#ethnocentrism

Like yes you are right

90 some minute video essay that can’t be easily summed up, but my best attempt is: addresses the Euro-ethnocentrism and cultural ignorance of westernizing Greek mythology, and the dismissal and erasure of mythology’s cultural significance because it’s *just fantasy.*

I think some western comparisons would be:

- Though it doesn’t hold the same significance as in the past, if Arthurian Legend was set around Crete, or Madagascar, or Long Island, or the Bahamas, there’d be backlash.

Mythology being *fiction* via virtue of having magic or supernatural happenings doesn’t justify it being yanked from where it was created and grounded; what it’s intrinsically tied to.

- When Christians are told that their mythology, their Bible, is a silly little fairytale book, they’re pretty justifiably upset. They say, “this is culturally significant to me. This is more than make-believe to me.” And we all understand why! There’s innumerable stories that use the Judas or the Crucification or Cain & Able themes/motifs.

(Adaptions or fusions are obviously different.)

"brown" is usually used in reference to Northern Africans, Middle easterner, southern Asians and Latin americans.

But all these people have a diverse set of skin tones. A diverse culture. A diverse set of language. A diverse set of history and lineage.

Speaking as a latino, we are racially diverse, our ancestry usually comes from Spain, Portugal, Africa, and south/central American indigenous people. But there are also Asian heritage and even a good portion of Jewish heritage. In latin america we don't define race or ethnicity or nationality the same way many western nations do. Instead if you were born here to citizens you are said cultural. I have met a Brazilian who's parents were Germans and became citizens he was a Brazil citizen and only identified as Brazil and spoke Portuguese. Is he brown??????? Despite being indistinguishable from a white American as long as you didn't hear him talk and know nothing about his culture.

I'm hispanic, and all the times I've seen a "hispanic adjacent" character in this setting, they have called attention to the fact that was the case by either directly mentioning something that alludes the fact or by havign them sometimes spur some spanish words, something that I love and I do myself. But that is not normativity isn't it?

Thas the story itself calling attention to the fact that this character works on a different cultural framework than any other character. You see the character's accent mentioned because they sound spanish because that is not the norm. You don't see it mentioned with all characters and the rest of characters, you assume, speak normally. When the character says "señora", the story calls attention to the fact that the character is hispanic but it doesn't do it under the guise of "normativity", but the opposite, which can be fine.

Here was my conundrum: How do you write that normativity on language other than their own? Thick accents and sometimes saying a word on a different language will inevitably point to the this "non-normativity". And this is perhaps even not escapable in your mother langauge, as I dont think most of us when we read a story on english that doesn't mention the accent or ethnicity of the character we are thinking "yeah they are probably sounding like a kiwi (new zealander)"

And then hit me:

I also exist upon this conundrum of accidental anglosaxon-defaultism. In a voice chat you will know i'm not native because my accent, maybe even you get to know i'm from Spain. In a text, maybe you infer it because i sometimes say things like "bueno" or other spanish words cause i like doing it or maybe because I typo more than usual, but on a vacuum it will be assumed I'm american or british at best. In fact, the better I've gotten in the language the more it has come to happen.

God-speed dear Jesse on your latest journey where you may take your rest. You always did your best. You always helped us see racism has no place in a democracy. You mentored us along our way on separate paths that lay alongside your own by right, allies in a long, broad fight to make America, finally, act right. You encouraged us to face the foes who would take us all down, with…