White nostalgia: when 'timeless' fantasies turn out to be incredibly racist

[struggle4progress]

September 7, 2015 - 8:36AM
Ruby Hamad

Two years ago, a lengthy Financial Times essay predicted that the discovery of some disturbing colonial-era photographs would signal the imminent end of "colonial nostalgia" ...

... alongside these representations of "lost white paradise," were gruesome pictures of colonialism's less pleasant side. In one, Dutch soldiers smile for the camera shortly after gunning down an entire village. Dead bodies are clearly visible in the frame ...

... optimism was premature. Colonial nostalgia is back and Taylor Swift is the latest artist to immortalise it in her new video 'Wildest Dreams' ...

... Kahn has "accidentally" perpetuated the colonial interpretation of Africa as nothing more than a dry landscape of magnificent animals and dramatic sunsets. It's not so much that there aren't enough black people in it, it's that they're regarded as utterly inconsequential ...

http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/when-timeless-fantasies-turn-out-to-be-incredibly-racist-20150906-gjgha0.html

[Skittles]

1. am I the only one who finds Taylor Swift to be extremely creepy?

[romanic]

2. Probably not.

Me? I just think she's a shitty run-of-the-mill pop star.

[kelliekat44]

5. It's not you. She is one of several no-talents out there they make noise, pass it off as music, and

have their noise played constantly on airwaves over and over again. The public thinks they like it because it is all they hear. Good music doesn't get played and our grandchildren are being artistically dumbed down as well as intellectually dumbed down. The nation is really suffering. Hope we can overcome.

[Snobblevitch]

3. I wonder who's colonial-era it is that they refer?

There are no photographs from the colonial-era of what became the U.S.

[cyberswede]

4. Dutch colonial era, from the snippet in the OP. nt

[Princess Turandot]

7. The article is about European colonialism of Africa and the so-called East Indies...

in particular, by the Dutch and the British, as part of their far-flung empires. It talks about the romantic view of that era by Europeans and Aussies. A la:

Many British colonials lived the lives that are still fondly remembered: sundowners on the veranda, hunting with hounds, Yorkshire pudding at the club, after days spent under the fan at the office building railways and making laws. (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5d48f3d4-9752-11e2-a77c-00144feabdc0.html)

The website in the OP is one geared towards Aussie women.

[olddots]

6. there is no there there

with Taylor Swift .