jokes that challenge the media’s assumptions about immigrants and Muslims in general, sometimes to the discomfort of his audiences.
On his comedy album, Nanjiani discusses the version of Call of Duty which has a multiplayer level set in Karachi, Pakistan, where he lived as a child. Aside from the obvious issue of video games consistently portraying Islamic countries as breeding grounds for terrorism and warfare (which Nanjiani does touch on), he was hesitantly excited about playing the game. He hammers in the fact that this game took years and years to produce, and you can see the individual hairs on people’s heads, and you can see their shoelaces bounce when they run, and how he recognizes the specific streets from his home city. But the street signs are in Arabic. Arabic is not the language spoken in Pakistan, their two official languages are Urdu and English. As Nanjiani puts it, “All you had to do was Google ‘Pakistan language’. They were literally like, ‘What language do they speak in Pakistan? I don’t care.’”
While this lack of interest in the accuracy of portrayals of (especially lesser known) Asian countries goes unnoticed by many of us, and many people who played that level in Modern Warfare 2 without noticing the difference between Urdu and Arabic, it obviously does not go unnoticed by those whose cultures are misrepresented. In this particular example, the language mistake is fairly innocuous, but it hurts Pakistanis and only Pakistanis (those misrepresented). By assuming that all Middle Eastern people are the same, Westerners/white people send the message that they don’t care about the the Middle East, its culture, or the individuality of its people. They enjoy the culture, people, and locations as a prop villain or a backdrop for a story, and by using them as such, devalue the people and make them believe that they are valued less by society because a prop villain or backdrop is all that their culture and upbringing is good for.
It’s difficult to correct the images set in place by early Orientalist work that is so ingrained in our society, but creators can do more to check the accuracy of their work, especially when it’s as easy of a fix as a Google search. While it will take a collective effort to reach a solution to the problem of Orientalism, it only takes individual effort to not contribute.
Stunning that such an obvious mistake could evade the meticulous attention of the game designers, except when you consider that, as you said, we've been conditioned to look away from the things that don't match up with our preconceived notions of cultures other than our own. It becomes so hard to break free from mostly because it was so easy to slip into.
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