Cultural capital and cultural capitalism

Blankinship discussed the absence in Islamic history texts of any recognition of the Japanese, Roman or Greek civilizations of the time. Perhaps the same is true for other parts of the world, which often did not feel the need to acknowledge the existence of the growing Islamic empire. And as you trace the development of these historical narratives, you realize how little these civilizations had to do with each other, and how isolated they were in their own self-created boundaries.

But even if globalization has made it somewhat impossible to remain an isolated society in today’s world, modern politics and culture are creating new forms of cultural separation.

On this side of the Atlantic and elsewhere, people have begun to “otherize” foreign cultures, smartly packaging or commodifying them using easy labels and stereotypes. This becomes especially true for America’s relation with the rest of the world.

America’s global political influence is hard to ignore, but its cultural dominance is often overlooked. American music, art, pop culture, television and film have become as much a part of culture in other parts of the world (albeit in slightly different ways) as they have in America. Hence it is often easy for an American to find something unique in another culture, and for foreigners to find no “culture” in America at all.

This sense of foreignness has given Americans ample opportunities to “otherize” less-dominant cultures.

Yoga, Chinese food, Indian accents at your local call center and even starker tag words like “Talibanization” are all images used to quickly package foreign identities. But often, cultural similarities can be hidden behind such labels, making it difficult for immigrants to blend in or for successful dialog to occur.

And often this will lead to a false perception of the social differences between different areas. A conversation with an international student about how things are in a developing country might make this more evident, where inevitably the sentiment of “it’s not as bad as you think” is likely to crop up somewhere. This occurs everywhere, not just in the United States. Pakistanis from Lahore will often ask people from Peshawar if they use Facebook too, as if they were from a separate time, let alone the same country. But it is a bigger problem in America because of the global influence that such stereotyping can have, and because of the increasing divisions in American society today.

Things like yoga are soft examples, but other forms of cultural labeling have elicited forceful reactions. Think of the African backlash to Bono’s campaigning for Africa. It seems counterintuitive that there would be negative sentiment in Africa over an international star trying to promote Africans’ cause in the global arena, but it is the packaging of Africa as a place that needs help (and as little beyond that) that appears to have caused the uproar. Some might even say that people will embrace terrorist ideology because they feel alienated by such stereotyping. Of course there is more involved there, and I do not claim to have the grand solution to the world’s stereotyping problems, let alone world peace, but there still seems to be a connection.

You might feel that at Princeton, where a certain level of knowledge and understanding of the world is expected, this would be less of a problem. And it is, but every now and then you read a profile of an international student and hear how Princeton is so different from their home in a developing country, and you have to sit back and give it a second look. Things aren’t that different, or that bad, I often think to myself. Interestingly, the very fact that American culture is so widespread and understood is not only what gives the impetus to stereotype, but also what should actually provide common ground for Americans and foreigners to build on.

International students will go back home; some will stay and some will not. But the cultural influence that America had on them will find its way to their home countries. By bringing back home the ethos of a place like Princeton, students are bringing cultures together, in their own little ways. Continuing to stereotype them will only hinder this process.

Zeerak Ahmed is a sophomore from Lahore, Pakistan. He can be reached at zahmed@princeton.edu.