Merchant of Venice is a great but difficult play. Human emotion is universal and timeless. The structure of society alters. The fact that Shakespeare who was born and grew up in a very specific place several hundred years ago can still speak to us so profoundly demonstrates this.
The reason BIPOC does not work in the UK, is that the Indigenous population of the UK is white. And some of the v ancient customs do persist, particularly in the rural farming communities (eg shepherd's counting which remains Brythonic) I also think it is a very flattening term, because it lumps together too many disparate experiences.
My daughter reminded me yesterday that the reason why the press say Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian identifying actress to win the Best Actress Oscar is of course Vivian Leigh was born in Bangalore and brought up in India (and did win 2 Oscars). If someone did a tooth enamel analysis of both sets of teeth, it would show that both were brought up in South Asia. However their cultural background differs greatly. And really as Malaysian Chinese, Yeoh's cultural experience is v different from someone who is Japanese or Vietnamese or Bangladeshi.
The concept of the universality of human emotions allows people to celebrate the vibrancy of cultural differences without losing the common thread imho.
Your large capacity to urge us on to forgiveness moves me, brother ... thank you ...
We need to do it. Peace.
Excellent.
Merchant of Venice is a great but difficult play. Human emotion is universal and timeless. The structure of society alters. The fact that Shakespeare who was born and grew up in a very specific place several hundred years ago can still speak to us so profoundly demonstrates this.
The reason BIPOC does not work in the UK, is that the Indigenous population of the UK is white. And some of the v ancient customs do persist, particularly in the rural farming communities (eg shepherd's counting which remains Brythonic) I also think it is a very flattening term, because it lumps together too many disparate experiences.
My daughter reminded me yesterday that the reason why the press say Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian identifying actress to win the Best Actress Oscar is of course Vivian Leigh was born in Bangalore and brought up in India (and did win 2 Oscars). If someone did a tooth enamel analysis of both sets of teeth, it would show that both were brought up in South Asia. However their cultural background differs greatly. And really as Malaysian Chinese, Yeoh's cultural experience is v different from someone who is Japanese or Vietnamese or Bangladeshi.
The concept of the universality of human emotions allows people to celebrate the vibrancy of cultural differences without losing the common thread imho.
This is so eloquently said. Beautiful and forceful and true. Forgive my ignorance. What is BIPOC? Never heard of it in the UK.
Black Indigenous People of Color
not something we use. Thanks