Links – 2009-03-23
Compiled by Latoya Peterson
The Daily Beast – Obama’s ‘Third Culture’ Team
John Quincy Adams lived in France, and young Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited Europe often enough to master French and German, but Barack Obama is the first modern American president to have spent some of his formative years outside the United States. It is a trait he shares with several appointees to the new administration: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett was a child in Tehran and London, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was raised in east Africa, India, Thailand, China and Japan as the son of a Ford Foundation executive, and National Security Advisor James L. Jones was raised in Paris. (Also, Bill Richardson, tipped as Secretary of Commerce, grew up in Mexico City.) [...]
This is more than a trivial coincidence. So-called “Third Culture Kids”—and the adults they become”—share certain emotional and psychological traits that may exert great influence in the new administration. According to a body of sociological literature devoted to children who spend a portion of their developmental years outside their “passport country,” the classic profile of a “TCK” is someone with a global perspective who is socially adaptable and intellectually flexible. He or she is quick to think outside the box and can appreciate and reconcile different points of view. Beyond whatever diversity in background or appearance a TCK may bring to the party, there is a diversity of thought as well.
The F-word.org – New Study Refutes Bulimia as “Rich, White Girl’s Disease”
Eating disorders are often thought to be a “rich white girl’s disease,” but a new study shows that black girls and girls from low-income families are more likely to develop bulimia than their wealthier white counterparts. The study is based on information from a government database of 2,300 girls from schools in California, Ohio and Washington D.C. The girls were surveyed annually about their eating habits and body image between the ages of 9 and 20. The study included an equal number of blacks and whites.
About 2.6 percent of black girls were found to be bulimic, compared to 1.7 percent of whites. Bulimia affected 3.3 percent of girls whose parents had a high school education, compared to 1.5 percent of girls in households where at least one parent had a college degree. In other words, black girls are 50 percent more likely than whites to develop bulimia, while girls in low income brackets are 153 percent more likely to develop bulimia than girls in the highest income bracket.
Real Media Ethics – The Usage Panel: “Illegal Immigrant”
“Illegal aliens” and “illegals” are two answers that can be dispensed with pretty easily. When used in journalism, the legal term “aliens” suggests an exaggerated sense of strangeness, and the connotation with martians is unavoidable. Although it’s relatively rare to find uses of “illegal aliens” in major news organizations (cable news, as always, excepted), except in quotes, a quick Google news search found numerous examples from local news organizations. “Illegals” dehumanizes, defining a diverse group of people by one (negative) characteristic by employing the reductive practice of noun-ifying an adjective. In a 2006 press release addressing immigration terminology, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists states that “using ["illegals"] in this way is grammatically incorrect and crosses the line by criminalizing the person, not the action they are purported to have committed.” “Illegals” is increasingly unusual even in headlines (where more accurate and ethical, but longer, phrases are sometimes eschewed for space considerations), though the AP seems to have few scruples about using the word, in headlines, the body of a story, or both. I don’t know how much control publications that use AP stories have over style issues like that, but it would be interesting to know to what extent they are allowed to impose their own style guildelines.
The interesting question for me is whether “illegal immigrant” is an ethical/accurate way to refer to people who enter or reside in the country illegally.
Politico – Oh, the snark bites
Then we get to the part where they blow the whistle and order everyone out of the snark-infested waters:
“What should be avoided in all [blogs] is any hint of racist, sexist or religious bias, or any suggestion of nasty, snide, sarcastic, or condescending tone — “snark.”
A suggestion to the author: Toss a period between the no-racism-bigotry-or-sexism section and the anti-nastiness decree. This would have avoided the impression that the Times places a racial rant on the same ethical plane as, say, a cheeky story on Kirsten Gillibrand.
A couple weeks ago I was having a talk with somebody at a coffee shop in my neighborhood, and I noticed some graffiti on the bathroom wall that said: “Downward mobility is not radical.” Incidentally, the talk I was having that day was with a young white class-privileged person who was struggling with what to do with some inherited money, and we were talking about wealth and social justice and giving away inheritance and all of these things, and the whole time I kept pondering the graffiti and thinking that actually, downward mobility is radical. Wouldn’t it be very radical if all wealthy people gave away their money and spent only what they needed to live?
[I'm talking here about the kind of downward mobility that's chosen and intentional, not the job-loss/cuts-to-social-services/increasing-wealth-disparity kind.]
But I know what the graffiti means – it means that the writer is sick of people who act like they don’t have money when actually they do. Personally, I lived this problematic phenomenon for several years after high school, which I spent hitchhiking, trainhopping, and dumpster diving my way around the country in the company of other freewheeling punk youth who (like me) often lacked a particularly tight race and class analysis. I have a multifaceted critique of this time in my life – on one hand, it was defined by the bad type of ”downward mobility” that rightfully gets a lot of criticism. Many of us had access to wealthy parents, private educations, and all the other safety nets common to privileged young people, which we generally never talked about. Does anyone else remember that Crimethinc book that said something like, “Poverty, homelessness, unemployment: If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right”? That attitude characterized a lot of the worst manifestations of punk traveler culture: privileged white kids temporarily rejecting middle- and upper-class lifestyles without much real critique about poverty and white supremacy, and then getting really self righteous about our subcultural choices. In retrospect, I feel so regretful about the arrogant glorification of poverty that was common in that scene, and how it contributed to invisibilizing the struggles of poor people and the real violence of poverty.
Moscow Through Brown Eyes – Race, Gender, and More Violence in Moscow
SOVA reports:
On 27 January 2009, a twenty-four year old Nigerian was beaten at a bus stop near Metro Station Aviamotornaia.
As the Nigerian was talking with his Russian girlfriend, a young man approached him and asked what was going on. Then the man called out to two of his friends and, with cries of “Russia, Russia!” they started to beat the Nigerian.
The attacked man incurred minor wounds to his face. He is certain that the attack was racially motivated.*
Serious question: does this type of virulent nationalism ever NOT come in a package deal with sexist ideas about the protection of women?
Living in Barbados – Race to Where?
Within the world of race and racial issues, Barbados can often seem peculiar–not unique. The country is predominantly black (of African origin), and for centuries was run by whites (Britons of various origins). Over time, economic and political power resided in the hands of whites. From its independence in 1966, political power was transferred from whites to black as the British withdrew as colonial masters and handed this over to elected representatives who were mainly from the black majority. Economic power in Barbados, however, tended to remain concentrated in the hands of a few white families. In recent years, that has changed to some degree as one of Barbados’ neighbours, Trinidad, gained economic power and looked to expand and diversify its economy: Trinidadian-owned companies have been buying into the Barbadian economy. While that has changed the colour of some economic power in Barbados, it has also introduced a different racial element, which is illuminating because it shows that racism is not first and foremost about colour.
In Barbados, one sees very little public animosity between the races. But you see very little public mixing in large groups.
Marlon James – The Bigots on My Bookshelf
It’s an old argument but not a tired one. What should a black reader do if he finds out that one of his favourite authors was racist? I made that question specific, because it’s too easy to weaken the idea by broadening it with something like, “what if an author/poet/artist/ musician turned out to have done something or believe in something that was anti you? What if he hated Jews? Indians? What if he used to hit women? Do we forget the artist and look at the art? After all, isn’t the reverse just another way that we read writers and not books? These questions are all valid, but who feels it knows it and it’s easy to dismiss a writer’s bigotry (alleged or no) when you’re not the one being bigoted against. It’s easy to look past a homophobic genius like Dylan Thomas if you’re not a homosexual. [...]
The problem with this of course is that if you start exhuming the dead and brilliant for their grievous character flaws, you’re going to find yourself neck deep in a lot of bones. Should I stop wearing Allure Homme because Coco Chanel was a Nazi Collaborator? It’s not long before you become appointed judge and jury of all, even if the court is in your own mind. We also end up cheating art. Once an artist, or writer or even dancer creates something it’s not really theirs anymore.
(Thanks to GlobalistGirl and MattBastard for the tips!)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
atlasien wrote:
What an interesting link collection!
One observation that springs to mind… in the early 90s I spent a summer living in a squat house on the Lower East Side. It wasn’t that bad… we had electricity and cable television. I was in a situation where I had one foot in the subculture and the other foot outside.
The appeal of that lifestyle comes from the desire for radical transformation into a pure, free state: turning from a caterpillar into a butterfly (albeit a smelly, heroin-addicted butterfly), cutting all ties, leaving your old life behind. It’s like becoming a monk, except that you don’t dedicate your life to something outside you…
It appeals to a wide variety of people. Very many come from white privileged backgrounds. I think they felt the oppressive rules of society more deeply, but they’re mistaken if they think they can just escape that web by following what’s essentially an egoistic path.
Some of these people were really committed to the idea of a sustainable greater community, however. The subcultural trappings were just a marker for them, not the be-all and end-all of establishing purity of identity. So I can’t condemn all crusties.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 2:11 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
Oh, and I read that third-culture article a while back. I liked it because it raised something not many other people are talking about: Obama is a third-culture kid, and so are many of his closest advisors. Being one myself, I can see how we identify with each other very strongly even when respective cultures and races are quite different.
On the other hand, the article is way too Pollyanna. I don’t like unqualified celebrations of third-culture identity. After all, the term is most often applied to the children of the global elite.
Children of just-plain immigrants don’t get the same status. For example, a Mexican family who moves from a rural village to an Atlanta suburb and works in the food court at a mall… their children are also going to grow up in two cultures, with all the positives and negatives that that entails. Yet their existence sounds a lot less romantic than being a “third-culture kid” son or daughter of a jetsetting ambassador.
I think there’s kind of a middle tier of us… not really elite, but our parents had more choices and privileges than immigrants who followed brutal economic necessity. Military “brats” would fall into this category. Obama’s mother was not rich, but she moved to Indonesia because her heart led her there, and because she could…
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 2:42 pm ¶
Paz wrote:
“[illegals] crosses the line by criminalizing the person, not the action they are purported to have committed”
–couldn’t have said it better myself. The term “anchor baby” needs to be retired as well. It’s a despicable term that insults the most innocent form of life.
Re: Bulimia Study
I wish they also included Latinos, Asians, Middle Eastern, even though with Latinos it’s a bit tricky since we’re technically not a race. It would be interesting to see the results of an anorexia study.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 5:43 pm ¶
yazikus wrote:
@ Atlasien, it’s funny, its been I long time since I thought of myself as identifying as a third culture kid. I fell into the middle tier as well, surrounded by the wealthiest and most privileged, but not being that myself.
I don’t run into many people these days who share a similar history, but that is mostly by choice, I always felt uncomfortable and somewhat othered as a part of that group.
I remember going to a student conference once with kids from all over the world, from good schools, being told that we were tomorrows leaders. I never doubted that I would see those same faces again, as presidents, prime ministers, and ceo’s…
Were you one of the military kids?
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 6:34 pm ¶
Jess wrote:
Re: “illegal immigrants” — The other thing that never gets pointed out is that visa violations — in any country — are civil matters, (I am thinking of countries with reasonably parallel legal systems, a place like North Korea or China is likely different since they probably don’t have those kinds of categories, but I don’t know) not criminal ones, which means a visa violation on your record looks the same as a parking ticket or failing to pay your property tax.
Re: Marlon James: I think he’s right. You can’t go judging people’s actions by the standards we have today– it’s like the old canard that Lincoln was a white supremacist. By our definitions, even the hard-core abolitionists weer such, but that doesn’t make them wrong.
I might read Heinlein differently than I did when I was younger, but it doesn’t mean I can’t find pleasure in his work. Olaf Stapledon says some bizarre things about Jews occasionally, but he was writing in the 1930s. I think the distinction to draw is whether the kind of bigotry we’re concerned about is all that explicit in the writing itself. A lot of the time it isn’t, which to my mind says a lot about the creator — if s/he can keep it out of the painting, of the page, or out of the music (at least to where it isn’t obvious) then I say, good for them, if you see what I mean.
I was thinking of Tolkein. His books can be read as deeply ethnocentric and even racist. But he was drawing on tropes that are pretty common to Northern European myths (I mean, the One Ring, the idea of the elves as a kind of godlike being, c’mon). He said so publicly.
But he also publicly disavowed fascism and racism — a position that was less than fashionable at the time. Do we decry him for being an unconscious racist and say his work is evil? I hope not. People are much more complicated than that, as is their art. If that weren’t the case there would be no point to criticism.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 6:46 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
@atlasien
I agree with you re: “crusties”–although in my old West Philly neighborhood this term was reserved for a particular sub-group who were very self-consciously dirty and subsisted primarily through begging and selling drugs…although the ubiquitous presence of a bandanna-wearing dog among them was a running joke between my friends. i.e. “How are they paying for that dog?” (Significantly, their name for everyone else was “Custies”…as in customers.) I have no idea if this particular designation was local or not but I know that there are multiple subgroups who engage in alternative living practices: The Rainbow Family, Dead/Phish heads, and the temporary communities of neo or techno-hippies that spring up around events like Burning Man or the (late, lamented) Bread and Puppet Domestic Resurrection Circus, for e.g.
As for me, while you were squatting I was a member in a cooperative, consensus-based community, which had been founded in the early 1970s. My community was one of a network of crumbly, once grand Victorian houses in West Philadelphia, a former worldwide center for radical politics, held in trust for the purpose of creating a network of alternative living spaces in perpetuity. My reasons for communitarian living were both political and practical, the community reflected my values, it enabled me to have a very high standard of living as an artist, and activist and I was a member for most of the 90s. While I hardly walked away from a trust fund in order to live this way, I would have no problem if someone did. I dislike the implication that somehow coming from modest means imparts authenticity to a larger struggle against the excesses of capitalism. I think the article linked above is well intentioned but seems to struggle a bit with white/class guilt, and I’m not sure how valuable that sentiment is, in the end. While I cosign the eye-rolling that wealthy/middle class white kids begging as a social practice inspires, in my experience the larger world of alternative living practices is too much for such “fashion punks”, who inevitably fall away. Or they become addicts and enact capitalism in miniature via a drug economy.
Also: I cosign your excellent point re: so-called “third culture” kids and regular old immigrant families. There is a definite class distinction at play in the deployment of this term. The struggle to reach the “middle tier” you describe is pretty much the story of my family. However, I am happy in a general sense that immigrant experiences are being celebrated an acknowledged, even in this imperfect way. I agree that having a simultaneous foot in an origin culture and in US, mainstream culture imparts access to a particular–and valuable– worldview. The recent exchanges between former VP Dick Cheney and President Obama exemplify this for me: Obama does not have a reflexive fear and mistrust of the foreign, and that is, for me, his most appealing characteristic.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 6:48 pm ¶
fatima wrote:
Being a TCK, I am all for a White House made up of them. But I agree with atlasien – TCKs are often viewed as only the children of the elite, when other children have the same experience – if not more so, because they often really must learn very quickly to navigate between various culture successfully in a way that privileged TCKs don’t – particularly if they are the only one in their family that speaks the language of the new place/is able to integrate fully.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 8:03 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
@yazikus: I was definitely middle-tier too, but in sort of the reverse mirror image of a military family. My mom was an American hippie and war protester, my dad was a Japanese academic and anarchist. They traveled by choice, but did it on the cheap… I had almost no possessions except for a tiny stuffed bear until I was about seven or so and we started to settle down.
Another example of middle-tier 3CK kids would be children of missionaries. I once knew a man who had dedicated his life to the study of a certain Mexican art form. He was very white, a native Spanish speaker and born to German missionaries in an indigenous village in the Sierra Madre del Sur.
@Joseph: in the intersection between the 3CK and downward mobility articles, I’m fascinated with the experiences of children who grow up in cross-cultural subcultures. My parents were pretty radical, but I’ve taken a middle path. I actually like and appreciate the way I was raised as a young kid, but I can’t raise my own kids that way. I’m interested in alternatives to traditional consumer society, but it’s so hard to sustain alternatives across generations.
On the more repressive side of all this, there’s a disturbing and incestuous (literally) cult called “The Family” that used to shuttle their members from country to country. The children would grow up without any formal schooling, in poverty, but knowing how to speak dozens of languages.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 9:36 pm ¶
GENQ10 wrote:
I dont understand what is so special about “TCK”s. Why is it necessary to add another label to a group of people? There are many people WITHIN countries who have to navigate between cultures within countries. Also many “TCKs” I’ve met were wealthy expats who still lived relatively sheltered lives and then went around insulting those in their home country who were less educated and consequentially were somewhat ignorant. Wonderful, you’re “worldly and cultured”. Count yourself lucky and don’t look down on others who have never had the opportunity.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 10:56 pm ¶
GENQ10 wrote:
*different cultures within ones own country i meant.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 10:56 pm ¶
Sobia wrote:
Re art with racist artists:
I, as many I know, were fans of Anne of Green Gables as kids. I had only read the first few books initially. During undergrad I read the last of 8 books, which took place during WWI and was shocked to read one of the main protagonists applauding the British army for taking Jerusalem from those heathens (aka Muslims). Colonization and occupation were being applauded. And as an adult I can understand the context, but a child, the target audience, wouldn’t. And that would worry me about such books.
Re TCK and the Obama admin:
@ Joseph:
“Obama does not have a reflexive fear and mistrust of the foreign, and that is, for me, his most appealing characteristic.”
I wish he had taught some of that courage to the Canadian government when he visited. Our Conservative are terrified of the foreign.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 11:21 pm ¶
Asha wrote:
As both a TCK and the child of an immigrant, I actually think the immigrant experience, while similar to that of a TCK, has clear differences. When you’re an immigrant you know you’re in a country to stay and you can integrate fully as fatima said. As a TCK you’re always a foreigner and you’re always transient. I think the TCK experience is what you and your parents make it. You keep yourself separate from your host country, or you can integrate yourself into the country, it’s your choice. Lets also not forget that there are many kinds of immigrant experiences in the US. There are many that come in in the lower tier but many other that come in in the middle and upper tiers. Despite my father’s “I came to this country with $100 in my pocket and a widowed mother and 4 siblings to feed at home”, as a PhD student, he came with a level of privilege that most Americans, immigrant and non-immigrant don’t have.
Posted 23 Mar 2009 at 11:38 pm ¶
Ike wrote:
Statistics on Bulimia (and other eating disorders)???
Are those really reliable? Most people with eating disorders don’t even admit they have them. So they can only talk about reported cases.
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 7:26 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:
It would be interesting to see the perspective of children raised by downward mobile/hard core hippie parents, whether or not the lifestyle/ethical choices made by the parents are embraced, or if a different path is followed…
Its my perspective, but being brought up by parents who had dropped out and spent most of the ’70s in morocco and india, but I ended up with a jaundiced view. (And spending most of my teenage years in a desparate scramble to claw my way into a good school via the military and a fascination with short hair and soap).
Not that, in balance, there were no positives. But what concerned me most was what I saw as the glossing over some of the dark undercurrents of dropping out. Justification of pure egoism, or no consideration of consequence, or pure credulence to those wanting to take advantage or spread intorelance, provided the pixie dust of spirituality/ethics was sprinkled a top of whatever was being sold. And yeah, selling drugs. That invisible hand sure gets around.
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 12:51 pm ¶
JC wrote:
I’ve not heard of the term TCK until now but I always knew the type – and I always picture them as white kids grew up as expats in non-English speaking countries. I will say that for this group of people to adopt Obama as their own is a little bit odd – because as a black man he doesn’t get the one advantage they have – immediate assimilation into the dominate “mainstream” as soon as they return to their “passport country”, the all-powerful USA. He’s still a black guy in the US – and he will suffer the build in alienation and oppression of racism which a great number of these white TCK won’t get to “enjoy”.
I don’t discount Obama’s foreign up-bringing, but I hardly think it’s similar to a white military brat when he’s a black and white hapa from Hawaii (an experience in itself different from mainland) with family from Asia and Africa. His “foreign” culture is built-in, not the same as the expat culture these so-called TCK grew up with. In fact, I would say some Asia white male expats are some of the most outrageously racist people I’ve ever known (just read up on some Japanese expat forums – disgusting), and I hardly see growing up in this kind of environment being beneficial.
I’m really not trashing the white TCKs.. I just think their experience is really not as similar as they thought to Obama’s. He didn’t just spend a few year in a Muslim country – he has a Muslim father, step-father, and a very Muslim NAME. He’s never going to “escape” that by moving back to the home country.
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 4:07 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
@JC: I agree with you that white male expats in Japan (and Korea) have a bad reputation that’s totally, totally deserved.
But your image of third-culture kids is a lot different from mine. I don’t see the connection to whiteness. I knew a lot of other ones when I went to college, because I hung out in an international student crowd, and most of them weren’t white. For example, one of my best friends was an Iraqi Arab whose family lived in Kuwait but was educated in the UK and had a British accent. His family was filthy rich, so he was definitely raised as part of the global elite, but when the Gulf War happened a lot of his privilege vanished overnight.
Obama’s right-hand woman, Valarie Jarret, is an example of a TCK who is definitely a child of the elite, judging from her bio… and both her parents are African-American and she has always identified as an African-American.
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 4:44 pm ¶
JC wrote:
@atlasien: I agree that not all TCK are white but I guess I speak from my own experience that almost everyone I knew are white.
I that when minorities already have the “benefits” which these white TCK’s lay claim to, such as negotiating between cultures and finding your own person, etc., it makes me want to laugh a bit. These are things any minority have to deal with on a day to day basis in the US without having to set a foot outside of the US.
Also, how come that when non-white people move into a white country they’re called an immigrant and when a white person move to a non-white country they’re always invariably called an expat, even when some of them live almost their entire live and raised a family there? I know white Americans who has gain Japanese citizenship by giving up US passport and adopting a Japanese name and STILL called an expat. What’s the deal with that?
Posted 24 Mar 2009 at 5:13 pm ¶
CelloShots wrote:
It’s one thing to dismiss the racism of a dead, “classic” author. It’s another thing entirely to do so with a living author who makes a profit off of your purchase of hir books. I see James’ point about avoiding becoming “appointed judge and jury of all,” but I can at least avoid financially supporting bigotry. My personal experience with this is the work of Orson Scott Card. His science fiction works don’t specifically espouse homophobia (unlike, by the way, Robert Heinlein, who does), but he writes publicly on the sinful nature of gayness outside of his novels. I choose to abstain from his books, even though I often found them fascinating and pleasurable, because I refuse to give my money (or encourage others to give their money) to a man who thinks my very existence is a sin.
Posted 25 Mar 2009 at 1:50 am ¶
Rchoudh wrote:
Hmmm…this is the first time I’m hearing of this term Third Culture Kids too. But I wonder why they call it third culture when in actuality an American kid growing up in a foreign culture is gaining awareness of a second culture rather than third (that is if they choose to gain awareness).
I guess that makes my kids Third Culture kids then since I’m American, my husband’s South Asian, and we’re living in the Middle East. And unlike “normal” expat life, we’re living within the community itself rather than away from it in fenced in housing compounds.
Posted 25 Mar 2009 at 7:00 am ¶
Jess wrote:
@Celloshots–
I see where you are coming from, really, but let me put it this way: I knew nothing of Card’s public pronouncements — he didn’t really make all that many until the last few years or so. And when I read his stuff (especially Pastwatch) I’d have said he may have been a Mormon, but has a strong humanistic streak. A lot of positions I could agree with, and I thought he seemed a decent guy. I often say that I spoke to him personally back when Lost Boys came out, (I was interviewing him) and he seemed ok.
Then as time went on he seems to have become more right wing and a bit nuttier. I was never sure what to make of it. The guy I see on his site now is a very different one from the guy who wrote Pastwatch and a chunk of the Alvin Maker books. I wish I could speak to him again and figure out what happened.
So which guy are you thinking of? The one who wrote Pastwatch in the mid-90s or the right wing dude who wrote Empire?
I don’t buy his books these days. I don’t find them as compelling anymore, so to some extent the issue of financially supporting bigotry is moot for me. But if I see a copy of some of his books — Ender’s Game, perhaps — I might well recommend them, if only because they are damned good.
I find a similar issue with Tintin. I mean, Herge was a conservative Catholic who thought colonialism was fine. He was, in so many ways, a racist. (Look at his depictions of Africans — ugh). But Herge (who died in 1982) struggled with this in later editions, and I was asking for his books as a kid (while he was still living). My parents are pretty progressive people and quite conscious of Herge’s political biases. But they loved reading me the books anyway — they were really fun stories and quite a bit deeper than many give them credit for.
Were we supporting bigotry? Well, indirectly yes, in one sense. My father would often grumble that Herge was a fascist collaborator. But it’s also worth noting that Tintin in the Congo — written pre- WWII, and his most racially problematic work — hasn’t been republished. (At least not in the US).
But my father — a committed leftist and anti-racist if there ever was one– liked the books too. And even now, as an adult, when I can see the problems in Herge’s work, I still want to read them.
Did that make me a bogot? A supporter thereof? I don’t think so. At least I hope not.
I can’t put a statute of limitations on whether I should support an author or not through buying their books. I have to take it on a case by case basis, and ask myself, if I knew nothing of the person who produced the work, what would I think? That’s true of most authors. (I never knew Sam Delaney was black until a few years ago, I thought he was Irish!)
Posted 25 Mar 2009 at 8:11 am ¶
Asha wrote:
@JC: the reality is that most TCKs are probably not white, it just feels that way in the US because of the sheer number of white diplomats, scientists, and business people, and military who go abroad. but you have to remember there are almost 200 other countries in the world who have diplomats, businessmen, and scientists living in other parts of the world. i’ve gone to school with indian, peruvian, iranian, chinese, and brazilian TCKs, and i could go on.
in my experience homogeneous countries (like japan or india or china) have a harder time adopting the term immigrant, even for people who are clearly immigrants. but when someone gives up their passport, they are no longer an expat, they are definitely and immigrant.
the minority experience in the US, or really in any country, is similar to, but not the same as the TCK experience. for example, in the US, i navigate between sub-cultures that i am a part of (regional and ethnic), but there is something about those sub-cultures that remains American. that’s not the case abroad.
@ Rchoudh: when people talk about THIRD culture, they’re talking about the culture created by not really being part of the first culture or the second culture. the idea is that TCK’s don’t belong to the culture they live in, but they also don’t belong to their home culture, they will always be a little foreign, which is a separate culture unto itself.
Posted 25 Mar 2009 at 9:40 am ¶
Buster wrote:
Hey, just wanted to say thanks for the link!
Posted 26 Mar 2009 at 6:54 pm ¶