On Tuesday morning we watched a movie called “Mississippi Masala.” This movie surrounds a girl named Mina and her family as they’re forced from their home in Uganda because they’re Indian. When Mina grows a bit older she ends up falling in love with a young black man named Demetrius. What ensues is a tension between Demetrius and Mina’s family because Demetrius isn’t part of the Indian community like her father would have wished. In the end the two decide to remain together regardless of Mina’s families wishes. The underlying theme of the movie has to do with the prejudices faced by Mina’s family in Uganda, and the parallels that the African American community faced and still faces in America, particularly in the south.

On Tuesday afternoon we had a guest speaker come and talk about the South Asian experience in pop culture. She noted some instances where Hindu beliefs coincide with science fiction. She also touched on the fact that often times Asian Americans will adhere to black culture in order to assimilate themselves into whiteness. There was also a clip from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” that stereotyped Indian food in an extremely misguided and racist way.

On Wednesday we spent the day peer reviewing each others papers. I found this practice to be very grounding. Hearing my peer feedback gave me more confidence that the direction my essay was heading is coherent, and they also gave me some good ideas for the direction my essay should head.