Про Африку, Армению и стереотипы.
У меня возникла дискуссия при обсуждении Японской дорамы Usokon где второй герой Кенто уезжает в Африку.
Дискуссия, на английском, тут: https://dramacool.pa/usokon-2023-episode-12.html
Они возмущались стереотипным и поверхностным отношением к Африке, Я возражал:
Yoonmi Kim
Africa isn't a country. It's a continent. C'mon. Get with it, my fellow East Asians. Or, not you too, Japan, not you too.
Can't you name Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, South Sudan, Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Tongo? That's off the top of my head.
J Efe
Agree with your comment. It's not that hard to pick one out of 54 countries.
Mikhail Gambarian
Not everybody knows South Sudan, but everybody recognizes Africa. I think you are allowed to go to Europe, for example ??
And not everybody (me included) can really differentiate Africa countries, so for them just Africa gives all information they need.
JJ Efe Mikhail Gambariana day ago
So you're saying ignorant people should not be exposed to new knowledge? Nobody is asking the audience to solve a quiz on African countries. If "Tunisia" was used in this drama, for example, anyone who doesn't know where that is and is pressed about it can Google. I can assure you though that for the most part, people will assume it's some faraway place and move on.
- Generalizing Europe speaks for a lot of ignorance as well. Germany and France are vastly different countries, and they're neighbours. Also, no one says I'm going to Asia, when in fact they're only visiting Japan. It's a matter of respect.
But with Africa it also adds to the problem that the majority of the world views it as a homogenous "country", where there is only heat, hunger and lions, one place that apparently can't help itself, that's why everybody is suffering there.
Africa, however, is the continent with the most ethnically diverse countries, while most of the problems there are still effects of colonization, it's extremely overlooked that African countries have also built beautiful cities and fostered smart and amazing people, that aren't in need of foreigners coming to their help.
That's why generalizing it does more damage than one can think of, because it just keeps promoting the same wrong prejudices. Choosing one out of 54 countries is the first step to show respect.
Mikhail Gambarian
"heat, hunger and lions, one place that apparently can't help itself, that's why everybody is suffering there" - this is the point, why Kento Yoshida goes to Africa - apparently with some humanitarian mission. Because he is a noble person. If he was going to Tunisia, nobody would understand why - may be to grab more money?
J Efe Mikhail Gambarian18 hours ago
They meant that's a stereotype that continues to persist. That you immediately misunderstood and jumped to the conclusion you did explains a lot. It'll do you a load of good to expand your worldview beyond what you're fed by a media that insists on perpetuating said stereotype. And if a character must be shown being noble, I'm pretty sure there are recognisable places in Japan that can be used to do that. After all the poor and suffering are everywhere, not just in "Africa".
Mikhail Gambarian J Efe
Nobody knows poor places in Japan ((( I am sure they exist, but I didn't hear about them. But I know that Africa exists, and that stereotype opinion about it is not 100% wrong.
So if you want to show some noble person going somewhere to help poor people, Africa looks like optimal choice.
I have seen use of Africa like this before. And once, in dorama Bimil, the Hero asked to send him (as punishment) to some far away country nobody knows about, and they send him to Armenia, for 3 years. Armenia is the country I came from (I live in Russia) and I don't think it is so back-world , through it is somewhat poor now. I wondered about such external view on Armenia, but didn't feel much resentment.