I thought it was an interesting piece. I think that it operates on several levels, all of which are engaging in a kind of either cognitive or emotional estrangement. The first thing that I thought about when I saw it is that it clearly was in conversation with representations of the Iraq occupation. It asks the question, what would the occupation look like if it occurred in the U.S. The second level is the one that Shag points to, a critique of the arbitrary nature of racism, by taking a far less charged physical trait and giving it the symbolic power of racial signification. The red hair also ties into the symbolic power of 'red' that Joanna brought up, and there also seemed to be a reference to the struggles in Northern Ireland. That being said, I still have a certain amount of ambivalence about the sort of emotional manipulation around racial signification that seems to define the directors work (see the Justice video he made.)
robert wood
P.S. I think most of what M.I.A. had to say about Lady Gaga was right, but I still have a fondness for some of the songs (then again, I own a lot of Pet Shop Boys albums.) I also think that the videos are really clever.
> Shag writes
>
> "it's a video that asks the viewer to imagine the world if we were to
> racialize red hair. it's supposed to get the viewer to say, "oh fuckin
> stupid would that be?" and then use that as a wedge to get them to see
> how stupid it is to racialize any supposed sign of difference."
>
> I don't think it works like that. People would look at this and say,
> discriminating against redheads is stupid. But it would not follow that
> discrimination in general is a bad thing because a particular instance
> is stupid.
>
> That's not how prejudice works.
>
> Joanna
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