-redux:

cancer-man submitted:

The problem with anon’s question (re: the godfather, the departed) is that those are cultures/places/groups that almost everyone in America is familiar with. They are primarily considered white (yes, Italians and Irishmen do fit into the larger white panethnicity and are often treated with the same privileges that come with a white identity - I am not ignoring previous discrimination that occurred in the early immigrations of these groups but looking from a present day perspective) and fit the American stereotype.

SDM [Slumdog Millionaire] is different because it is about a country and a culture separate from America. It is about a country that much of the US has little experience with. It is part of a larger pattern of Orientalism, of painting the east/middle east as “The Exotic:” areas of lawlessness, corruption, tyrannical rulers, brutality, extreme poverty, and just general ~terribleness/backwardness~. This is an image that has persisted since Napoleon, through Imperial Europe and into modern day (Aladdin, The Indiana Jones Films etc.)

The fact that an entire nation in the east is again presented in this image, ignoring any sort of “progress” or ANYTHING GOOD other than this crazy-ass image we have of a BACKWARDS LAWLESS ORDERLESS UNGOVERNED CORRUPT SHITHOLE THAT CAN BE IMPROVED BY WESTERN MONEY AND CONCEPTS (IT IS BASED ON SOMEONE’S LIFE GETTING IMPROVED BY WINNING AN AMERICAN FUCKING GAMESHOW) IS GETTING A LITTLE FUCKING OLD

THIS IS ORIENTALISM

THIS IS EXOTICISM

THIS IS WRONG

SDM paints a westernized, outdated, dramatized/fantasy gross image of India that DOES NOT EXIST and is just a remnant of old Orientalist traditions.

AND IM PRETTY SURE THAT’S WHAT NATASHA WAS GETTING AT.

did i say that i love you peyton