Friday 20 June 2014

what is a 'native speaker' of english? the issue of race...

In an earlier posting, it was suggested that being a 'native speaker of English' could be interpreted as English spoken by the British, Americans, Australians, Canadians and Irish - but not by the Indians, Nigerians, Singaporeans and Jamaicans:
Jay Doubleyou: what is a 'native speaker' of english?

Native English speakers who are of Asian descent or candidates with Asian looks will NOT be considered Native English speakers (Caucasians ONLY) from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada need apply
Who is a native speaker of English?- eChinacities Answers | answers.echinacities.com

This paper argues that the English Language Teaching (ELT) industryoften does not treat all speakers of English as equal in its hiring practices.Rather, it gives preferential treatment to White native speakers of English.
Racism in the English language teaching industry | Ahmar Mahboob - Academia.edu

Here's a rather controversial Australian comedian who makes the point:


Fear of a Brown Planet - Workshops for Whitey - YouTube

Aamer Rahman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Shock value: How Aamer Rahman's 'reverse racism' joke saved his career
The Aussie comic on his YouTube hit, why teachers are using his video and how his 'police-related activity' means he won't be touring the US anytime soon

Brian Logan The Guardian, Wednesday 4 June 2014
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Aamer Rahman: 'Some asked me, straight-faced, if I now make $1m a year.' Photograph: Baron Walton

Late last year, Aussie comic Aamer Rahman was considering giving up standup. He and his partner Nazeem Hussain were disbanding their political comedy double act, Fear of a Brown Planet. Hussain had got himself a TV show, but, although the pair had been a hit at the 2011 Edinburgh festival, 31-year-old Rahman felt "at the end with comedy. I thought, my audience is small, what I'm doing is too niche."

So, demob-happy at their last few gigs together, he performed a routine that didn't usually feature in the show. "A lot of white people say this to me," the riff began. "They say, 'Hey, Aamer, you get onstage and make your jokes about white people. Don't you think that's a kind of racism? Don't you think that's" – dramatic pause – "reverse racism?'"

Shock value: How Aamer Rahman's 'reverse racism' joke saved his career | Stage | The Guardian

Indeed, some people find this offensive:


Aamer Rahman review – laconic comic on life in Australia, a 'Nazi beach resort'
Soho theatre, London
Rahman's flippancy deficit flouts standup convention and his approach to racial politics is both outspoken and unsentimental

Brian Logan The Guardian, Thursday 12 June 2014 13.34 BST
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Drier than the outback … Aamer Rahman's The Truth Hurts. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

"Too bitter for comedy," one critic said of Aamer Rahman. It's not quite true – the Australian comic (one half of the duo Fear of a Brown Planet) performs his show The Truth Hurts with a grin on his face, and his amusement seems genuine. But there's no denying his material – mainly about racial politics – is often dark, and Rahman is sometimes more eager to make a case than crack a joke.

Witness his opening line – a pretend-serious disclaimer about terrorism that makes us wait and wait for a punchline which, when it comes, doesn't exactly let us off the hook. His subsequent material on mass murder (ha ha!) then finds a "silver lining" to the Anders Behring Breivik killings, in a routine that raises questions about Islamist terrorism but also gives us boldly funny insights into how news stories about global attacks are experienced by millions of Muslims.

What's exciting is how Rahman seems neither to exaggerate nor soft-soap the perspective of a brown-skinned man from a country he calls "a sunny Nazi beach resort, a white-power Disneyland in the ocean". This is just how it is, and the laughs come ruefully from the indignities Rahman suffers along the way – and from the comical disparity between how white western culture sees itself and how it's experienced by others.


Aamer Rahman review – laconic comic on life in Australia, a 'Nazi beach resort' | Stage | The Guardian
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