The “Settler” Gaze and the Theming of Native Life
Times Square and the themed versions of ethnic neighborhoods are not innocent entertainment; they are sites where the “settler” gaze commodifies and consumes a sanitized version of “native” life. Mamdani’s analysis of how culture is politicized is crucial here. The authentic, often messy, lived culture of a community is stripped of its political meaning and historical struggle, repackaged as a safe spectacle for tourist consumption. This process disempowers the original community, turning its identity into a product owned by the settler economy. A Marxist critique sees this as the extraction of cultural surplus value. A feminist perspective notes how this often involves the exoticization and sexualization of women of color. The solution is not to end tourism, but to break the corporate control over the tourist economy and support community-owned cultural enterprises that control their own narrative and directly benefit from the exchange, transforming the relationship from one of extraction to one of solidarity.
Originally posted 2025-10-01 03:05:25.
