Klingon vs. Spanish
This week’s reading started with an explanation of the energy and resources being poured into one of the hottest, fastest growing languages in the world; Klingon! This shocked me initially, but nothing shocks us for long here at The Cultural Critic. It truly is mind boggling to consider that a fictitious language that originated from a T.V. series, has so much widespread acceptance while the idea of bilingual language rights for Spanish speaking americans remains a controversial topic. This would be a wonderfully rich topic for secondary students to explore in social studies or language classes. After examining the history of Spanish language rights in the United States, students could compare and contrast the attitudes toward bilingual education in Canada vs. the United States.
Klingon play as minstrelsy
In Chapter four of her book, Teaching Toward the 24th Century; Star Trek as Social Curriculum, Karen Anijar argues that beneath the surface, the fascination with the Klingon culture is that it provides a way for the participants to fetishize the “other”. For those who engage in “Klingon play” it is a way of displacing white violence, rage and displays of barbarism onto the other. It is interesting to note that in the original 1960s version of Star Wars, the Klingon race was an obvious reference to the Russians. In the later version of Star Wars, the Klingon character Warf was played by an African-American actor. Anijar even goes as far as comparing the Klingon play culture to a the blackface tradition stating that “Klingon gatherings are no different than minstrel shows”. Here, Anijar references the work of David Roediger who is probably one the most well known intellectuals in the field of whiteness studies. Roediger theorized that historically white “performances of blackness” such as minstrel shows were usually done by ethnic and other working class groups of white people. These displays should be understood as a projection of their anxiety about holding on to their own symbolical “whiteness”. Once again, Anijar’s work offers teachers many ideas for engaging in meaningful lessons with students. For example, students could examine examine ideas surrounding stereotyping and ideas about the “other”. Are there other examples of this phenomenon in popular culture?
This week’s reading started with an explanation of the energy and resources being poured into one of the hottest, fastest growing languages in the world; Klingon! This shocked me initially, but nothing shocks us for long here at The Cultural Critic. It truly is mind boggling to consider that a fictitious language that originated from a T.V. series, has so much widespread acceptance while the idea of bilingual language rights for Spanish speaking americans remains a controversial topic. This would be a wonderfully rich topic for secondary students to explore in social studies or language classes. After examining the history of Spanish language rights in the United States, students could compare and contrast the attitudes toward bilingual education in Canada vs. the United States.
Klingon play as minstrelsy
In Chapter four of her book, Teaching Toward the 24th Century; Star Trek as Social Curriculum, Karen Anijar argues that beneath the surface, the fascination with the Klingon culture is that it provides a way for the participants to fetishize the “other”. For those who engage in “Klingon play” it is a way of displacing white violence, rage and displays of barbarism onto the other. It is interesting to note that in the original 1960s version of Star Wars, the Klingon race was an obvious reference to the Russians. In the later version of Star Wars, the Klingon character Warf was played by an African-American actor. Anijar even goes as far as comparing the Klingon play culture to a the blackface tradition stating that “Klingon gatherings are no different than minstrel shows”. Here, Anijar references the work of David Roediger who is probably one the most well known intellectuals in the field of whiteness studies. Roediger theorized that historically white “performances of blackness” such as minstrel shows were usually done by ethnic and other working class groups of white people. These displays should be understood as a projection of their anxiety about holding on to their own symbolical “whiteness”. Once again, Anijar’s work offers teachers many ideas for engaging in meaningful lessons with students. For example, students could examine examine ideas surrounding stereotyping and ideas about the “other”. Are there other examples of this phenomenon in popular culture?