Review Of Nayani Thiyagarajah's 'Shadeism'

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The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.

Nayani Thiyagarajah’s documentary, Shadeism, allowed me to question the extent at which our opinions are affected under the influence of the media and those close to us. Like Thiyagarajah, I grew up instilled with the traditional beliefs of my parents …show more content…

She noted that she hears comments like, “You people are dumb. You people live in trees. Your people are poor. You people were slaves” over and over again (Thiyagarajah 16:26). Her words mirror the extent of which the African asylum-seekers in Chris Cleave’s novel, Little Bee, are viewed upon by the British. Some of the verbal discrimination in the text included, “Don’t they teach you monkeys anything in the jungle? (Cleave 57)” and “Oh please. This is Europe. We’re a little more house-trained over here (186)”. The only exposure individuals like myself have of those in third world countries are the content shared by the media and through various forms of

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