Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Hyphenated Body, the Hyphenated Self: Iranian & Pak Instances

Date: Wednesday September 14, 2011

The Hyphenated Body, the Hyphenated Self: Investigative Inquiries of The Iranian-American Instance

Concepts of "the hyphenated self, the hyphenated body, construction of hyphenated identity."

"Immigrant Identity construction as contingent in contexts of unequal power and under conditions of encounter."

"Race ideology, Critical Race Theory (CRT), Theory of Systemic Whiteness (KarunaKaran 2007) and immigrant identity construction -- the Iranian-American instance."

Negotiating identity as Other -- The Iranian-American as Other.

Census definition of Iranian-Americans as "white" ?

Possible Racialized identity construction of hyphenated persons of Iranian descent in locations in the U.S.

Possible Racialized identity construction of hyphenated persons of Pakistani descent in locations in the U.S.

Field Research, observations, interviews -- qualitative.

[All the above, list not exhaustive]


I provided these concepts to Sepideh Saadat, a student of Iranian ethnicity living in Germany and studying in Bonn, during 2 extended discussions in New York City, on research topics for a thesis on the following dates -- September 3 and September 7. Discussions continue.

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The Pakistan Instance of the Hyphenated Body, Hyphenated Self
This morning, immediately following my posting late last night on the Iranian-American instance of the Hyphenated Body, Hyphenated Self, I received a Skype request from a student-philosopher friend who has just arrived in Germany to study at the University of Gottingen.

The kid, now an insightful graduate student, loves the French structuralists, has loved them for over a decade and absolutely deserves to study and write philosophy at this venerable place of learning. He got to Gottingen by his own proven efforts.

Q. So what's the problem?

He is admitted to classes but he cannot find housing. Landlords refuse to rent to him.

One prospective landlord said he could not rent to him because he needed to have lived in German for 10 years prior!
Smells of racist injustice.

Q. Why can't this student philosopher find housing?

Because, as my friend surmised he "is a Pakistani with a beard".

I have suggested to despondent ( he stated he was depressed) Muhammad Saad Khan, my friend of 15 years, to immediately contact a campus-based student ombudsman and also ask everyone and anyone he meets, to help him, especially fellow students.

Saad says he thinks a "cute" French language teacher, he met at the uni. showed a liking for him. I urged Saad to ask her to help him.

This morning, I will call the Permanent Representative to the UN, from Germany and alert him to the problem.

I realize all this is data about the Hyphenated Body, the Hyphenated Self.

Hitler screamed for a Body that was un-hyphenated, a default body, an impossible body.

What Hitler's search led to was mass murder of bodies he despised and marked for destruction, and in the end, most definitely and predictably, his own, by his own hand.

Self hatred, buttressed by an irrational, unsubstantiated fear of the unknown, is the motivating force for the futile search for the defaulted, unattainable, nonexistent un-hyphenated Body, the un-hyphenated Self. This construct is the positioned oppositionally to Advaita, the One is the Other, The Other is the One.

Advaita does not require a patina of Faith, an overlay of Belief, to demonstrate its robustness as an umbrella theory for the Social Sciences.

Dr. Chithra KarunaKaran
City University of New York [CUNY]

Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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