I'm at my kid's school #musical. Their school does pretty good productions every year. This year it is #Aladdin (Jr. Bc ofc there is an entire industry for this). It was a pretty good show.
And it was surreal and weird
I'm trying to follow what is happening in #Gaza. It is a million nightmares at once. Thousands of people's worlds are brought to violent, tragic ends every day. Americans are calling for the eradication of #Palestinians. They are shouting down anyone suggesting palestinian lives matter. There are rallies where hundreds of Americans chant that #Israel should "finish the job". These are mostly Christians.
Our fing.PRESIDENT has said he wants Hamas to have no more /capability/ to ever attack Israel again, while also repeating #IDF talking points about #Hamas militants being everywhere in the Palestinian population. So Biden is cheering for #genocide.
And here I am most certainly in Rural, Red USA, where there is widespread, uncritical support for genocide, often without even disguising the sentiment with euphemisms like politicians do.
We spent an hour watching our very white kids on stage, pretending to be Arabs, dressed in stereotypical clothing, singing songs modeled by Americans on #Arabic folk tunes, enacting an Americanized version of an Arabic story. We clapped and cheered for our kids. Now they are receiving flowers in a reception line while hundreds of parents and community members tell them how amazing it all was.
While our taxes are sent to destroy the children of Arabs, to annihilate their families, to expel them from their homes.
I don't have a takeaway, just this bizarre juxtaposition.
#palestine #war #Entertainment #culturalAppropriation #orsomething