Did the beloved 1980s teen classic The Karate Kid perpetuate Orientalist stereotypes?
The Palestinian village of Bayt Mahsir near Jerusalem circa 1940. The agricultural community was one of hundreds of Palestinian villages depopulated by Israeli forces during the 1948 war.
(UNRWA)
The dismissal of Palestinians as “barbaric” or somehow less human is rooted in a long history of colonizing narratives, including how the land and people were first viewed as “uncivilized.”
1920s Dada artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven was known as ‘the Living Dada.’
(Library of Congress)
Digital archives can have an important part in creating more inclusive art histories, but paying attention to ethical research practices when sharing and circulating resources is critical.
The words Robert Oppenheimer quoted from the Gita, seen written in dust on part of a deactivated nuclear missile at the Pima Air & Space Museum.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Oppenheimer’s knowledge of Sanskrit literature was more than cursory. He used quotes and parables from Sanskrit texts as a guide to right actions in his life.
Iraqi civilians and U S soldiers pull down a statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad.
Jerome Delay/AP
Countless memoirs have been published by US and British veterans in the 20 years since the Iraq War began in March 2003. Iraqi journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad offers a fresh perspective.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, photographed in New York circa 1874.
Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Theosophy and its founders had an outsize impact on Americans’ ideas about spirituality and Asian religions.
It’s been 75 years since Palestinians were first expelled from their homeland. Here, people from Tantura as they were relocated to Jordan, June 1948.
(Benno Rothenberg/Meitar Collection/National Library of Israel/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection)
Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation and Boké Saisi, The Conversation
The UN’s resolution to recognize Nakba Day on May 15, to mark the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, helps to acknowledge past traumas but does the resolution have other implications?
The original cover art of Edward Said’s book was this Orientalist painting by Jean Leon Gerome: Le charmeur de serpents.
Wikimedia
Edward Said’s seminal 1978 book, Orientalism, explores how often racist or romanticised stereotypes create a worldview that justifies Western colonialism and imperialism.
Crazy Rich Asians film poster (Warner Bros), The Whitewash book cover (UQP), The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu original film poster, The Mask of Fu Manchu film poster, The Conversation.
Siang Lu’s debut novel suggests whitewashing Asians for the screen is profitable. ‘People pay to see foreignness repackaged as stereotypes – and thus rendered virtually invisible.’
Fleeing to safety after a cyclone hits Bangladesh.
Abir Abdullah / EPA
When climate change is used to explain migration, social inequality is naturalised.
Muslim participants of different backgrounds who participated in an audience study said they identify with Kamala Khan, also known as Ms. Marvel, because she’s connected both to her ancestral culture and her American one.
(Daniel McFadden/Marvel Studios 2022)
The invisibility of anti-Asian racism is inextricably connected to the model minority myth, which serves to disguise the violence experienced by Asian American and Asian Canadian women.
An anti-Islamic protester during a demonstration at Toronto City Hall on March 4, 2017.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
The need for security agencies and the media to view and present Islam and Muslims as constant potential threats feeds into a dangerously violent and deadly Islamophobia.
Scheherazade and the sultan by the Iranian painter Sani ol molk (1849-1856) in One Thousand and One Nights.
wikipedia
Aladdin draws on hundreds of years of anti-Muslim sentiment in western culture.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been described as a Byzantine Emperor in style, positioning Russia as the “third Rome.” In western history books, on the other hand, the Bzyantine Empire is all but ignored, pointing as it does to the east.
AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
Russian president Vladimir Putin draws upon the imperial symbols of the Byzantine Empire to position Russia as the “third Rome.” Meanwhile, Byzantium is erased by western history books.
CRISPR uses segments of bacterial DNA that can make targeted cuts in a genome when paired with a specific guide protein.
Stuart Caie/Flickr
Controversy over a Chinese study that used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology shows how the West still looks at the East through the lens of Orientalism.