Rubber Soul, bell hooks

"Mass culture is the contemporary location that both publicly declares and perpetuates the idea that there is pleasure to be found in the acknowledgment and enjoyment of racial difference" (366). The author describes the Other as a spice, or a "seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture." I immediately thought of how people around me use Othering. A couple of my friends who are of a different ethnicity, actually use their "Otherness" as a means of entertainment. They tell stereotypical jokes of their ethnicity all the time. It makes sense that they would use racially limiting perceptions as comedic relief, since our white-mainstream culture uses it in the media constantly. People who are not of the mainstream ethnicity use stereotypical jokes about their own ethnicity as a coping mechanism to join the mainstream view. It allows them to lighten the mood and it is an attempt to prove that they acknowledge their difference but they are "white" enough to assimilate to the mainstream ideologies. The author says that Othering is a "contemporary revival of interest in the "primitive," with a distinctly postmodern slant." This quote made me think of a game show called "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge." It was a Japanese television show that was aired on SPIKETV and constituted of contestants doing the most ridiculous obstacle courses that more or less left them in pain at the end. Americans dubbed over what the game show hosts were saying as well as the contestants which usually was along the lines of something very primitive and making them all look stupid and crazy. In summary, American culture has used the Other as a means of belittling and entertainment.