Film Analysis— “I Don’t Want to be Like Them”: Queer Worldmaking & Positvie Self-Determination in Wanuri Kahiu’s ‘Rafiki’

Smith College: FYS 165: Childhood in African Lit and Media — Professor Katwiwa Mule — Dec. 18th, 2024

Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki=Friend (2018) is a uniquely positivist queer narrative that offers its audiences new ways to see themselves in media. The movie is based on the short story “Jumbala Tree” by Monica Arac de Nyeko and depicts the growing relationship between the protagonist, Kena, and her love interest, Kena. The girls live in the “Slopes,” a fictional reimagining of Nairobi’s urban neighborhoods and a narrative shift from the Nakawa Housing Estates of Uganda in the original short story. Throughout the film, Kena and Ziki struggle to reconcile their growing feelings toward each other and their desires for more than what traditionalist society offers them. Wanuri’s “Afrobubblegum” style also reflects the girls' non-traditionalism, rejoicing in the vibrancy and joyfulness of African identity. Wanuri ultimately refuses to depict Rafiki through the heteronormative gaze of queer otherness, offering moments where the Kena and Ziki create supportive spaces for themselves to engage in queer worldbuilding. These spaces allow Kena and Ziki self-determination, the ability to form their identities on their own terms, and safety outside of their lives under an oppressive heterosexist society. Rafiki subverts normative depictions of young queer love through its aversion to the dominant heteronormative lens, ultimately offering new ways of imagining queer worlds in the process. By providing spaces for both the characters and audience members to explore homosexuality through a lens of self-determination, the film utilizes the fictional urban landscape of the Slopes to acknowledge the contextual frameworks of intersectional identities while simultaneously utilizing its normalized lens to offer spaces for self-determination and internal exploration outside of dominant oppressive social norms.

While Rafiki depicts a realistic Nairobi by illustrating the rampant bigotry and prejudices present, the narrative does not dwell on the homophobia the couple faces in insolation; instead, it places it within a more complex social context. By avoiding approaching the narrative from a singular focus on homophobia, Wanuri crafts a realistic African setting that acknowledges the nuanced intersectionality of its characters. The film’s contextual framework treats homophobia as an essential element through its casual inclusion and underlying presence in the characters’ interactions. In one of the first scenes in the film, Kena meets with some of her friends at Mama Atim’s café to chat and play cards. The get-together goes well until one of Kena’s friends calls another patron a faggot, expressing, “Do you think God is just watching two men fuck each other?” (Rafiki 00:05:20), before leaving the table. While the event is a blatant example of homophobia, the narrative does not attempt to reconcile with it. Instead, the characters continue their lives, ultimately not heavily considering the interaction or its implications. The general response to the event reflects reality in Kenya, where homophobia is frequent and seemingly innocuous. Homophobia remains embedded in society as a core tenet, and the brief outbursts of bigotry one sees in the film are simply manifestations of a more fundamental issue that underlies social structures. By normalizing instances of prejudice, Wanuri provides a nuanced depiction of African life concerning queerness. In Rafiki, Ziki and Kena do not wrestle with homophobia directly throughout the film. Rather, they struggle with its implicated presence in dominant society and their attempts for self-determination outside of conformity. By placing homophobia into the general culture, Wanuri normalizes the girls’ experiences by expanding their pursuit of liberation and self-determination beyond mere homosexuality.

Furthermore, on the few occasions where Wanuri depicts heteronormative relationships, they take on an exploitative and unfavorable tone, pointing to their limitations in producing tangible joy as they remain implicated in fundamentally oppressive and unequal systems. The heterosexual relationships in Rafiki do not function as spaces encouraging positive self-determination. They cannot escape from the other social issues they are tied to and, therefore, cease to procure environments capable of expansive imaginings. Kena’s friend, Blacksta, is a particularly stark example of the limitations of heteronormativity. He works in the boda-boda trade, a symbol of “outlaw masculinity,” where “operators maneuver their way through traffic jams and road barriers, squeezing past pedestrians on curbs and sidewalks, endangering passersby, their own passengers, and themselves” (Githire 28). He is sexually licentious, paying girls for favors and treating them terribly. He particularly indicates his chauvinistic tendencies through his relationship with Mama Atim’s daughter, whom he pays to sleep with, and continually condescends in his pursuit of Kena for the rest of the film. While Blacksta’s insistent search for a wife indicates he is attempting to pursue self-determination or social uplift, his relationships do not offer the possibility of reimagining spaces without oppressive limitations. Instead, they reinforce patriarchal ideas of domination and aggression. Because Blacksta cannot think outside of dominant norms that encourage the subjugation of disenfranchised community members including Kena and Ziki, he cannot imagine a world with tangible liberation or joy. Instead, he serves as a manifestation of the inherent constraints that exist in a heteronormative society. A society Kena and Ziki wish to free themselves from completely and thus imagine a joyful future beyond.

Blacksta’s actions point to a broader theme in the film where dominant heteronormative culture is not only excluded from Ziki and Kena’s spaces of joy and queer worldmaking, but it also cannot conceptualize them as it has no reason to look beyond its current systems or ideas. While Christianity and other dominant ideologies assert homosexuality and queerness as sinful, other characters do not view Kena and Ziki's behavior through a queer lens, which ultimately protects them. When Kena and Ziki first start meeting, they face pushback from their families and friends because of their father’s competing political campaigns and not because of their burgeoning queer desires. Their families are respectful when Kena and Ziki bring the other home, indicating that they assume the friendship is platonic. Interestingly, Kena’s mother, Mercy, is excited to invite Ziki over as it opens possibilities of social uplift for her. When Ziki and Kena return from shopping and Kena tries on a dress, Mercy focuses on her daughter’s unusual gender expression conformity and the excitement of Ziki’s presence, not the girl’s growing attraction for each other (Rafiki 00:45:38). The scene also points to Mercy’s attempts for liberation and social uplift, which, similarly to Blacksta, only exist within the dominant and heteronormative paradigm. Mercy, along with every other character in the film, “shares in characters’ keenly expressed desire to transcend the limitations of their current circumstances” (Githire 22) but can only view the world through the dominant restrictive and normative lens. This dominant lens, which only offers liberation through an inherently restrictive system, fails to consider the possibilities of other options, excluding them from queer spaces of worldmaking and protecting Ziki and Kena from attacks by conformist society. Thus, dominant structures keep characters in the Slopes within their systems and unable to reach queer utopic spaces, providing a level of protection for Ziki and Kena and a space for them to explore themselves outside of a restrictive society. 

The film not only refuses to use homophobia or heteronormativity merely as a plot point, but it also uses these social issues to consistently return to the joyous world Kena and Ziki create for themselves outside of embedded social inequities. While the film embeds social stigmas and homophobia as givens, it does not constrict Kena or Ziki’s abilities to imagine themselves outside of these dogmas. Vitally, Kena first meets Ziki right after her friend’s outburst of homophobia. The scene contains no dialogue or backing music, merely a series of jump cuts between Kena and Ziki staring at each other (Rafiki 00:05:50). The scene ultimately creates a feeling of queer, “utopian longing” (Johnstone 46), for viewers, serving as one of the first moments to establish the idea of queer worldmaking outside of oppressive mainstream culture. By cutting out background noise and lingering on the characters staring at each other, Wanuri produces an artificial space that reflects to the audience the genuine container felt between Ziki and Kena. This scene eventually becomes vital in contextualizing future interactions between Ziki and Kena, where a queer world exists between them, separate from the conformist spaces they occupy, but remains subtle and often unarticulated. Thus, homophobia throughout the film does not serve as a narrative tool but as a socially embedded contrasting element. By only touching briefly on moments of homophobia to contextualize the story, Wanuri ensures the narrative remains focused on positivist and utopian imaginings of queerness, supporting her goal of depicting vibrant and joyful Africans.

Arak de Nyeko’s choice to have “Jumbala Tree” take place in an urban area, and Wanuri’s choice to maintain this in Rafiki by creating the fictional Slopes, emphasizes the characters wrestling with dominant society and the different backgrounds people bring into the Slopes. The urbanism of both settings forces characters to live in closer quarters and interact with one another consistently. Urban settings provide a distinct social landscape as they contain both the spaces to interact with diverse sets of people and the most blatant indications of social issues and injustices. As Githire argues, “…the urban space provides a unique stage for multiple constructions and performances of identity. At the same time, the city is the site where resource deprivation and other forms of exclusion are most glaringly apparent” (10). By placing Kena and Ziki in an urban setting, Wanuri offers the characters an opportunity to interface with each other and find belonging through their shared burgeoning queer identities and outside of other stratifying issues such as gender and class. Kena and Ziki, coming from vastly different backgrounds, likely would not have met without the intimate urban setting they exist within. Yet it is their differing respective backgrounds that ultimately strengthen Wanuri’s concept of Afrobubblegum and queer worldmaking as a whole. Both girls carry distinct burdens because of their positions in traditional society, but when placed in the other’s orbit, their traditional expectations change as they share their hopes and dreams. Thus, it becomes easier for Ziki and Kena to imagine a world separate from normative life when they are together. The socially diverse nature of Wanuri’s Slopes naturally creates an intersectional lens that ensures girls such as Kena and Ziki, who are very different from each other, can meet and develop relationships on terms that do not align with dominant norms through the proximity it situates its subjects in.

The significance of the Slopes as a setting for Rafiki also impacts Kena and Ziki’s ability to explore their queerness as it provides the anonymity necessary for safety. Because of the diversity and vibrancy of urban life, the Slopes feature ambiguous spaces, such as nightclubs, that offer opportunities for patrons to engage with various forms of unconventionality. These spaces are unknown to or ignored by conventional oppressive society and its surrounding laws, encouraging the flourishing of queer life (Ombagi 109). When Kena and Ziki go on a date to the night clubs they are especially uninhibited, free to express their attraction without the fear of violence or social estrangement (Wanuri 00:29:50). While Ziki and Kena can generally avoid raising suspicions under the dominant lens of heteronormativity, they remain restricted in their ability to showcase or experience queer love in public. In contrast, the ambiguity of the Slope’s nightlife allows them to uniquely explore their burgeoning queer identities without the scrutinizing lens of heterosexist society. Nightclubs provide a sense of community through the proximity of patrons (Ombagi 114), offering a brief utopic vision of what a thriving and explicit queer life in Africa could eventually mean. Such nightlife necessitates thriving diversity from urbanity to maintain its vibrancy and anonymity, indicating the significance of placing Kena and Ziki in a city. By situating the narrative in an urban setting with ambigious queer spaces such as nightclubs, Wanuri further opens the door for utopic queer worldmaking, offering the characters opportunities into spaces that can celebrate diversity and encourage uplifting queer exploration.

More fundamentally, but keeping in the same vein of queer ambiguity, the narrative does not feel the need to overly articulate Ziki and Kena’s growing feelings for each other, allowing them subjecthood outside of dominant heteronormative language. One pertinent element of Rafiki is the lack of dialogue, particularly in Kena and Ziki’s shared scenes. The film often shows the two of them together with a backing soundtrack or uses brief lines of dialogue to highlight an implicitly suggested point (Rafiki 00:18:24). By separating the girl’s relationship from the explicitness of articulation, Wanuri avoids the implicated systems of control and domination that language remains entangled in. There is also a discourse around homosexuality and colonization present. By including both English and Swahili, Wanuri critiques the homophobia embedded in both African and colonial languages, subverting the idea that homosexuality is un-African. The name of the film, Rafiki, further indicates this idea of subverting language surrounding dominant and oppressive cultures. Rafiki, which means friend in the Swahili language, does not typically invoke romantic connotations. However, there is no reason to suggest that it could not also refer to queer relationships. By naming the film Rafiki, Wanuri disrupts dominant systems of imagining through language, offering a queer-coded lens of words with limited historical meanings. Thus, Wanuri avoids some of the pitfalls of attempting to depict queer love and coming of age through the language of oppressive culture, choosing instead to subvert, in the case of the title, or reject, in the absence of dialogue, traditional connotations. In doing this, she crafts a narrative that separates morality from homosexuality and offers Kena and Ziki opportunities to develop their identities through nonconformist terms. 

Throughout Rafiki, Ziki remains playful and carefree, demonstrating Wanuri’s Afrobubblgum aesthetic and subverting the normative roles of African women in the process. In one of the first scenes, Wanuri depicts Ziki dancing in public, her vibrant dreadlocks and fluid movements contrasting the hard and cold urban setting around her (Rafiki 00:11:50). Ziki’s choice to have vibrant hair and lipstick serves as an early visual cue of her unencumbered nature and commitment to breaking free from the arbitrary limitation’s society thrusts upon her. Another vital moment occurs when Ziki apologizes to Kena for her friends pulling down Kena’s father’s campaign posters (Rafiki 00:16:25). This moment is significant, not only because it is Ziki and Kena’s first interaction but also because by reaching out and taking accountability for her friend’s behavior, Ziki opens the possibility for a relationship based on new, empathetic, and intentional terms. “This apology, given on behalf of others, forms a radical compact of vulnerability and generosity that signals a transformative openness that alters both Ziki and Kena in ways neither could previously envision” (Sterling 117). Ziki is bold enough to step outside of the normative practice of ignoring the issue, creating a strong foundation for Kena and Ziki to explore who they are and ultimately develop positive senses of self. This commitment to nonconformity does not always work out perfectly for Ziki, as she bears the brunt of her father’s fury and the mob’s attack when the couple experience a hate crime later in the movie. Despite these instances of violent homophobia, Ziki remains steadfast in her pursuit of joy and continues to imagine a queer utopic future for herself and Kena. Ziki’s tenacity is another example of the film's refusal to portray queer love in a negative or othering light and speaks to her fight for self-determination in an oppressive society.

Similarly, despite her more withholding personality, Kena develops a sense of playfulness and originality through her interactions with Ziki. Kena is generally more reserved than Ziki as she shoulders certain burdens regarding class and her parents' dynamic, yet even in the earliest scenes, Kena shows signs of nonconformity. Her choice to wear androgynous clothing and engage in the stereotypically masculine pastime of skateboarding distances her from other girls in the Slopes (Rafiki 00:01:13). Kena also illustrates her ambiguousness around gender through her friend group, who are primarily other stereotypically masculine men. Her affinity for male friends indicates that Kena possibly relates to them more than other, more traditionally feminine, girls. Once Kena meets Ziki and they make a pact to embrace their shared nonconformist ideals, her rebellion grows and transforms into a tangible ideological stance and confidence in her self-worth. When Kena stumbles upon Mama Atim in the hospital, she remains unbothered by Mama Atim’s homophobic vitriol, stating, “If you need help, just turn and press the bell” (Wanuri, 01:15:34). Kena, through her time with Ziki, finally understands that her inherent worth is not attached to her ability to conform to dominant society. Kena also chooses to meet up with Ziki again, despite society’s insistence that it is sinful, once again acting on her own terms and imagining a world where she and Ziki can thrive. Kena’s character arc is hugely positivist regarding self-determination, as she comes to understand herself outside of the oppressive systems she lives under and is, therefore, capable of maintaining her joyful outlook on queer possibility. “…the pain Kena has withstood to love freely and define herself on her own terms does not override the joy and hope she’s learned from her relationship with Ziki” (Sterling 117). Thus, Kena and Ziki’s time together offers a meaningful reimagining of how relationships, especially queer ones, can serve as positive spaces for developing a sense of self as they push beyond the arbitrary boundaries of heteronormative attraction.

The structure of Rafiki naturally contrasts heteronormative culture and queer worlds. It refuses to emphasize homophobia, sexism, or any prejudice that discriminates against an “other,” choosing instead to celebrate the thriving interior world of queerness and self-determination. The film takes on an intersectional approach, situating the characters' pursuit of liberation and joy within the many complexities of gender, class, and sexuality in society. It points to ways characters around Ziki and Kena accept dominant oppressive ideas in their pursuit of desires but are ultimately restricted as society fails to procure liberation without limitations. Blacksta and Mercy showcase futile attempts for liberation, as, despite attempting to procure joy for themselves throughout the film, they remain trapped within restrictive normative social systems. In contrast, Ziki and Kena reject the other characters' complacency, embracing queerness and nonconformity, not only within the context of sexuality but also around questions of identity and self-determination more broadly. Both characters already carry nonconformist ideologies, including Kena’s androgynous expression and Ziki’s playfulness, but it is not until they meet each other that a sense of belonging and support occurs. Their relationship is a space of queer worldbuilding as the girls unpack internalized negativist ideas of who they are and imagine their lives without limitation. Thus, many of the examples of queer worldbuilding within Rafiki coincide with the pursuit of positive personal consciousness as the girls attempt to develop internal self-worth in a social environment that criticizes their fundamental identities. However, their time together is successful in creating a sense of self-worth, as one sees in Kena’s self-assured interaction with Mama Atim, and the positivist, although slightly ambiguous, ending offers viewers a chance to positively interpret how their relationship might continue to foster queer worldmaking and internal consciousness, even if on a small scale. Wanuri’s insistence on portraying Kena and Ziki’s love story through a normalizing lens ultimately offers the characters a chance to exist outside of their oppression, which in turn allows for the blossoming of queer worldmaking and the development of positive self-determination.

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Work Cited

Githire, Njeri. “Looking Back, Reeling Forward: Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki.” Black Camera, vol. 14, no. 1, 2022, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/861197.

Johnstone, Lyn. “Queer Worldmaking in Wanuri Kahiu’s Film Rafiki.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, vol. 33, no. 1, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2020.1816931.

Ombagi, Eddie. “Nairobi Is a Shot of Whiskey.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, vol. 31, no. 1, p. 2019.

Rafiki = Friend. Directed by Kahiu Wanuri, 2018.

Sterling, Kyéra. “Review of Rafiki, by Wanuri Kahiu.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 9, no. 1, 2022, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/862886.

Political Analysis— W.E.B. Du Bois & the Importance of Self Determination in Politics

Smith College: GOV 100-01: Introduction to Political Thinking — Professor Kye Barker — Dec. 18th, 2024

In his collection of essays, Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil (1999), W.E.B. Du Bois offers insights into the questions of how social climates limit the African Americans' ability to fully achieve self-development or self-determination and the impacts this has on the effectiveness of the United States democratic system. Du Bois takes an approach that differs from many of his colleagues in that he provides a circular account that notes the connective nature of social climates and political systems. Throughout the book, he makes the argument that racist policy and ongoing disenfranchisement of Black Americans in the United States are manifestations of a foundational belief of White superiority, suggesting that society must address social stratification to achieve a legitimate democracy that equally acknowledges the concerns of all citizens and works to address them. Du Bois ultimately argues for education that fosters children’s talents and industrial democracies that equitably service their laborers as possible solutions to racial subjugation. However, the comprehensive nature of arbitrary racist systems embeds itself in all aspects of African American's lives, including academic arenas and the workplace, making positive self-determination and equitable systems nearly impossible for Black Americans. Du Bois argues that socialization undermines African Americans’ ability to craft positive self-determination and stunts their innate talents. Furthermore, the possible solutions of legitimate education or industrial democracy are ultimately also corrupted by social climate, which compromises what Du Bois believes to be a genuinely democratic system.

As Du Bois argues, the education African Americans receive, both formal and informal, does not encourage them to pursue self-determination; instead, it reinforces social prejudices and stunts Black children’s development, perpetuating arbitrary ideas of Black inferiority. Society around the African American child functions off their othering and repeated assertion of inferiority. Yet African American children do not understand this dynamic in their early youth and must be taught it over time. Du Bois notes the realization of his otherness in The Shadow of Years stating, “…very gradually I found myself assuming quite placidly that I was different from other children” (Du Bois 6). He expresses that his conception of his otherness from other children was not initially negative but as he grew older, he slowly began to realize that “some folks… even several, actually considered [his] brown skin a misfortune [and] … even thought it a crime” (6). While Du Bois’s upbringing in a relatively homogenous White community sheltered him from some early conceptions of otherness, his early adult life was marked by continuous realizations of the extent of racism and its oftentimes violent implications in American society. Du Bois describes Black Americans continued attempts to gain personhood and methods for self-determination despite societies’ assertion of their inferiority. Poor access to education (124), exclusion from labor unions (80), and racial violence (54), are examples Du Bois uses to emphasize the struggles for self-determination Black Americans faced. Society functions off the tenet that Black Americans are inferior to White Americans, and it impacts the very structure of all social systems, ultimately barring African Americans from being able to ever truly reach self-determination or full development, at least in a society similarly occupied by self-assured White individuals. Du Bois ultimately offers an education that only seeks to support the child in fostering their unique and innate qualities as solutions to Black inferiority but argues education itself has also become entrenched in arbitrary systems of race. Therefore, American society fails to support Black development and consequently undermines its ostensibly democratic structure by compromising the personhood of some of its citizens.

While Du Bois offers legitimate education within the classroom as a possible solution to support children in developing the abilities to achieve self-determination, social prejudices pervert educational opportunities for Black and White youth, undermining education and corroding American democracy. Du Bois believes in the importance of educating children as they represent a future without present limitations. He notes the “wide sweep of infinite possibility which the child represents” (119), and that “the child mind has what [the] tired soul may have lost faith in, —the Power and the Glory” (120). Children can imagine worlds beyond the social issues present in their upbringing and ultimately inherit the world left to them by previous generations. Therefore, it rests upon formal education systems to foster the development of all children so that they can approach issues with their unique talents and skills. However, Du Bois ultimately argues that the lack of funding and deep inequality in access to formal education for students compromises African American student’s abilities to reach full development and effectively serve the world. He argues that education largely fails to support youth in their journeys into adulthood because the world “has established education first as a means of buttressing the established order of things rather than improving it” (121). Because the world functions from an arbitrary system of racism which he explores in a previous chapter, “The Souls of White Folk,” African American students bear the brunt of an education system that is underfunded in favor of more immediate and seemingly significant issues. Thus, while formal education is generally undervalued, African American students are particularly limited in their abilities to complete self-development as the education system reflects a racist ideology embedded in dominant societal thinking. The disparity in access to education prevents a large portion of children from possibly ever serving the world through their talents or viewing themselves as full citizens. Thus, true democracy is undermined by the limitations placed upon African American children in their pursuit of self-determination through formal education.

Exclusion from education forces many African Americans into labor jobs where their inherent rights as people are further undermined, and the possibilities for equality under industrial democracy disappear. Because society functions from the assumption of Black subservience, African Americans are often relegated to occupations that reinforce social structures, which usually include service work and manual labor. While these occupations do not necessarily represent the highest crafting of a person’s talent, Du Bois maintains that industrial democracy, which promotes the full development of all, can exist within labor groups but fails to as White laborers grow anxious about their proximity to the “lowly status” of their Black counterparts and thus “…red anger flame[s] in the hearts of white workers” (53). Theoretically, industrial or service work provides unique opportunities for burgeoning democracies as Black and White laborers share in their struggles for rights and generally poor work conditions. However, Du Bois notes that fostering solidarity across race lines does not actually occur when men are in harsh conditions. Instead, divides across race only strengthen as competition for resources within a finite and monopolizing system grows increasingly prevalent (57). White laborers, generally unable to change the distribution of resources, scapegoat African American laborers as threats or causes of their poor conditions. Yet even when White laborers recognize their entrenchment in capitalistic systems and form unions, they exclude Black laborers and prevent them from getting a say or articulating their humanity (80). Thus, the possibility for African Americans, who are relegated to poorly regarded forms of labor, is further reduced by the proliferated and socially internalized belief of their inferiority that infects spaces where there should be comradery and the shared pursuit of democracy across race lines. The possibilities for self-determination for Black laborers, and, in turn, industrial democracy remained plagued by society’s obsession with Whiteness. This obsession prevents African Americans from ever fully fostering their self-determination and fundamentally undermines the possibility of the United States ever having a functioning and legitimate democracy.

To Du Bois, the United States does not function as a genuine democracy as a large portion of the population, African Americans, are not fully considered people. Because of the embedded nature of White superiority in social climates, most African American children are taught they are inferior before they learn to conceptualize themselves outside of problematic social structures. The proliferation of arbitrary social hierarchies that are often unintentionally, although occasionally intentionally, taught to children makes it nearly impossible for African Americans to view themselves as complete human beings. To Du Bois, it is the absence of humanity afforded to Black Americans that undermines democracy, for if a portion of the population is not viewed as full citizens, both internally and externally, then attempts for them to participate in political systems are ultimately futile. Du Bois offers two possible solutions to the issue of Black self-determination through legitimate education and industrial democracy but ultimately acknowledges that these ideas only function if individuals can truly understand the breadth of racism and actively work to subvert it. Successful subversion is rare as those in a capitalist system who hold the most power wish to enforce exploitative systems that maintain White supremacy. Thus, Dus Bois argues that for genuine democracy to prevail, social climates that propagate racist ideologies must be destroyed, or at least removed from education and the workplace, to encourage positive self-determination.

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Work Cited

Du Bois, W. E. B. Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. Dover Publications, 1999.

Object Analysis— Distorted Fragments: William Kentridge’s ‘What Will Come (Has Already Come)’ as a Critique of the Impacts of Film in Global Industrialization

Smith College: ARH 110-02: Art and Its Histories — Professor Cat Dawson — Dec. 16th, 2024 

What Will Come (Has Already Come) (2007) is a multimedia installation created by the South African artist William Kentridge in response to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The piece depicts Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia through a dynamic charcoal animation. Through his use of distorted film, Kentridge enters a unique dialogue with historical genocides and the industrial machines utilized by fascists to make such events possible. The pertinence of industry in Mussolini’s fascist regime is ultimately vital in interpreting What Will Come, as it manifests itself in the film's depictions and the work’s inherent design. Film itself exists due to industrial innovations, which further complicates the piece as it critiques technological industry and machinery on-screen but simultaneously relies on it to exist in the first place. What Will Come's references to its implicated state in propagandistic film and industry are critiqued by the distortive and projective effects of the work. Thus, What Will Come utilizes the fragmentary and distorted nature of animation and charcoal to consider a continuous cycle of racial violence and exploitation via industrialization in tandem with a critique of audience complacency. 

In What Will Come, Kentridge projects charcoal animation onto a cylindrical mirror on a circular table. The mirror reflects the film onto the table below but distorts it, transforming the already unnerving images into barely recognizable forms. Vitally, the mirror’s surface area is small, encouraging the viewer to engage with the larger and arguably more distorted projections that spin around the table below. This subtle directive is also partially a result of angled projection, which creates an effect akin to anamorphism, as the viewer cannot watch the film projected onto the mirror from any angle other than above it. In What Will Come, anamorphism necessitates an acknowledgment of the film on the cylinder and the warped projections on the table below. Additionally, the film rotates around the mirror and projects onto the table below, similarly to a carousel of film. Moving in time with the notably nationalistic soundtrack “Faccetta Nera,” created by Renato Micheli and Mario Ruccione, the film undulates and bounces, creating an upbeat and nostalgic tone that contradicts the violent animations.

 A paramount factor in Mussolini’s genocide in Ethiopia was the rising industrialization and mechanization at the time, impacting not only the immediate subject matter in Kentridge’s work but also the larger contexts surrounding innovation that he seeks to critique. Mussolini executed developments in industrialism through pure military force in much of East Africa. Developments in war technology, including the introduction of widespread bombing, poisoning, and killing, were particularly severe in Ethiopia, where Mussolini developed, altered, and tested many military weapons. The rising industrial obsession in Italy after the fallout of World War I heavily motivated Mussolini’s invasion as it ensured adequate support behind the regime, serving as a transitional moment in the public’s opinion towards technology and war machinery. While this pivot allowed for many crucial innovations it also caused exploitation in Ethiopia as positivist feelings towards industrial progress attached themselves to fascist ideas. Kentridge heavily engages with these issues in What Will Come, particularly through his use of film, a direct product of industry. Thus, to truly engage in the rich nuance of What Will Come, it is paramount to understand the historical context of Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia. 

Kentridge showcases several literal manifestations of exploding war technologies within the animation itself, specifically through the depiction of air strikes and contrasting elements to highlight the severity of the invasion. The animation itself opens with a single fly buzzing around the canvas. However, as the film progresses, the fly morphs into several different flying machines, which drop bombs or decimate the Ethiopian landscape he depicts. The fly’s transformation reads either as a corruption by fascist powers or a method to contrast Italy’s military might with Ethiopia’s. Flies in Ethiopia carry terrible disease and are, similarly to Mussolini’s war machinery, capable of killing thousands. A fly also makes buzzing sounds akin to a warplane, drawing parallels between the ominous meanings of a fly and a warplane. Kentridge’s choice to parallel the plane and fly ultimately serves to create a contextual link for Black Ethiopians, who likely had never seen warplanes before and therefore had no reason to fear them [1]. The parallel also points to how vastly overpowered Black Ethiopians were as flies are much easier to manage than war machinery. Mussolini was largely successful in his occupation due to Italy’s disproportionate power, effectively exploiting Ethiopia’s lack of resources to further his agenda around the possibilities of industrial progress. Thus, What Will Come points to several tangible emotional implications of exploding industrial fixations through literal depictions of brutality and contrasting metaphorical devices such as the fly. 

Yet Kentridge’s work does not solely deal with the violent implications of industrialization in a literal sense. It also sits within the tension of its existence as a technological process. Film and photography emerged directly out of rising industrialization and quickly became tools, not only in furthering industrial adoration but often in promoting propagandistic and nationalistic ideals similarly found in Mussolini’s regime [2]. Susan Sontag particularly argues this in “In Plato’s Cave,” where she cites photography as a fragmented and inherently intrusive act [3]. Film cannot exist in a space of singular truth as it is always a curation. Instead, film is a truth, often told with an ulterior agenda. In the case of Mussolini, film existed as a direct extension of the colonial machine as a means to glorify genocide and improve Italy’s public image [4]. Understanding the power of film, Mussolini quickly harnessed it to curate a narrative of the violence occurring throughout much of Africa at the time. What Will Come feels self-aware as it actively plays into these facets of film and media. The soundtrack that backs the latter half of the animation, once Italy’s invasion commences, strengthens a propagandistic tone reminiscent of the films used by fascist Italy to encourage support of the invasion. This tone is particularly notable, even growing in intensity, when the film backs Kentridge’s violent depictions of air strikes and military machinery. Thus, What Will Come exists within the tensions of creating a film depicting the violent implications of industrialization through technologies developed by the same movement. 

What Will Come could be misperceived as a contemporary depiction of propaganda, but several other aspects of the work speak to the depth of Kentridge’s thought. Most obviously, there is the issue of distortion. The ostensibly accurate film, a propagandistic curation of truth, is small and only appears directly on the cylindrical mirror. It is not easy for the viewer to see this animation; instead, the eye is drawn to the larger, malformed images projected onto the table below. Projecting the theoretically less true images onto the table is counterintuitive, and this simple fact encourages the viewer to consider what truth is on a more fundamental level. The question then becomes, if the non-distorted image is more accurate than its projected counterpart, why is it so difficult to view? This subversion ultimately destabilizes the previously established idea that the film on the mirror is the truest and the projection is a warped image, causing the viewer to conflate the separate media. Thus, Kentridge critiques the common association of truth with film, particularly regarding propagandistic film surrounding racial injustice. 

Ultimately, What Will Come subverts the propagandistic film archetype to open discourse surrounding the viewer’s role in injustice. While one comprehends that what one sees on screen is not a well-rounded depiction of reality, a sense of undeniable truth permeates film [5]. What Will Come pushes the audience to wrestle with this contradiction by remaining intrinsically connected to technological developments while pointing to the misrepresentation and brutality that resulted, and continues to occur, because of industrialization. If one looks beyond the initial nationalist tones of the piece, one finds multiple instances of Kentridge’s intentional use of erasure, fragmentation, and distortion through the multiplicity of projected visual medias and their respective warping and anamorphic nature points to these elements within the work. These techniques are paramount in communicating that what is first seen may not be an entirely accurate truth. This dynamic also draws parallels between the audience’s complacency in viewing the piece and international passivity when these instances of cruelty or genocide occur. Thus, What Will Come is a critique of this process, highlighting how institutionalized industrialism results in racial exploitation or violence, primarily by utilizing film to distort the truth and as an anesthetic for the masses.

Footnotes

[1] Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “The Imperial Moment in Facist Cinema,” Journal of Modern European History 13, no. 1 (January 1, 2015): 60.

[2] Gianmarco Mancosu, “Watching Films in Italian East Africa (1936-41). Fascist Ambitions, Contradictions, and Anxieties,” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 26, no. 3 (May 5, 2021): 264.

[3] Susan Sontag, “‘In Plato’s Cave,’” in On Photography, 1973, 7.

[4] Mancosu, “Watching Films in Italian East Africa (1936-41). Fascist Ambitions, Contradictions, and Anxieties,” 264.

[5] Sontag, “‘In Plato’s Cave,’” 6.

Literary Analysis— Wrestling with Race, Rage, & Retribution in John Murillo’s “Refusal to Mourn the Deaths of Three Men, by Gunfire, in Brooklyn”

Smith College: ENG 112: Reading Contemporary Poetry — Professor Art Middleton — Dec. 17th, 2024

John Murillo’s “Refusal to Mourn the Deaths of Three Men, by Gunfire, in Brooklyn” uniquely utilizes the sonnet form to explore nuanced feelings around race and police brutality for the contemporary Black American. Murillo created the piece in response to Ishmael Brinsley killing two police officers and then himself in Brooklyn. Brinsley’s actions were an attempt to gain retribution after the ongoing police brutality and violence towards Black Americans. Despite countless examples of police violence, including the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, officers are rarely indicted for their crimes. This inaction spoke to particularly strong feelings of shared rage within the African American community at the time. Murillo, wrestling with his complicated feelings around Brinsley’s actions and the need for substantial change to protect Black Americans, chose to write “Refusal to Mourn” as a crown sonnet. The crown sonnet is a set of 15 sonnets where the first 14 sonnets follow the traditional structure, and the last line of one sonnet opens the subsequent one. However, it also has a 15th sonnet that uses all the first or last lines of the past 14. Historically, the sonnet explored complexities of love but has since expanded to encompass other complex issues. Murillo’s “Refusal to Mourn” is not a love sonnet in the traditional way. Instead, Murillo transforms a historically romantic Eurocentric form to explore the underrepresented feelings of rage and hurt surrounding the modern Black American community. “Refusal to Mourn” ultimately subverts the Eurocentric Crown Sonnet by emphasizing a Black American’s complex emotions around race, rage, and retribution in response to gun violence and police brutality.

“Refusal to Mourn” takes on a distinctively Black perspective not just in its references to Black experiences but also in the speakers’ overall approach to the work, disrupting a legacy of White speakers. Throughout “Refusal to Mourn,” the speaker shares a reverence for their local communities. They describe the “boulevard perfume of beauty shops and roti shacks” (Murillo, "Refusal to Mourn" 38) and the sounds of “funk, calypso, reggaeton, and soul” (38), wondering aloud why “some want [them] dead” (38). The speaker wishes to highlight the beauty of these neighborhoods, not necessarily to prove their merit to the audience, but to juxtapose this beauty with the violence and brutality present in such spaces. The approach of recognizing the beauties and struggles of non-white neighborhoods points to the speaker’s Black experiences and personal struggle to reconcile with the various aspects of their neighborhood. This intentionality is further exemplified in Murillo’s interview with Heidi Seaborn, where he expresses, “My poems engage racism, violence, and systemic injustice because that’s where I live. It’s where we all live. Just some of us don’t have the luxury of turning away” (Murillo, "In Silence and In the Streets: A Conversation with John Murillo".) This statement reflects the subversive nature of “Refusal to Mourn,” where instead of turning away from the complexities of race, as many Eurocentric poets did, the speaker actively provides a profound sense of interiority when wrestling with these ideas. Murillo showcases his intentionality in the nuances of racial inequality and injustice within the speaker’s language and imagery throughout the poem. This speaker, unlike much of the literary world, is unwilling to turn a blind eye and instead calls the audience to interrogate their implicated position in racial injustice through a historically tenuous poetic form. In highlighting the nuances of racial injustice through a new perspective, Murillo reimagines what the sonnet can hold and even teach its audiences.

Additionally, the use of imagery around fire and flames refines the breadth of Black perspective into a specific struggle with rage and violence, critiquing and expanding upon dominant feelings around the Black community. Throughout the work, there are many references to flame and fire. Regardless of the context of these references, there is always an undertone of rage. The first sonnet involves the speaker arriving at the corner store to “cop a light” (Murillo, "Refusal to Mourn" 37). The match, or fire in general, does not yet have an implicated undertone in the poem. However, once the reader sees the live news regarding Brinsley’s actions and notes “You’ve heard this one before. In which there is blood. In which a black man snaps” (38), the matches, and fire in general, take on a different connotation. This transition is partially effective because Murillo returns to this concept of burning and matches after the speaker points to the violence around them, effectively using descriptive language of burning and fire to sandwich the events of the shooting. Once this meaning is associated, whenever the speaker uses fire or burning-related imagery, there is an immediate connection to Black violence and rage. Lines such as “But I want a brick, a window. One good match, to watch it all bloom” (38), “You dream a flare sent up too late against the sky” (39), and “All these matchstick years…” (42), become implicated in the speaker’s feelings as a Black individual with a unique perspective surrounding these issues. Linking flame with aggression and violence also provides insights into a uniquely Black experience, further specifying an interior perspective and indicting the reader. By taking 15 sonnets to stretch out and deeply wrestle with these specific issues, Murillo further expands upon and critiques the association of flame with violence and by proxy, Blackness and violence. The crown sonnet is particularly effective at this as it takes time to break down the various factors and implications of these feelings of rage and violence, both within and surrounding the Black community. Thus, in using the crown sonnet, Murillo takes on contentious feelings around violence and rage through a historically underheard Black perspective.

Finally, the speaker continuously grapples with feelings of empathy and respect for Brinsley, acknowledging that retribution can sometimes create change, but understanding violence itself is not conducive to transforming how one is protected. Retribution arises as a natural continuation of the issues of race and rage within the poem. Murillo, who was at a poetry protest speaking out against police brutality at the time of the shootings, largely wrote “Refusal to Mourn” to grapple with his emotions around the lack of tangible action taken to protect Black Americans from ongoing police brutality. Murillo expresses that while Brinsley’s actions were problematic for many reasons, he empathizes with Brinsley’s choice and could even see himself committing similar acts. After years without any genuine changes, the speaker in “Refusal to Mourn” notes how Brinsley’s “…gun sang loud. Enough to make them all lean in” (46). The speaker also parallels Brinsley’s violent acts with previous riots throughout the poem. They speak of Normandy, Florence, Malcolm X, and the Black Panthers, attempting to place Brinsley’s actions within the greater context of the African American communities' fight for justice and equality. There is an air of respect when the speaker notes these people and movements, yet there is also an ongoing wrestling around how the speaker feels about violence. The last sonnet opens with the line, “But that was when you still believed in fire” (51), suggesting the speaker acknowledges the limitations of violence. While it is valuable to consider that the crown sonnet ends with this piece, the nature of the crown sonnet is that it continues to spiral back into itself, and therefore a conclusion is never reached. Thus, in completing “Refusal to Mourn,” the reader is not offered any neat insights into the Black experience but is instead left to wrestle with issues of race, violence, and the implications of the struggles that result from these topics, namely retribution.

Murillo successfully utilizes a historically Eurocentric poetic form to showcase widely underrepresented and ignored Black experiences and subvert dominant ideas of how minorities should portray themselves by offering no clear conclusion. In “Refusal to Mourn,” retribution serves as a tangible consequence of the struggles with race and violence. Decades of legal inaction to protect Black communities and their rich cultures from police brutality justifiable turns into feelings of rage. This rage manifests in several ways, one being Brinsely’s shooting and another being Murillo’s poem. Yet Murillo’s poem also encourages the reconciliation of the aftermath of these events and the long-term implications of violence. The speaker in “Refusal to Mourn” remains skeptical of violence’s effectiveness in creating change while simultaneously noting its influence in past racial justice movements. The structure of the crown sonnet ensures they never come to a clear-cut conclusion and are left circling back to their previous points or stances. This ambiguity is rarely the case for poems with minority speakers, as dominant audiences often want racial poems tied up to avoid feeling implicated by them. Murillo rejects this norm, embracing the unique capabilities of the crown sonnet to allow his speaker subjecthood in their continual struggle to reconcile with race, rage, and retribution. He encourages the audience to lean in and engage in the struggles of an experience they might not understand, even if it leaves both the speaker and audience in spaces of uncertainty. Ultimately, Murillo uses the crown sonnet to reclaim Black subjecthood and explore issues, including race, rage, and retribution, that otherwise are largely ignored intentionally or out of habit.

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Work Cited

Murillo, John. Interview by Heidi Seaborn "In Silence and In the Streets: A Conversation with John Murillo." June 2020, https://theadroitjournal.org/2020/06/16/a-conversation-with-john-murillo/.

---. Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry. Four Way Books, 2020.

Political Analysis — Considering the Social Conditions Outlined in Weber’s ‘Vocation Lectures’ Through Hobbes & Rousseau

Smith College: GOV 100: Introduction to Political Thinking — Professor Kye Barker — Nov. 13th, 2024

Prompt: In his “Politics as a Vocation,” Max Weber pursues an analysis of the external conditions of modern political activity through political parties and the modern state as well as the inner conditions of ethical orientations. Is politics as Weber understands it desirable in either of the theoretical states as respectively described by Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau? Why or why not?

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In Max Weber’s essay, “Politics as a Vocation” (Weber 2004), he argues that if the modern citizen is to gain political freedom, he must acquiesce to a political party and support its leader, even if he does not fully agree with the leader's will. While joining a political party necessitates a concession of the personal will to increase the chance of electing an official the citizen supports, it is a better choice than not joining a political party, which renders the citizen’s voice obsolete. Weber is widely skeptical of the influence of political parties as the personal interests of leaders can easily dominate over followers. Thus, the political party tends to corrupt as it only emphasizes certain voices, and leads to inequality within the political system as a whole. For him, this aspect of modern politics does not reflect true freedom but competition for seats in parliament that compromises citizens’ abilities to share their wills. Weber argues that to gain true political freedom in Germany, the citizen must settle on his personal will and submit to a political party oriented towards the leader’s interests. This trade-off is undesirable to both Hobbes and Rousseau, as they would view the existence of a party leader as an infringement upon the freedoms of the citizen under the state, specifically through the party leader’s role as a representative and as a figure who conflicts with the citizen’s will and removes powers from the sovereign.

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes argues that freedom for the citizen under an ideal state lies in unrestricted movement in a materialist sense while simultaneously tying man to a single sovereign who establishes laws that ensure man does not return to his devious natural tendencies. Hobbes maintains that man is inherently equal, which consequently causes competition and unrest as anyone can commit violence. Thus, a sovereign must exist to prevent man from falling into his natural state. Because of his pessimistic view towards human nature, Hobbes argues for a heavily involved sovereign where men “conferre all their power and strength upon one Man” and reduce the “plurality of voices, unto one Will…” [Emphasis of original] (Hobbes 1996, 120). The encroaching nature of the sovereign that Hobbes outlines and the expectation that the citizen remains completely submissive offers a reductive and materialistic understanding of freedom. Hobbes does not view freedom as the ability to do but rather as the lack of obstacles that inhibit man from action. Hobbes argues, “A Free-Man, is he… which by his strength and wit he is able to do, is not hindered to doe what he has a will to” [Emphasis in original] (Hobbes 1996, 146). This conclusion functions with his establishment of a supreme sovereign, where any domain the sovereign removes itself from holds no obstructions and ensures freedom for the citizen. It also points to Hobbes’ understanding of freedom, where he views freedom as a physical condition, not an orientation of the mind or body. Hobbes' idea of freedom is, therefore, quite restrictive and only exists in the spaces where the sovereign is not, as he views man’s natural orientation as profoundly negative and understands freedom in a physical manner.

Therefore, Hobbes is in fundamental disagreement with the existence of parties as they are an additional association that splits the citizen between the will of the party and the sovereign. Because Hobbes’ conception of freedom exists under the omittance of sovereign laws, a subject binding his will to the political party would further reduce his freedom as he needs to consider both the laws of the sovereign and the party. This dynamic divides the subject’s will whenever the party disagrees with the sovereign, which Hobbes maintains should rule supremely. The conditions Weber outlines are a particularly severe example of this disunity as the political party is the singularly most important political power, despite the existence of parliament. So, while the political party is not comparable in legislative power to parliament, it is in terms of gathering support from the people. Additionally, the existence of multiple political parties further splits Hobbes' idea of the singular will as multiple, equally influential powers, compete to win favor over the citizen. In Hobbes' opinion, this disunity inevitably leads to collapse as “Powers divided mutually destroy each other” (Hobbes 1996, 225). Thus, the political party serves as an influential force that can gain favor from the citizen and divert his will away from the sovereign. This is catastrophic under Hobbes’ described political system where both freedom and security rely on the ability to maintain a singular sovereign and subject’s undivided obedience.

In contrast, Rousseau’s ideas of freedom exist more fundamentally as the absence of rule over another, where, paradoxically, each man gives himself completely to all other citizens and thus maintains the equilibrium of his freedom. This counterintuitive structure ensures man never has to obey another while simultaneously maintaining a sovereign capable of acting on behalf of citizens as a whole. Rousseau argues that freedom is an inherent internal condition and “To renounce freedom is to renounce one’s humanity, one’s rights as a man and equally one’s duties” (Rousseau 1968, 55). In his opinion, nothing can justify one man ruling over another due to this internal quality of freedom. Therefore, a sovereign must be made of the masses, not a single ruler. His solution to this dilemma of maintaining individual freedoms while ensuring a secure state is to form the masses into a single sovereign that functions from “the total alienation by each associate of himself and all his rights to the whole community” (Rousseau 1968, 60). This universal submission ensures that man keeps his rights as every citizen is equally handicapped by the sovereign. The sovereign Rousseau describes also places members into dual identities as citizens, obliged to enact laws, and as subjects, who must obey. This dynamic keeps man’s self-interest in check and maintains a secure state as “Duty and self-interest thus equally oblige the two contracting parties to give each other mutual aid” (Rousseau 1968, 63). Thus, for Rousseau, freedom exists for people under a legitimate state so long as all totally give themselves over to the sovereign as citizens and subjects. By producing a universal and artificial subjugation, man maintains the freedoms he previously enjoyed and experiences the benefits of living under a single sovereign.

Yet the establishment of political parties, which do not allow for every man to speak equally and essentially function as systems of representatives, do not reflect the internal and inherent quality of freedom Rousseau argues is central to man’s identity as human. Instead, they point to a hierarchical system that necessitates obedience and thus compromises the liberty of its citizens. In Weber’s description, the party leader essentially functions as a representative who takes the will of his many followers and then attempts to execute in favor of them while in parliament. However, Rousseau is firmly against such representative systems as he prioritizes the individual will, expressing “it is imperative that there should be no sectional associations in the state, and that every citizen should make up his own mind for himself” (Rousseau 1968, 73). He argues a representative can too easily corrupt his followers’ independent wills into something they are not in support of his private interests. Instead, if the citizen wishes to truly be free, he should only hold himself to the universal covenant of submission to each other, and “So long as the subjects submit to such covenants alone, they obey nobody but their own will” (Rousseau 1968, 77). In contrast, representative system is not one where each citizen has an equal opportunity to voice or execute his will. Political leaders have significantly more power as citizens must join their parties and compromise on their ideals if they wish to hold any substantial political power. This settlement undermines Rousseau’s governmental system which necessitates universal and equal submission of all citizens to maintain an equilibrium of freedom for all. Therefore, Rousseau would despise a governmental system based on political parties as it does not allow each man to voice his own will and corrupts the central tenets of internal freedom he emphasizes as central to man's identity.

Ultimately, neither Hobbes nor Rosseau finds Weber’s conditions desirable, but for significantly different reasons. Hobbes views freedom as a physical experience that is present so long as nothing is preventing it. He takes a literal approach to freedom, where external conditions are his primary interest. In contrast, Rousseau views freedom as an internal orientation, one paramount to man’s identity. His approach to freedom is internal and intrinsically linked to man’s orientation. These diverging ideas of freedom are also reflected in their conceptions of a legitimate sovereign and, ultimately, in why they both find Weber’s political system undesirable. Hobbes views the relationship between a sovereign and its subjects as the only relevant concern when constructing a thriving state. He disagrees with political parties as they further complicate this relationship and weaken sovereign powers. Rousseau, however, views the maintenance of individual identity and will as paramount and, therefore, argues for a sovereign that does not function from any singular man’s obedience to another. Yet he would also critique Weber as the political party undermines individual wills through political leaders who act as representatives that attempt to speak on behalf of multiple people. Ultimately, while Hobbes and Rousseau have different ideas regarding the role of freedom for man and within the state, both would critique Weber’s description of political parties as a condition that lessens the citizen's freedom and therefore is undesirable.

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References

Hobbes, Thomas. 1996. Leviathan. Translated by Richard Tuck. Cambridge University Press.

Rousseau, Jean-Jaques. 1968. The Social Contract. Translated by Maurice Cranston. Penguin Classics.

Weber, Max. 2004. “Politics as a Vocation.” In The Vocation Lectures, edited by David Owen and Tracy Strong, translated by Rodney Livingstone. Hackett Publishing Company.

Comparative Analysis— Born With Clipped Wings: Limitations to Social Mobility in Education for Marginalized Communities in India and the United States

Introduction

Systemic discrimination via regulating access to education is a fundamental aspect of the Caste and Class systems. In the United States, social stratification is highly connected to the fundamental founding and colonization of North America. The initial immigrating demographics highlighted this, where wealthy white elite sponsored poor individuals to come to the United States under indentured servitude. These indentured servants had little access to education and were instead expected to work optimally in menial and manual labor. Education would prove a threat to this system, as seen in Bacon’s rebellion, where the American elite recognized the consequences of the working class turning on them. In order to mitigate this, the elite established a social hierarchy, which aimed to redirect the anger of the working class of the elite and pit them against each other. This social stratification mostly came at the expense of the black working class and other individuals who occupied intersectional identities (Simba, 2022, para. 1). It was the intention of the rich to maintain this social stratification as it allowed the money to funnel up to the elite. This system was adamantly denied as it essentially proved the American Dream an impossible reality for many of the American people and because the American Dream sits parallel to American ideals, it became necessary to disregard the systemic issues of social stratification in favor of maintaining the “American identity”.

In India, similar processes were enacted. The Caste system was a social hierarchy put in place over 3,000 years ago. It functioned off of Hindu ideals which emphasized purity and religious competency. On the highest rung of this social ladder sat the Brahmins, or priests, who had the most power as they created and maintained the laws of the land. On the lowest rung sat the Dalits, who were considered too dirty to touch or interact with in any context. The working class of the Caste system, or Shudras, were denied any form of religious education. This is pertinent as religious purity, morality, and knowledge were the major ways for an individual in a low-ranking class, or varna, to enter a higher one (Le, 2023). The Brahmans of Indian society utilized similar techniques to the American elite by withholding education and grouping the Shudras into the greater Hindu party for political and social power (Shepherd, 2023, para. 11). Additionally, Indian society functioned under similar ideals of being the best in one’s Jati, or occupation, in order to improve ones standings and achieve rebirth, the ultimate goal. However, the ability to ascend in varna was impossible for any individual in the working class because it was believed that reincarnation only occurs over multiple lifetimes. The Brahmins used similar ideological processes to the American elite where they barred education that would genuinely support the working class in climbing varna’s but simultaneously encouraged hard work within the system.

It is worth noting that mobility is referred to in several different contexts in this paper. Social mobility on a broader level is defined by Britannica as “…movement of individuals, families, or groups, through a system of social hierarch or stratification” (Britannica n.d.). This paper specifically touches on opportunities for upward mobility, “The capacity or facility for rising to a higher social or economic position” (Merriam-Webster n.d.), both on a broader, systemic level and on a personal, experiential level. The paper also discusses major aspects of upward mobility such as educational mobility, occupational mobility, and income mobility. Each of these pieces aims to provide a wider and more holistic understanding of barriers and the unique difficulties for American and Indian marginalized communities. When analyzing the structures, intentions, and significance of these socially stratified systems, it becomes apparent that social mobility was, and is, hugely hindered by the fundamental aspects that keep these hierarchies in place. A massive piece of that is access and aid in education, and, if society aims to irradiate the inequalities created, it is necessary to heavily reform current educational practices. Despite education’s ability to spark social mobility, institutionalized social and economic stratification persists and primarily occurs in inequitable barriers to adequate education for marginalized communities in the United States and India.

Significance of Education

Education makes up a huge portion of the opportunity for upward mobility. It is one of the first aspects of society that the elite will control, as discussed above, and, theoretically, offers a ladder to upward mobility, both in occupation and income. However, the association of education with upward mobility may exist more as a continuation of both India’s and the United States empty meritocracy-centered ideals, not of an evidence-based system (Ferry, 2022, p. 4). Education suffers much from the limitations enacted upon it by policymakers and government, who typically also are part of elite groups. The duality of expecting a high level of education from the working class while also requiring it be done in a way that ensures stability in social stratification is one of the fundamental barriers to education and its cascading opportunities for upward mobility in minority and marginalized communities.

Current Opportunities and Aid for Social Mobility via Education

Most policy and aid for marginalized groups in education surrounds affirmative action and quotas for education and post-secondary employment. As one study describes, “…the most disadvantaged castes and tribes we provided with reserved seats in higher educational institutions in public sector jobs…”(Hnatkovska, Lahiri, & Paul, 2013, p. 2). Quotas have similar goals, emphasizing diversity of experience in higher education and employment. In 2019, India has put into place a 10% quota for marginalized and systemically disadvantaged groups in India (Correspondent, 2019, para. 1). It is unclear how exactly this policy will play out in the long run but thus far the policy has yielded some positive results in education demographics. One aspect of aid in education that India does not possess but the United States does, are grants and scholarships. Grants tend to be need-oriented, while scholarships are merit-based (CollegeBoard, n.d.). While some of these grants and scholarships offer specifically to marginalized groups, a majority do not. These programs have helped a small portion of marginalized communities but, similarly to Affirmative Action, lack the scale and holistic nuance necessary to be a systemic solution to education inequality. Interestingly, Affirmative Action in the United States was overturned in the United States this past June. A majority of the Supreme Court Justices argued that emphasis on race in college admissions undermined academic merit. However, Judge Jackson made a poignant comment that criticizes the ideas of equality and “colorblindness” without policy in place (Totenberg, 2023, para. 12). While it is predicted that the overturning of Affirmative Action will affect student demographics, it is still too early to know for certain.

Limitations for Social Mobility via Education

Marginalized communities in the United States and India both experience similar barriers to education. These barriers mainly fit under four categories: access and resources, safety and discrimination, social and familial climate, and representation and advocacy. Under the umbrella of access and resources sits infrastructure, transportation, and access to tutoring or additional support. Only 10% of India’s Dalit community lives in urban areas (Ferry, 2022, p. 8). This is problematic as a majority of prestigious or rigorous schools are in urban areas in India. Another aspect of infrastructure and policy in India is that Affirmative Action does not exist in the private sector of education. This forces Dalits into public education making the jump from public to private occupations in the government or higher education difficult (Ferry, 2022 pp. 16-17), . A third aspect of access is the need for additional tutoring, specifically in the English language. It is expected that one speaks English if they wish to work in the government or higher education. Nivedita (2023) argues that “Learning English was fundamental to the women’s educational strategies…”(p. 9), in reference to the high-achieving Dalit women the report studied. Similar barriers exist in the United States. It is difficult to find rigorous schools depending on where you live and while the transition from public high school to higher education is easier, it is still highly competitive. Free tutoring is generally difficult to find, and even then, it is not always supportive.

The second set of major barriers exists under safety and discrimination. Most marginalized groups will experience some level of conscious discrimination in education at some point. This includes dehumanization, humiliation, and concerns regarding one’s own safety. For example, many young Black men will experience trouble in school because they are stereotyped as uninterested or lazy (Payne & Brown, 2016, p. 1). This creates a general environment of distrust and distaste between teachers and students, which plays into social climate and representation, two other umbrella barriers. This also exists in India where Dalit and Shudra students are often called slurs, mercilessly teased, and often discriminated against by students in higher castes (Pankaj, 2021, p. 3). In both India and the United States, these marginalized groups must work twice as hard to be taken seriously by professionals, both in work and education. They must defy the stereotypes placed upon them simply to enter secondary school and university. This dehumanization only continues after pursuing schooling where minority individuals are still subconsciously viewed as inferior, even with higher education (Ferry, 2021, pp. 19-20).

The third branch of barriers, and arguably the largest, exists under social and parental climate. In both Dalit and gang-involved communities, parental support is huge in predicting future educational and occupational mobility (Payne & Brown, 2016, p. 4; Nivedita, 2023, p. 6). In India, this consists of parents being willing to sacrifice and work especially hard for their children’s schooling. It also requires parents to disregard societal expectations, especially if they are aiming to educate a girl. In the United States, the issue is less societal expectation and more parental presence. Many parents are working multiple jobs or are involved in the drug industry. Language barriers and generational struggles with educational institutions can also impact parental presence in their children’s schooling (Reynolds, et al, 2015, p. 3). This is difficult for young students who need additional support and role models at such a formative time. Both groups also experience additional social barriers and expectations. For young Black men, it is expected that one is able to provide for their community and family. Because secondary education is extremely time-consuming, and employment is still volatile afterward, many individuals prefer the certainty of gang and drug culture (Payne & Brown, 2016, p. 7). Similarly, Dalits have the certainty of employment in agriculture and the informal economy. These identities are only exacerbated if you intersect with multiple. For example, Dalit women must cope with the barriers of being both a Dalit and a woman. The intersection and combined disadvantages of race or ethnicity and gender are often referred to as “Double Jeopardy” in an academic setting and there is an abundance of research on the effects of this experience (Kumar & Sahoo, 2023, p. 6 ).

The final umbrella of barriers refers to representation in policy and role models. Because parental support can often be sparse for young students, strong teacher-student relationships become extremely pertinent. Many marginalized students will experience discrimination from their own teachers and these growing tensions can cause students to leave schooling altogether. Having positive relationships with teachers significantly lowers that barrier (Greene, 2021, p. 2). On a broader level, providing representation for minority identities in educational policy is a huge step in reforming such barriers. Encouraging highly educated minorities to advocate for their communities not only supports future generations of students but is also reflected as a wish for many high-achieving individuals regardless.

Conclusion

Both the United States and India have an ongoing and systemic issue with education and its relevancy in upward mobility for minority groups. Both countries share similar barriers to gaining education, however, each country has a specific portion of the education to upward mobility system that it struggles with most. In the United States, this is retention rates in schooling. For most minority groups, getting a low-wage, manual labor job or working in gangs is easier and significantly less humiliating or dehumanizing. The culture within drug dealing and gangs, while volatile, lends itself to a much more supportive and communal environment (Payne & Brown, 2016, p. 2). The reason drug dealing and gangs are pervasive in the first place relates to the broad automation and loss of jobs for the working class across the country. There are not enough high-income jobs for the working class to move into, much less security in getting them. For most people, the education to occupational mobility ladder is unrealistic and unachievable. In India, education rates are steadily increasing, but income and occupational mobility are not (Ferry, 2022, p. 3). While individuals are increasingly able to gain an education, that education is not transferring over to stability in the workforce. This is in part due to a lack of jobs and discrimination; however, it is largely a consequence of the large gap between the private sector and the public sector. India still functions largely off of the agricultural and informal economy, which exists on the opposite end of the spectrum to governmental work and higher education. These gaps also correspond with caste and privilege, making the jump between them extremely difficult. The Dalits have taken B. R. Ambedkar’s obsession with providing education to lower castes with stride (Pankaj, 2021, p. 1), but they have not yet considered that education still exists within a system that aims to marginalize and isolate them. It is apparent that education continues to fail minority people as it exists as an extension of upper-class privilege and wealth. Marginalized people get little to no say on how the system functions but are expected to use it blindly both as a result of a societal obsession with meritocracy and also as a continued method to maintain the structural soundness of social stratification (Pinkney, 2016 p. 2). A systemic solution would require the dismantling of the structure itself and a redistribution of wealth and privilege. This being said it is impossible to keep power from centralizing, and complete societal reform is extremely unlikely without unnecessary violence and unrest. Until a fundamental solution can be found, mitigating issues with access, social climate, discrimination, and representation provide the most promising options.

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References

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Greene, D. M. (2021). ‘It’s just how we articulate the Blackness in us’: African American teachers, Black students, and African American Language. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2021.1969905

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Pankaj, A. K. (2021). Caste amid Aspiration and opportunity: Everyday struggles of Dalits to gain access to education. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 80(3), 931–947. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12413

Payne, Y. A., & Brown, T. M. (2016). “I’m Still Waiting On That Golden Ticket”: Attitudes toward and Experiences with Opportunity in The Streets of Black America. Journal of Social Issues, 72(4), 789–811. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12194

Pinkney, A. R. (2016). The role of schools in educating Black citizens: from the 1800s to the present. Theory and Research in Social Education, 44(1), 72–103. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00933104.2015.1099486

Reynolds, et al. (2014). A Mixed Methods case study of parent involvement in an urban high school serving minority students. Urban Education, 50(6), 750–775. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0042085914534272

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Research Essay– Sex & Spectacle: Analyzing the Commodification of Sadomasochism in Pop Culture

Introduction

Sadomasochism, or S&M, is exceptionally prevalent in pop culture today. Despite the increase in S&M depictions, there have not been any noticeable changes in the public’s opinions on S&M. Several contributing factors include erasure through normalization and continued portrayal of S&M practitioners and participants as victims of various mental health issues or previous traumas. Erasure through normalization leads to a loss of shock factor, an essential part of the noticeable uptick of Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Sadism, Submission, and Masochism related imagery in ads and marketing. Also, portrayal of S&M practitioners as trauma ridden individuals results in flawed opinions of S&M, identifying individuals as people capable of fixing or needing saving. Media’s use of S&M exploits the viewer's comfort and simultaneous infatuation with the mysterious. Because of this, the media does not put any effort into changing the general public's attitude on S&M and, in actuality, perpetuates harmful stereotypes attached to the public opinion of S&M, BDSM, and other fringe sexual practices.

Sadomasochism

Sadomasochism is a subsection of BDSM, a combination of three acronyms standing for Bondage and Discipline, Domination and Submission, and Sadism and Masochism. BDSM relates to elements of control and pain in the presence of sexual practices. Various techniques are utilized for unique and specialized sensations and emotions. Sadomasochism is a combination of sadism and masochism. The former defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “the derivation of sexual gratification from the infliction of physical pain or humiliation on another person” and the latter defined as “the derivation of sexual gratification from being subjected to physical pain or humiliation by oneself or another person.” Sadomasochism is also abbreviated to S/M or S&M. For this paper, S&M and Sadomasochism are used interchangeably. Although commonly categorized into three specific elements and aspects, BDSM elements can blend, and practitioners may participate in one, two, or all three. Typically, practitioners use play to explore BDSM and its corresponding elements. Play is a predetermined setting where participants often take on different personalities, behavior, and actions. If the participants are responsible, they will ensure explicit consent of specific behaviors before the start of play, where it may break character or be odd to ask such questions. Consent in BDSM is of utmost importance. Practitioners may use various techniques to check in and confirm that all parties are still enjoying the scene. Many participants utilize the acronym RACK, which stands for Risk Aware Consensual Kink. The goal of this acronym is to guarantee all parties understand the possible risks of play. This ensures that all parties can discuss possible ways to manage that, and all actively consent to the play after adequate education on possible risks. (Freeburg & McNaughton, 2017, p. 4) An example of this is the stop light system. In this situation, the sadist might ask for a color, and the masochist would respond with either red, yellow, or green. Green indicates the masochist still feels good about the scene, yellow indicates that the masochist and sadist should check in, and red is a full pause. This is one of the many methods used to ensure physical and emotional safety for all participants.

Pop Cultural and Media Significance

S&M has completely saturated media, and its presence in pop culture is undeniable. Since the 1980s, explorations of what S&M represents and its usage in media have increased ten-fold. It is near impossible to note an origin of S&M as it has always existed to some degree. However, the explosion of S&M representation may have coincided with the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement due to BDSM’s prevalence in queer spaces. Interestingly, some of the stereotypes surrounding BDSM today may also have arisen around this time. The AIDS crisis and federal government propaganda could have led to the sex-hesitant society we live in today (Lowery, 2004, para. 9-11). Since the AIDS epidemic, there have been countless uses of S&M in mainstream media and pop culture. For example, in 1993, Madonna dressed as a dominatrix for her tour, The Girly Show (Erotica (Live from The Confessions Tour), 2017), or, more recently, Rihanna’s song, S&M, gained immense popularity (Melina Matsoukas, 2011). In terms of literature, the most notable representation by far is Fifty Shades of Grey. Written by E.L. James and released in 2011, this book has sold over 100 million copies and spent over two years on The New York Times Bestsellers List. (Tripodi, 2017, p. 93)

Today, these representations of S&M still exist but, in many ways, no longer invoke the same reactions they once did. Weiss (2006) states, “Twenty years ago, SM was (at least in fantasy) something dark and mysterious, unspoken and invisible; today, representations of BDSM are everywhere.” (p. 111). The spectacle and uniqueness of S&M in media are lost. We are no longer shocked when we see elements of S&M attire at the newest celebrity gala. So how did society become so saturated with S&M elements and why?

Methods of Commodification

Much of the S&M saturation we experience results from media’s obsession with sensationalism and spectacle. Media achieves this by maintaining the ignorance, privilege, and comfort of the audience while simultaneously introducing an element of surprise or shock factor the S&M aspects. As highlighted by Weiss (2006), media primarily does this in two ways. The first is to normalize S&M until it dissolves into mainstream culture. This feels extremely prevalent today. Words like safe word, kink, and fetish are tossed around with little awareness of where they come from and what they mean. This process does not move the general public attitude surrounding S&M or BDSM toward greater acceptance or education but rather a perceived greater acceptance. One danger here is when non-BDSM participating individuals believe they understand the BDSM community and its corresponding practices because they have seen a commodified version of S&M in the media. The second way is the painting of S&M individuals as “tortured souls” to justify their actions providing those who know S&M practicing individuals with justification to “heal” or “fix” them. Interestingly, this has the opposite effect as the first method but is equally if not more harmful. Believing that BDSM is dirty or deviant and that its practitioners need fixing is still a common today. However, these claims are not backed by any evidence. In fact, “…kinksters are psychologically balanced, have beneficial personality characteristics, and possess higher levels of well-being than their vanilla counterparts.” (Freeburg & McNaughton, 2017, p. 6)

These elements can be seen in media all the time. Take, for example, 50 Shades of Grey. In this piece, Grey, the sadist, admits to having been abused by his mother, painting Grey as a man with complex trauma he attempts to cope with through S&M. This is not to say that S&M and sexual trauma cannot coexist. Consider Hammers (2014) piece on pains prevalence in sexual trauma processing in which Hammers argues that BDSM can offer victims spaces to validate their experiences and reconnect with their bodies. However, in 50 Shades of Grey, Grey is highly manipulative, does not appropriately approach consent, and pressures Steele, the supposed masochist, to stay in a relationship with him, despite her obvious discomfort towards participating in BDSM. It is common for media to either dull down the S&M elements or make the rest of the plot as “normal” as possible. Take for the example, “The Secretary”, directed by Steven Shainberg and released in 2002. This film follows a young woman, Holloway, as she begins an S&M-involved relationship with her boss. The film, despite these elements, utilizes a straight, white, and cisgender storyline that ends with a domestic scene so drastically different from the S&M-related scenes earlier in the movie. Weiss (2006) highlights these points in an analysis of the film stating, “My problem with [the ending] is that their interaction was more conventional… he takes her up to this room and lays her down, and then she sort of becomes his housewife.” (pp. 116-117). By minimizing the S&M elements, the characters and their S&M lifestyle are normalized, but the wow factor remains.

For media and pop culture, it is crucial to stand out. There are likely hundreds of ads, products, or movies that share similar plots or topics. If one want to sell, they need something fringe. In this sense, S&M is a great option. It is sensational but also feeds into many people's fantasies. Ones they are uncomfortable with because of a society where BDSM is perceived as dirty or deviant. This encourages sales while maintaining the initial fantasy related reason the consumer is engaged with the content.

Effects of Commodification

Because pop culture's commodification of sadomasochism does not progress the public toward a more embracing and educated mindset, inevitably, there will be specific issues that arise. While this paper has already discussed the perpetuated belief of BDSM as dirty, gross, and unnatural, it has not yet covered some of the indirect effects of pop culture commodification. A major effect of this commodification is the perpetuation of institutionalized sexism. It is prevalent for the media to portray women as submissive masochists. Both 50 Shades of Grey and “The Secretary” utilize this. Women can enjoy masochistic behavior, this is not where the issue lies. The issue is that the media fails to accurately showcase that in healthy S&M play, the masochist holds much of the control in the dynamic. They decide what they are comfortable with and uncomfortable with, and in many ways, it is the sadist serving their needs. However, the media fails to highlight this. As a result, there is perpetuated imagery of women as submissive and without control. They are perceived to be at the whims of the sadist who is usually a man. In turn, causing continued disgust and misunderstanding surrounding what S&M and BDSM are and are not.

Ultimately, the most significant and most detrimental effect of pop culture commodification relates to the misinformation it perpetuates. Because media mainly utilizes S&M for its wow factor, there is little work done to ensure that the representation is accurate. Also, there is no reason to shift this perspective as pop culture benefits from the audience’s “perverted” interest and therefore investment in the material. As pop culture continues to separate the general public from BDSM by normalizing certain practices but demonizing the greater holistic BDSM community, it begins its demise. It is clear that S&M in media has worn through its shock factor, and as that is the primary reason for pop culture's heavy consumption, pop culture will have to move on to something new.

Conclusion

Pop culture, despite the representation it gives S&M, fails to shift the commonly held narrative toward BDSM. This is because it relies on a system that both sensationalizes and demonizes BDSM practices, achieved through over-saturating media until it is no longer unique while also blaming BDSM on previous mental or psychological issues. Several examples of this include 50 Shades of Grey and “The Secretary”. Both examples utilized the techniques mentioned earlier that depicted one of the most notable effects of this lack of accurate or adequate representation is the perpetuation of harmful gender stereotypes. This, in turn, gives BDSM a poor reputation, and the cycle continues. Until we, as the public, stop feeding into the sensationalism of BDSM and instead choose to deeply engage in individual research, the issue will continue.

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References

Melissa N. Freeburg, & Melanie Joy McNaughton. (2016). Fifty Shades of Grey: Implications for Counseling BDSM Clients. VISTAS 2017.

Hammers, C. (2013). Corporeality, Sadomasochism and Sexual Trauma. Body &Amp; Society, 20(2), 68–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034x13477159

Lowery, A. (2004, October 28). From Freud to America: A short history of sadomasochism | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https:// www.thecrimson.com/article/2004/10/28/from-freud-to-america-a-short/

Madonna. (2017, September 29). Madonna - Erotica (Live from The Girlie Show 1993) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5HBkKDMg7I

RihannaVEVO. (2011, January 31). Rihanna - S&M [Video]. YouTube. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdS6HFQ_LUc

Tripodi, F. (2017). Fifty shades of consent? Feminist Media Studies, 17(1), 93–107. https:// doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1261846

Weiss, M. D. (2006). Mainstreaming Kink. Journal of Homosexuality, 50(2–3), 103–132. https:// doi.org/10.1300/j082v50n02_06