idk I kind of live in a bubble but to have a pretty antizionist gentile relative who grew up in a military dictatorship, took place in mass protesting, and also was at the receiving end of anti Asian discrimination from Ashkenazi Jews in her program - something we’ve talked about and had some complex discussions on - just outright say she doesn’t know how safe America is for Jews. It rocked me socked me knocked me over

Hey do you know what is going on with one of the new SuperM song and people being offended because of desi stereotyping or something? I was asleep so. it’s okay if you don’t want to answer!

hi baby, so the performance in question is from this clip. i just wanna say that yday i literally told myself to exercise silence as a form of self care but then you came to me like a revelation and so i can’t not talk about it LMAO

so basically desis on twitter have called the moves cultural appropriation and offensive. but i think we really need to ask ourselves what it means when we say that something is culturally appropriative (this goes back to our kick it conversation)

second, the lines of religious and cultural life are constantly blurred, and the relationship between cultures are also. it gets tricky when you’re in a place like east asia/korea bc even though there’s a sizable christian population there, its cultural memory is rooted in buddhism. someone can’t imply that there’s a firm line between the religious and cultural and a country where people’s great grandparents converted to christianity erases everything cultural that could be tied to buddhism. the relationship between culture/religion is dynamic and can’t be boxed/separated/made into black and white. likewise, the way christianity functions in korea can’t be compared to how we, for example, witness christianity in the united states, of which there are so many kinds even regionally and how it interacts with different american “cultures”/trends/histories

so the argument of trying to separate these two spheres and say that because mark/taemin are christian they somehow get cut from that cultural lineage is. not to be dramatic but how puritanist/radical religious/cultural trends/phenomena even begin

there’s also a question of how much desis are even aware of korean/east asian/seas traditional music. my friend iman (who i was talking to about this to double check myself/validate my onions lmaoooooo) said: “[re: traditional music] i didn’t know that drums are a very big part of it, SIMILAR TO those huge punjabi dhols.” this is also similar to the flute situation going on in the song that people say is desi but like. other cultures including arab, east asian/seas have very similar sounding flute patterns. (let’s not even talk about how many different cultures the “snake charmer” trope is associated with, also including arab). iman again: “like whom amongst these people is well versed in the use of the flute in korean music” LMAO

iman again (listen i got like less than 4 hours of sleep let me plagiarize): “but aside from all that cultures ARE permeable and do borrow from each other and so is it entirely wrong to use desi inspired beats in a song? i mean then you can extend that argument to latin beats or the whole HOST of matters associated with appropriation with black culture. [which we both have talked about is so much more serious because appropriation of black culture is rooted in literal slavery and violence that continues against black people to this day.]

both iman and another friend birjis have argued (and i wholeheartedly agree) that bollywood has been marketed and exported internationally under the umbrella term of “indian culture” and bollywood has diluted a lot of things like bharatanatyam to the point where it has become an aesthetic for bollywood dance culture. and i think it is completely valid to find this wrong but important to note that this is the product of packaging indian culture through the export of bollywood globally and is only one of the things that’s messed up with that industry

i just feel like the performance really blew up to something it probably isn’t, and most importantly, makes it more difficult to distinguish from more serious forms of cultural appropriation. and this might be a controversial take but AS a south asian (really feel like i need to emphasize this) and someone entrenched in diaspora twitter culture (this is such an embarrassing sub genre) desis have the tendency to marginalize/victimize themselves to get a piece of that cake and talk about histories/cultures that they actually know very little about but associate themselves with bc it’s interesting. meanwhile (as birjis talked about last week re: chungha) when there’s any talk about kashmir, violent hindu nationalism, etc. there are just resounding crickets

and again, (this is iman) “a homogenous society’s understanding of culture let alone cultural appropriation is gonna be different than even a desi one”

i think it’s also stupid and dangerous for people to speak up as a “desi community” and slap on a stance like we’re some kind of organization (whereas black people/native americans CAN do this because they share a collective memory of where their appropriation is rooted). so if you’re desi and find it offensive that ten/mark/taemin did this then that’s your prerogative and of course your feelings are valid from whichever personal experiences you have that feel illegitimized through this. but it is not a systemic erasure. so “a white girl wearing a vague native american headdress to coachella [is not akin to this because] people who looked like her actively persecuted indigenous peoples and still do systematically today.” (iman (do you love my citations))

also i sent iman your question and she said “that’s an interesting way to frame the question! what does desi stereotyping mean? and where? for instance you can’t put this and white people doing an apu accent in the same category” (she’s also an academic lmaooooooo) and you also can’t ignore other forms of racism against south asians in east asian cultures like korea (and also. vice versa but we won’t even talk about that rn)