Pre Clas Blog: Arjun Appadurai

Appadurai's article explores the global cultural economy. Appadurai notes that there is this sense of nostalgia for some, nostalgia for a place of time that one has not been to. Growing up as a teen, there was a television channel, that would air Different Strokes at night. I watched every single episode and was fascinated with the American sitcom. Purely for the fact that I liked comedy, but also the fact that it was a famous American show. I wanted to know what it meant to be American and somehow this show acted as a gateway. Although it was among a list of many that I would watch, all american shows. The reason why this one was different is the fact that there was this constant feeling of Nostalgia. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman. There is a definitely mettanarrative around this whole show, and that is the notion of two black children taken in by someone who holds so much privilege in the country, during a time in which there where still pretty high racial tensions. Appadurai states " The past is now not a land to return to in a simple politics of memory. It has become a synchronic warehouse of cultural scenarios" (513), the show constantly drew upon the tensions that Mr Drummond faced, and at this time it was seen as kind of revolutionary for the country. I celebrated the family dynamic, although not really know what the underlying tones suggested. Living in an interracial household, this had never appeared as something that may be such a problem.