Browsing by Author "Dhillon, Komal K."

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    Brown Skin, White Dreams: Pigmentocracy in India
    Dhillon, Komal K. (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-24)
    Pigmentocracy or colorism refers to the practice of intraracial groups applying a preferential valuation to lighter skin, resulting in a system of contextual privileges and discriminations based on skin color. In India, this phenomenon is informed by numerous factors, including colonialism, the caste system, media, cultural practices, and patriarchy. The fundamental forces contributing to pigmentocracy are explored independently as well as in conjunction with each other in order to elucidate the multifaceted aspects of social organization in India, specifically, the larger effects of imperialism, capitalism, globalization, racism, and sexism as they relate to colorist ideology. Everyday practices and attitudes informed by caste, class, religion, language, region, and customs are also examined in relation to pigmentocracy. Although there are numerous mechanisms that contribute to the complexity of examining pigmentocracy, larger patterns also prevail that allow for a comprehensive understanding of how pigmentocratic notions influence and are influenced by multiple background and demographic conditions. Benefits for those who are on the lighter end of the skin color spectrum are recognized and leveraged in accordance with the systemic logic of being naturally superior. Conversely, often those on the darker end of the spectrum are perceived as inferior, thus perpetuating the superiority of whiteness. Pigmentocracy is detrimental psychologically, physically, and socioeconomically due to the ways in which darker skin is often viewed (by society, media, lighter individuals as well as darker people who subscribe to the belief that white is better) as less attractive, less valuable, less pure, and less clean. For those perceived to be darker, the consequences can include violence, marginalization, and discrimination in areas of employment, education, government, access to resources, psychological trauma, disparities in marital opportunities and conceived notions of beauty, and underrepresentation in media.
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    Can the Global Transmit the Local for Diaspora?
    Dhillon, Komal K. (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2013-09-01)
    In Modernity at Large, flows of global culture are examined through the neologisms of five various “scapes”: ethnoscapes, mediascapes, ideoscapes, financescapes and technoscapes. According to Appadurai, the cross-cultural nature of these strands informs the imagination of social life among both individuals and the collective. Unlike other area studies scholars, anthropologists, historians, economists, sociologists and the like, Appadurai’s project is to investigate the advent of mass media communication as it relates to cultural aspects of globalization. Specifically, he seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the effects of mass migration and media combine to create a force that ruptures our current understanding of the nation-state. To Appadurai, the inevitable break from the nation-state is made possible through the societal sphere of the imaginary that has been formed through images disseminated by mass media. It is precisely the interpretation and conceptualization of these imaginaries by diaspora communities that produce agency and allow for the construction of imagined and material worlds that cannot be understood through the current spatial center-periphery binary. Early on in his volume, Appadurai provides readers with ample methodological and explanatory framework for his theories and the existing models in which he situates himself. The groundwork for his volume is laid out in an organized and comprehensive manner and directs us towards anticipation of the explicatory cultural intersections of globalization...