Said's orientalism is another case of the West versus the East, but in this case mostly culturally. It's a story of the West's domination of its Other, the East or the "Orient." It's a method of distancing oneself from the Other by generalizing the Orient as a completely contrasting, mysterious, and less-developed culture.
Orientalism is still present today. With immigration as a hot topic at political debates these days, there have been some infamous and terrible stereotypes and generalizations made about Mexicans as well as Muslims. Another prevalent issue today is the cultural appropriation that occurs all too often. It's another practice of generalizing a culture and exploiting an aspect of it for personal use. This is another form of domination by stripping a culture of a significant detail and westernizing it for no real reason.
I hope to one day see a world where orientalism is no longer and issue, but I must admit, that world is hard to imagine.
I like your point about immigration and how huge of an issue it has become. Donald Trump is a perfect example of an ignorant person who follows stereotypes and categorizes people strictly based on how they look or where they are from.
ReplyDelete