I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

On the other hand, people who judge entire groups based on indiviudals are wrong in principle aren’t they?

I’m glad Fugstar highlights the positive family lessons in Sarfraz’s book – its been far too often that I’ve had to disagree with people who say so and so (usually Sarfraz or Konnie) isn’t a proper ‘Pakistani/Bangladeshi’ etc

The problem here is both people ‘from within communities’ who want to ‘restrict identity’ and people from outside who want to stereotype.

While I welcome Sarfraz and Rupa criticising Kureshi and East is east on merit , I’m wary of any arguments phrased in terms of cultural sensitivity and embarrassment – because for me the bigger risk is that this may help those from ‘within communities’ who want to restrict and control what is or is not acceptable.
(eg; over Brick Lane) – say you don’t like X by all means, but don’t encourage censorial tendancies, encourage creativity instead. And support the stuff you do like whether popular like GGM or underapprecaited like Wild West or Cardiac Arrest.

Interestingly, even though I didn’t say it in the review, the observational comedy of EE is superb in places, it’s just that as with much ethnicized humour, how it may get read amongst differing audiences is often ambiguous. Such is the contested politics of racialized representation. What’s more interesting is to consider in what ways such discourses play themselves out in the public domain.

The identity markers of Asian or Muslim will always – in a racialized society – ascribe certain characteristics onto our bodies. Whether this gets reduced to ‘burden of representation’ doesn’t always have to be the case though.

If you are a world class development economist, dont spoil it with feeble, effete identity essays.

The minority industry is very lucrative and tempting though. Great salutations to everyone who has shunned it and gotten on with adding value.

sarfraz manzoors book was a pleasant change from ‘Teds’. The guy really loves his family.

Rupa apa,
Don’t feel burdened, just do your own stuff and make your own categories. suppose its all about taste at the end of the day.

Very true Arif.

By the way, I loved East is East.

you’re interested in human rights so you must be a brown feminist.

i get that sometimes – not too often thankfully – and its always been from other asians. the wider idea of representation permeates the ‘political’ sphere and its too often taken for granted.

On representing Asians an Muslims, there is no way to avoid it when I am with people who have little contact with us, to be aware tht people will form opinions about us as a group by my actions as an individual. What I do will either challenge or confirm their stereotypes. And we all think in stereotypes to an extent.

I guess that this can be a good thing if it makes us take the responsibility seriously and improve our behaviour out of awareness of its wider impacts. And it can be a bad thing if you want to be treated as an individual and feel that unless you have time to give people a lecture, their understanding you will probably result in misunderstanding your group.

A film or an academic event is a bit like a lecture, when nuances can be brought out. The burden of representation in that context is just being careful. In real life it is hard to be so careful, and so sometimes people get the impression that Muslims are very pernickity and earnest by seeing how I act and connecting it to media representations of fundamentalism, while sometimes they get the impression we just want to be liberated and western if it weren’t for our families, if they meet a less uptight Muslim and then connect it to that hilarious “East is East” comedy with a serious message.

Of course we aren’t monolithic, but people want to feel they can understand us in an easy way, rather than get bogged down in all our petty internal squabbles and dissecting what comes from culture, what comes from religion, what comes from family conditioning and what comes from personality. Let’s face it – we don’t routinely make such distinctions among non-Asian people, so we can’t expect others to know all about us, and so we either gently educate by taking on the burden of representation or make no effort to do so, and leaving people responsible for their own stereotyping.

Is there any point any longer in even discussing things in terms of ‘Asian’, when doing so is seemingly meaningless because it marginalises Hindus and Sikhs in the discussion? Whilst AsifB has a genuine sense of an Asian identity, it seems that some people don’t even understand this.

Brown women (term of person above) used to be seen as exotic + “full of Eastern Promise” but I think since veil issue now are more usually perceived as oppressed and repressed with many Joe Public not able to distinguish between Muslim + non-Muslim.

I love you

You don’t have a blog anymore? What’s up with the Facebook thing? I feel like I’m the only one without a Facebook page/account/whatever. I feel left out.

Rupa:
“As a friend once put it “I’d rather be a token than unemployed”.

Related thought: I know that recently, I got tokenized for being both brown and a woman. I don’t doubt that there weren’t other factors involved, but I know I was used for this. Being brown and a woman pretty much encapsulates the “marginalized,” or “underrepresented,” or “diversity” all around, which people seem very enthusiastic to market so as to make themselves appear welcoming “to all.”

I felt exploited.

Interesting post, although I’m not quite sure I like the term “burden of representation”. To me the term seems to suggest we are on a one-way street – that the burden is placed on Muslims by some third party against their will. That is to say, the majority foists responsibility onto the minority, and in essence uses one individual as a gateway into a particular community.

I don’t think this is fully the case, as in many cases Muslims themselves are complicit – Sarfraz himself admits so when he says he is happy to use the media to discuss Muslim issues. As previous posters have written, people like Saira Khan are happy to capitalise on their good fortune of being the representative flavour of the month to further their own careers.

If you get a chance, I would recommend Amartya Sen’s “Identity and Violence”. Essentially, he argues that people have multiple identities which they use in different contexts. So, on a Saturday afternoon my most important identity might be that I’m a Man U supporter, but come Friday my Muslim identity is strongest. As a human being it is perfectly natural to have a composite identity. However, it is much harder for minorities to express these composite identities as the majority tends to focus on one particular identity to make their interaction with them easier. So the Muslim component of my identity becomes elevated to my be and end all – in essence it means the only way I can communicate to the majority is as a Muslim. I think this is where the burden element comes in. The complicity element comes in when people in the minority become lazy and allow the majority to only see them as having one identity and exploit it.

Oh, and since everyone is discussing “representative films” – for pure entertainment value I really enjoyed Ae Fond Kiss a few years back by Ken Loach – yes, it’s the usual story of love across the divide, but I thought it was intelligently portrayed and actually seemed relevant to me.

I do rate Black Album the book and Bhudda being autobiographical as well worth a go – arguably his best stuff is his writing for Venus and the Mother – all very West Londony and poncey – but better than being a token.

try watching My Beautiful Laundeette as a 19 year old bloke back from college with your parents if you want to squirm a bit – East is east is a cakewalk

“Sammie and Rosie Get Laid” (starring Shashi Kapoor, no less) was pretty embarrassing too, as was the television adaptation of “The Buddha of Suburbia”. Oh look, Hanif Kureishi was involved in both, surprise surprise. Not exactly flying the flag for your average stereotypically sheltered 2nd-gen Brit Asian dude who didn’t want to terrify his paranoid parents about what he was getting up to behind their backs whilst simultaneously trying to sample some of the more, er, liberal aspects of Western life without going to “extremes”.

I don’t think we really had any positive (and relatively family-friendly) depictions in the British media at all until the whole Goodness Gracious Me era kicked off. “Cardiac Arrest” starring Ahsan Bhatti was pretty good, but not exactly watch-with-your-parents stuff.

Rupa- I heard you talk about East is East at the Brick Lane circle earlier this year and know exactly what you mean about the ‘wrong’ way in which some white audiences react and the way it is Pakistani/Muslim cultural traits that are the butt of humour in this film – BUT really you have got to get over this because
a) It’s a genuinely autobiographical piece – accurately reflecting many mixed heritage relationships of its time. (When to some the fact that there were mixed heritage relationships in those days comes as a surpise) nb; Ayub Khan Din is gay and some of the plot is clearly coloured by how this affected his life in the early 70s
b) As a Bangladeshi – did you not notice the way in which the father listens to news about the Bangladesh Liberation war in the background ? (And how his heavy handed treatement of his kids splits the family and mirrors the way in which the brutality of the Pakistan military broke the country)

and c) try watching My Beautiful Laundeette as a 19 year old bloke back from college with your parents if you want to squirm a bit – East is east is a cakewalk
- but then my generation had lots of training what with Love thy Neoghbour and Aint Half Hot Mum being watched as avidly as Naiz Zindigai, simply for the brown faces.

If you’re looking for a non-representiative yet entertaining film about British Asians, check out Wild West from the early 90s.

For entertainment, Beckham delivers nicely – but my favourite British Asina film and one which IS representative for a seventies non-London generation both as a book and flick is Anita and Me.