A non-rhetorical question from Planet Grenada:
What is the difference between a white person in blackface and Sascha Baron Cohen, the English/Jewish comedian behind the characters of Borat and Ali G who presumably come from Muslim cultural backgrounds? (Borat is from Kazakhstan). I have a gut reaction but I'm really not trying to be rhetorical. That's an actual question. Does Sascha Cohen cross the line which seperates edgy and conscious cultural representation from a minstrel show?
What is the difference between a white person in blackface and Sascha Baron Cohen, the English/Jewish comedian behind the characters of Borat and Ali G who presumably come from Muslim cultural backgrounds? (Borat is from Kazakhstan). I have a gut reaction but I'm really not trying to be rhetorical. That's an actual question. Does Sascha Cohen cross the line which seperates edgy and conscious cultural representation from a minstrel show?
2 comments:
my thoughts on sacha baron cohen exactly. he is playing on some "talent" at impersonations and his "exotic" Jewish looks to create these characters. Though if someone were to do such a thing, say, a non-Jew making such a character of a Jew, or a non-black of a black, Sacha would be booed as a racist bigot. He is capitalizing on the fact that certain racism against certain ethno-religious groups does not set off alarm bells in the minds of the mainstream public. Though his characters are quite sinisterly built on reductive, extremely offensive racist stereotypes.
very well put lucky fatima!
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