[draft from when the situation was fresh and i pussied out on posting it cause i didnt want the smoke but ive grown some balls now]
I wasnt gonna give my two cents in this situation coz i feel like its very "be quiet white girl, you know nothing." But ive seen such crazy fucking takes on both sides i wanna give it now. As a display of my white girl urge to yap yap yap.
To start off, ill just explain my take on it before going into the two sides.
While there is the bigger picture here of being mindful of other cultures, Sabrina has apologised (the validity of if its effective is not mine to judge or accept) and the girl who was doing the zhagrouta said she didnt really gaf so i think we, those who arent immeadiatly involved, shouldnt be more concerned than the people it concerns.
Now to get into some of the delusional Sabrina god defenders takes. Oh my days. People saying that arabic culture(s?) shouldnt be respected because female genital mutilation is also a part of their culture. (Or other sexist practices in general)
Where, yes, FGM is an abhorent procedure that is done on women and girls, resulting in lifelong pain, nerve damage and psycological impacts. I would NOT equate it to a zhagrouta, a call of celebration and happiness from what i gather. Not in a million years. Not by a mile. That is very bullheaded, all or nothing thinking thats fucking crazy.
The thing is that every country and culture has negative or outdated aspects of it. Most would say that the work culture in Japan is bad, where people work so much that they DIE from fatigue. Most would say that the sporting culture in Englad is bad, where men get so psychotic about it that they beat their wives and children over their football team losing (or even winning.) Most would say that Polands religious culture is quite toxic (as is in most european countries tbh).
But i think most would also say that these very negative aspects of these cultures dont negate the positives. Culture is a complex thing and people can pick and choose which parts they want to honour and celebrate in their life and which parts they dont.
A different take i saw was that the girl going the zhagrouta shouldnt have been doing it in the first place, it was an inappropriate time or whatever, which is already borderline but fine. But even worse that she shouldnt have been doing it at an "American" festival, (which makes coachella sound like the turning point half-time show btw.)
Maybe i just dont live there, but isnt America always being hyped up as the melting pot of culture? Perhaps i would see their perspective if they meant it as "girl careful, ice is gonna get you".
Like out of concern for her yk?
BUT NO! Apparently we're dick riding uncle sam now.
Wouldnt NOW of all times be the moment to express yourself? What is this "silence brown girl" bullshit?
I swear to god, this trump shit is getting in your heads.
I dont know that just really pissed me off.
Some more tame takes i saw that were giving game theory were possible justifications for Sabrinas reaction.
For example, she thought that someone was just geeked out in the crowd and was like "what the frick." This kinda thing is pretty common for music festivals, people do pingers*, soak a tampon in vodka and put it up their ass, huff glue then just tweak out in the crowd while listening to EDM. This is an applicable context that could be given to Sabrinas perspective and reaction but theres just no way to confirm.
Another one was how she had just sung please please please and thought that the girl was referencing the lyrics and just didnt get the joke, what with the yodeling assumption.
Another was that the phrase 'its my culture' has been irony poisoned and made into a joke response, especially by gen z and Sabrina thought she was getting trolled which is why she was so confused and tried to joke back.
A different one was that yodeling is a dog whistle associated with white supremacy (which considering that stereotypically yodeling is a germanic custom i see the association) and with how Sabrina couldnt see her and how from what Sabrina could hear, she had just said that yodeling was her culture; Sabrina thought that there was a white supremacist in the audience and got uncomfortable with the situation. Along with her reference to burning man,
(which i had to google btw, from what i gather, the gist is it got psy oped by billionaires and wouldnt you guess, LOADS of white people. It said like eighty something percent of attendees are white.(so i think its safe to assume she thought that the girl was white if she was referencing it))οΏΌ
This is also a viable context but laid out like that it seems pretty far fetched right?οΏΌ
It did to me anyway. If anything, i learned something new in the 'yodeling is a dogwhistle' fact so that i appriciate.
All of these above are educated guesses as to why Sabrina reacted like she did but theres no way to know her thought process unless she explains it herself. And of course we have the actual context for the full situation so does this matter? Kinda, but ill get into that later.
Another take i saw, which was fucking INSANE. Was something to the effect of the girl was doing a war cry? Something like arabic people are coming to America and being "domineering ". That excusing the girl by saying its a part of her culture is a manipulation tactic to accept all harmful aspects of cultures??
The woman in the video kept saying that "these people (Arabic) build houses on top of dead bodies, on top of skulls" refering to how their countries are often war torn and war crys are a sign of domination and thats what the girl doing a zhagrouta was doing.
I literally have no idea what she was on about but her defence of Sabrina was that like, Sabrina subconsciously or instinctively knew that the girl was performing a war cry and drew attention to it because of that, to discourage "domineering behaviour".
The video was very 9/11, isis fear mongering. Treating Arabic people like animals starving for control. It was just such a strange watch. That kind of video could definately lead someone into an Arab hating rabbit hole and radicalise them. I know it seems like i just went from zero to a hundred very quickly but ive been taught to see these signs and my gut was telling me that video was subliminal messaging to be distrustful of Arabs.
Now to get to the other side of the argument.
My main takeaway in this is that people desperately need to hate Sabrina and dont know what they want, as people online often are. Before the apology it was "we need to be hold her accountable." After the apology it was not enough. Now shes every obic and ist. Doesnt it seem like we've jumped the shark? (I think im using that correctly)
This is the point where i might be speaking out of turn so feel free to let me know but i think Sabrina has gotten her brownie points to be given the benefit of the doubt. I dont mean in the sense that she shouldnt have been educated on what a zhagrouta is or that her choice of words shouldnt have been scrutinised but in the sense that we dont instantly assume she was being malicious.
Same girl who was back chatting the white house for using her song in their freak ice video is secretly xenophobic? Same girl who was saying protect the dolls in her VMA performance and has donated loads to charities is secretly bigoted?
I say this as someone who, again, neither lives in America nor is a celebrity, but i imagine you dont do these kinda things lightly no? Its probably the kinda thing that could get you blacklisted right? And it is actually! As in the *very same* show she had on an actress that was blacklisted by the industry for speaking out about Palestine.
So clearly you would only do it if you mean it right? I understand that celebrity is an industry. You want good publicity but you dont need it to survive and be sucsessful. All you truly need, at a baseline, is a good personality and talent. Activism is not rewarded, not by people who matter.
To sum that up, I dont think Sabrina is a racist larping as a lib. Shes shown that she does gaf about minorities.
I dont know. Again, maybe this last section is "shut up white girl, you know nothing." But i still figured id give my two cents. Bye guys that was all.
*pingers is uk slang for molly/mdma/ecstacy
God this post is so long.
