The more and more I think about public spaces, the more and more I’m confused as to what constitutes them. I was in downtown LA the other day in a not so friendly neighborhood. The streets were filled with graffiti and the pavements were filled with people who were high on a variety of different drugs. I contrasted that to the neighborhood where my parents live in. Their neighborhood is very suburbanesque and it shields itself from the outside world by being caged in behind bars. We talked a lot about public spaces in class and how a public space is somewhere that’s home to expression. Why is it that the streets of Los Angeles, certain ones of course, fulfill that requirement but other neighborhoods don’t? Why is it that you can express yourself, the message you have, and what drives you on the walls of Downtown Los Angeles but in Beverly Hills, Culver City, and certain parts of Santa Monica you must refrain from doing so? It got me thinking about who lives where and how economic status might play a factor. In the more affluent locations there isn’t really room for self-expression and I don’t think it’s considered a public space the way the streets in less affluent locations are considered. A lot of what is considered public space depends on who is included and who is excluded. A public space therefore can’t be anywhere that is owned or home to the affluent because they won’t make it readily available to the public.
My mother wears the Islamic headcovering known as the Hijab. No one ever forced her to wear it, she chose to put it on all by herself. She’s not an extremist whatsoever, in fact she’s a lot more liberal than you would think and sometimes just because I love the idea behind the hijab, I wear it when I accompany her to certain places. The other day we had to go pick up a family member from the airport. As we anxiously waited with flowers in hand, a group of Caucasian males passed by us and shouted ignorant slurs that likened us to members of ISIS. I mean I get it, I really do. They’re ignorant and they make their judgments off of what they see in the media day in and day out; but in that moment I just thought about how powerful a country’s account of history can be that it frames an entire population’s view on who the “others” in society are. There are many African Americans in Iran who migrate to the country and enlist in Howze, the religious academy for Mullahs. The best way that I can explain how they’re treated is by explaining how us Muslims in America are treated every time we step into an airport. History is extremely subjective and America has always done a great job of leaving out the parts when they’ve messed up and highlighted the parts where the other parties were at fault. Everything from Al Qaeda to ISIS has been developed by the same country that condemns it. So as I stood there and watched these boys make fun of my language by blurting out gibberish, I realized that we are never going to be liked in this country because the story tellers of this country have too much to lose if they were to take ownership of the wrongs that have been done unto this country instead of pretending like it was the “others” who brought us to our knees.
I remember the days when Youtube didn’t have ads before airing your music videos. As I waited patiently for 25 seconds to pass before I could listen to the song I wanted to listen to, I thought about the time when ads were things you only saw on the television set. The most amazing thing isn’t how ads have been able to infiltrate almost every social outlet that we’re on- from Youtube to Facebook to Instagram, but rather how we have been able to adjust accordingly. Some Youtube videos allow us to watch or listen for around 10 seconds until we’re allowed to hit skip and some require us to watch the entirety of the video. The truth of the matter is, the ads in the former have been designed in such a way that by the time you’re able to hit skip you’ve already heard something about the product that is of interest. So whether we want to admit it or not, we are seeing the ads that are being produced for us; whether they’re for 10 seconds, 25, or several minutes, these ads have been produced with our gender, race, and sexuality in mind. As I went onto Youtube to watch a Brian McKnight video I had to sit through what I thought would be another boring 25 second advertisement. Because I was ready to engage with a piece of music that I loved, my guard was down as to what was being presented to me. The ad turned out to be a dove ad about loving yourself and finding beauty in your flaws and I fell absolutely in love with the ad. When I went shopping the other day I realized that I subconsciously reached for the Dove soap without thinking twice because that’s how much their message had resonated with me in the short 25 seconds. So I thought to myself…why was the Dove commercial right before a Brian McKnight commercial? I realized that the placement of the advertisement was both strategic and calculated. The viewers of Brian McKnight videos are women and it is also women who make up most of the consumer makeup of this country. What we might find to be subconscious or accidental has actually been planned for to the tee.
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AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2015
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