{"id":1450,"date":"2009-09-05T18:24:06","date_gmt":"2009-09-05T22:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/?p=1450"},"modified":"2009-09-05T18:24:06","modified_gmt":"2009-09-05T22:24:06","slug":"welcome-to-the-space-jam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/2009\/09\/welcome-to-the-space-jam\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Space Jam"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great perk about studying abroad in England is that you\u2019re doing just that: studying. Everything we do is a learning opportunity. We constantly are taking note of the interactions between people, what groups of people are present in what area, and conversely what groups of people are absent from what areas. As much as I love this constant state of observation, I can\u2019t help but wonder if sometimes I\u2019m reading too much into situations. About three minutes ago when I started this blog, I planned to write on how different groups of people are treated differently throughout London. I still believe this is true. But in those three minutes, a wonderful thing happened. Space Jam<\/em> came on! If you don\u2019t remember, the movie involves Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny saving the world from evil aliens. Talk about quality entertainment! Two children from London picked out the flick to watch before their bedtime and, being the mature people that we are, four of my fellow students and I are kindly decided to keep them company (while reciting our favorite lines right along with them). The children can\u2019t be more than nine years old. We are all a little more than double their ages. Yet here we are all sitting around a television enjoying a Saturday night together. As this happens, I\u2019m wondering: just how differently are separate groups of people in London? In its first couple scenes, Space Jam<\/a><\/em> has told us that forced control over others is wrong, that stealing talents and goods from others is wrong, that everyone has something to learn from others, and that everyone has something to teach others- not too shabby for a movie that stars a basketball player and an animated rabbit.\u00a0 On our visit to a gurdwara, we were told that those who followed\u00a0\u00a0Sikhism<\/a> believed in lifelong communal learning as well. I in no way mean to belittle Sikhism to the level of Space Jam<\/em>. I do believe though that the people sitting in the lounge with me are listening to similar messages as those that are delivered in gurdwaras. With such similarities being apparent in mainstream culture and arguably a minority religious belief in London, the separation between these groups is sadly easy to recognize. This may seem paradoxical but I believe it makes sense. Clearly, the mainstream culture and minority cultures claim to believe in similar ideals: communal learning. Yet the London community is separated (making such learning difficult) based off of ethnicity, race, and class. How frustrating! I could understand if these groups\u2019 core values or ideals were so conflicting that problems arose and, therefore, separation made a bit more sense.\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t seem to be the case. Some sort of disconnect is present. A misunderstanding between cultures? A hypocrisy in one or both? What accounts for this separation?<\/p>\n

There doesn\u2019t seem to be easy answer. Our class discussions have tended to point the finger at the majority culture and for the most point I\u2019ve supported that sentiment. But I don\u2019t know if the answer is really that simple; that is, I don\u2019t think that the mainstream culture holds 100% of the responsibility for the separation that exists between cultures. But Space Jam<\/em> reminds us that we can all get along in the end if we just communicate with one another instead of ignoring how much we have in common and highlighting our differences. That\u2019s not to say that our differences should be completely erased. The Sikhs have a beautifully unique lifestyle that, in my opinion, shouldn\u2019t be \u2018mainstreamed\u2019. But to have a gurdwara all the way in Southall rather than have a felt presence in London, to have Brick Lane be a predominantly Bengali community with few other places in the city where such communities exist, basically to have a separated society is, to me, exactly opposite of what all of these communities teach. Maybe Michael and Bugs need to make another movie for this lesson to be learned. I know I would gladly spend another Saturday night learning from them. But my hope is that the lesson isn\u2019t just taught. Clearly, that is already happening. The hope is that the lesson starts being learned and applied. Maybe I\u2019m reading too much into Space Jam<\/em>\u2019s influence on London culture. But as a student who is always observing and studying what\u2019s going on in my surroundings, I don\u2019t entirely think that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great perk about studying abroad in England is that you\u2019re doing just that: studying. Everything we do is a learning opportunity. We constantly are taking note of the interactions between people, what groups of people are present in what area, and conversely what groups of people are absent from what areas. As much as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[1164,1130,1151,1163,840,1162,1122],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audrey","tag-community","tag-gurdwara","tag-identity","tag-minorities","tag-racism","tag-separation","tag-sikhism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/norwichhumanities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}