Individualized minority self-representation can still reinforce dominant stereotypes

Evidence

Tracey takes offence at the protagonist Karim’s hammy portrayal of an elderly Asian man, suggesting that it simply confirms white stereotypes about Asians as “funny, with strange habits and weird customs. To the white man we’re already people without humanity.” Against Tracey’s assertion of necessary black political solidarity, Karim argues for the individuality of his performance, that it is about “one old Indian man” and does not claim to represent an entire culture (Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia [London: Faber and Faber, 1991], 180). — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 676

Categorization

• XREF: This distinction — contesting vs. quietly reinforcing through individualized portrayals — is exactly the analytical edge to apply to Hamid’s Changez and Naqvi’s characters. — connects to: Playful performance can denaturalize links between phenotype and ethnic identity. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 99