#Multiculturalism

[jangillman]

[angrykittybarbarian]

The Qunari and how DATV handled Taash's character arc

Taash's character arc has been controversial for several reasons and while the grifters and rage tourists are bothered by their non-binary identity it is in fact not the problem.

The real problem in my opinion is rather the immature way in which this was handeled and the entirety of qunari culture along with it.

Because what I came to realize at a certain point is that Taash's character arc is about identity in a broader sense. Not just in regards to gender but also to culture.

While the gender aspect is handeld immaturely the cultural aspect is not really handled at all.

Let me elaborate:

I have already explained in a previous post how DATV sets up Taash's gender identity as a conflict with their mother while there is actually none.

The game desperately wants the player to believe that Taash being non-binary is a sore subject between them and Shathann but does not actually show it.

Instead we get Taash lashing out at their mother when she was simply asking questions. That kind of behaviour only served to paint Taash as a bratty teenager á la 'It's not a phase, mom-uh'.

Not only did this portrayal not achieve its intended emotional effect but also reinforced a harmful stereotype about trans and non-binary folk I have heared in the past few years too often: 'They are just confused.' 'They are too lost in emotion and make rash decisions.' 'They are just rebelling against their parents.' You get the gist.

The devs were so concerned with not offending anyone that they became even more problematic in turn.

The Youtuber Slandered Gaming made a, in my opinion, good suggestion on how this particular character arc could have been improved upon. He suggested Taash should have been firm in their non-binary identity. There shouldn't have been a question about it in the first place. Taash would have been subsequently more mature in their approach to the topic and the discussion could have been taken deeper than that coming out scene where we have to pretend Shathann was problematic for asking questions.

Perhaps Taash could have gone no contact because of several interpersonal differences with their mother, the non-binary identity being one of them.

It's why Dorian's character quest felt deeper. He was an adult who was sure of what he wanted. There was no question about him being gay. It was about how his father reacted to the fact and how Tevinter culture and society informed that reaction. It was all so tightly knit together that it was impossible to seperate. Talking about Dorian's sexuality had to involve discussing Tevinter society.

The same was done with Krem despite being a side character you potentially could completely ignore.

Circling back to Taash their character arc pales in comparison because it always remains on that surface level of "So, I'm non-binary. I will be offended if you ask questions and don't understand me right away.'

But the kicker is that the same template was right there. They simply had to fill it out and yet they didn't.

Taash's cultural identity could have been tied so much deeper and much more intrinsicially with their gender identity. Taash, aside from struggling to find their true gender, also struggles to navigate multiple cultures.

They are the child of a qunari who has been raised in Rivain.

Taash's story is not only the expereince of a trans/non-binary kid in a hetero- and binary-normative society, it is also the story of an immigrant kid.

And this is where Bioware missed a golden opportunity to explore what it means to not only be an immigrant kid but also a queer immigrant kid.

Many of us are raised by parents who have had no experience or touching points with queer identity up to the point of us coming out or are not tolerant at all because of rigid gender roles/ideas of morality they have grown up with in their home countries. Many of us do not come out at all to our parents because of that.

Given that Shathann seems to still be very much attached to the belief system of the Qun despite having left the core society this could have been an aspect thoroughly explored. We could have gained a more nuanced and humanized depiction of the Qun instead of having it presented to us via The Butcher or the Dragon King (cringe).

Shathann could have had a very rigid idea of gender and the roles she expected of each. The constant conflict between the more conservative mother and her more flexible child could have been shown very easily and beautifully. Shathann's general perfectionist tendencies would have played very wonderfully into this. It would have made Taash lashing out at her more believable.

And I think many of us immigrant kids could have empathized with and seen ourselves more in Taash, since many of us do know this constant struggle of trying to have a family, maintain a cultural identity while also wanting to be part of the countries we've been born/raised in. Many of us can exactly recall times when the way we wanted to live was in direct opposition to what our parents expected of us. This finds its expression in mundane things like the way we want to dress and, in case of some, extends to big life decisions (expectations of getting married, in regards to education, wether you want kids and a traditional family or not, purity culture in general, etc.).

For Taash it could have been Shathann berating the way they dressed, their very profession, going out and fighting because under the Qun only men fight or expecting them to observe certain traditions and rituals. And ultimately Shathann could have doubled down on her expectation from Taash to finally adhere to one specific gender role while refusing to understand the non-binary thing instead of simply asking questions.

This could have been so beautifully shown and resolved. It would have made the scene where Shathann finally uses the correct pronouns for Taash all the more meaningful. But Bioware adresses none of these things.

Did they really have not one single employee with an immigration background? Couldn't they have done some research? It's not so hard to find first person accounts on the internet or in the real world.

Instead the question of Taash's multiculturalism is adressed in one small quest where Rook has to make the decision for them wether they want to be rivaini or qunari.

Taash has appearantly no idea about what culture they want to practice and do not even entertain the idea of possibly being both.

The character that refuses to be bound by rigid gender roles appearantly draws the line at multiculturalism.

I cannot even begin to explain how this is so problematic on so many levels. It prepetuates this idea that people will always be seperate and if you happen to have a different cultural background you better abandone your parent culture if you want to participate in the culture of the place of your birth/upbringing.

In game it could have been an opportunity for Taash to recontextualize the Qun in a more flexible way. Seeing the positive aspects of the wisdom the belief system does have while questioning problematic parts. It would have brought nuance to the Qun that was previously othered as an orientalist religion in opposition to the Catholicism coded belief system of Andrastianism.

Without exploring these possibilities the Qun remains this strange system that is ultimately worse than anything else and not worth understanding. What semblence of nuance the Qun posessed in the previous three games has been sanded down to nothingness in DATV.

[ashleyfableblack]

"Okay… what about this one?" Queen Twilight tapped a hoof on the page. With a soft glow of her horn she drew out the complex symbol in the air as she sounded it out. "Vah… Lahk. Varahk? Varrac!"

Chrysalis smiled. "Perhaps…" She sleepily craned her neck to study her most recent clutch of eggs. A sticky green resin held the precious charges in place, dangling from a nearby rocky overhang. As the wind funneled through the natural arch, they gently swung, rocked as a baby in a crib.

With a puff of her cheeks she blew a gust of glittering pinkish light in their direction. The love energy swirled around the eggs like an octopus ink, clouding the air in a warm soupy fog before it was absorbed into the tiny grey orbs. The as-yet-unborn gobbling up the nourishment from their mother. Chrysalis gave a sleepy yawn and began to slowly drift to laying on her side,. She wondered if they, too would have violet eyes like their little lavender pony other-mother.

"Chryssi?" Twilight gave her wife a gentle prodding with her wingtip. "Honeybug?"

"MRZussaffm…" Chrysalis's eyes struggled open.

Twilight gave an pleading grin at the pitifully adorable sight of the little larvae nuzzled around her bughorse bride as they tucked into the translucent tresses of her cobweb-mane. "Chryssi…?"

Chrysalis chittered to one of the larvae and gave her an affectionate nip, removing a flake of molting chitin. "I'm sorry, beloved. I'm just-" she yawned again . "You know your pony naming conventions are so unnecessary to our changelings. They're hatched knowing their designations through the hive-mind."

Twilight pouted with a pleading smile as she leafed through the pages of the incredibly ancient book. "I know it's a point of cultural confusion between our races, beetlebum. That's why I'm trying to incorporate more of your culture and try some names more familiar to your people and your people's history- while at the same time educating myself on the Ancient Equish language and history." She held the book aloft in her magic with a prideful flourish, still carefully keeping her place in its pages. "THUS, we are using one of your old journals from the pre-Sucrosian Period!"

Chrysalis sighed and gave a playful roll of her eyes in surrender. She had to chuckle. When Twilight was like this, she truly couldn't deny her little wife anything. She watched with interest as Twilight opened her old journal. Two of their larvae quickly skittered from the navy waves of her wife's mane to climb on the millenia-old manuscript. Excited to help their ponymother, they chittered happily, holding the page in place with their forelimbs.

"So…. Varrac?" Twilight asked with a bright, curious smile.

"Well, she was good with snakes."

Twilight looked from the ancient book to one of the tiny changeling larvae cuddled into her crest of alicorn chest-fluff. "Are you a 'Varrac'? Are you going to be good with snakes?"

The tiny face lit up like a Hearthswarming bonfire at her ponymother's excited smile. She hissed out her tiny forked tongue and wiggled her little caterpillar-like rump of a tail segment. Twilight fawned with motherly pride and nosed at the tiny changeling babe. "I'll bet you will be. Of course you will. You look just like a Varrac."

Chrysalis adored moments like these, lazy afternoons together with her wife, watching her excitement and pride as she learned new things. Pouring over old volumes of any sort, Twilight came to life in a whole other way. Knowledge was her passion.

"Let's see here… What about… This one, V….Vaaa….Varghan?"

Chrysalis peered over the tome. "Vabam. As I recall she …was good with secrets…. good at telling them anyways."

Twilight crinkled her nose at that thought. Looking to one of the larvae she shook her head. "That doesn't sound like you, does it?" The tiny changeling babe tilted her head. returning her ponymother's smile and shake of the head. "No. You're not a Vabam. That's an honest little face if I've ever seen one. Hmmmm…."

She continued pouring over the swirling, magical symbols. With Chrysalis tutelage she was learning the art of reading them but still, the practice was FAR more complicated than any language she'd ever encountered. Deciphering the symbols was as much mental wrestling as it was arcane finesse, even compared to the darkest and most ancient of pony magics. "Okay, what about… Sssssurgat? No. I remember you said something once about that one. She liked to pick locks or…. Oo! Suluth! What about that one, Chryssi?"

After a few moments of silence Twilight looked up from the page. "Chrysalis?"

She chuckled. Chrysalis had dozed off. Their tiny charges, nestled secure in the tucked chitinous hooves of their armored queen-mother, mirrored her gentle snoring.

"Oh well." Twilight sighed. With a curling of the enchanted waves of her mane she drew the larvae gathered around her into her crest of chest floof. "I guess that can be enough for today."

The alicorn queen softly shut the tome. With a mother's love, she gently carried her little buggy babes with her as she sidled over to the slumbering bughorse. After a few moments of ooching she eventually found her way into the creche of her wife's limbs and In the enchanted air of sweet summer breeze the royal family drifted off together.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Source: Imtiaz Mahmood

Multiculturalism sucks...it is treason...! The former West is politically corrupt and weak ruled by traitors and cowards...!!!

[diaryofaphilosopher]

Subconciously, we see an attack on ourselves and our beliefs as a threat and we attempt to block with a counter-stance. But it is not enough to stand on the opposite riverbank, shouting questions, challenging patriarchal white conventions. A counter-stance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence. The counter-stance refutes the dominant culture's views and beliefs, and for this, it is proudly defiant. All reaction is limited by, and dependent on, what it is reacting against. Because the counter-stance stems from a problem with authority - outer as well as inner - it's a step toward liberation from cultural domination. But it is not a way of life. At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave the opposite bank, the split between two mortal combatants somehow healed so that we are on both shores at once and, at once, see through serpent and eagle eyes. Or perhaps we will decide to disengage from the dominant culture, write it off altogether as a lost cause, and cross the border into a wholly new and separate territory. Or we might go another route. The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

— Gloria Anzaldua, “La concencia de la mestiza”

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[y2k-2day]

Michael Jackson - Black or White (1991)

[beardedmrbean]

An Iraqi father charged with attempting to “honor kill” his teenage daughter outside her high school in Washington state appeared to care more about his car than his daughter as he was being arrested, new bodycam footage shows.

Ihsan Ali allegedly choked his 17-year-old daughter to the point of unconsciousness and punched her boyfriend in the face outside Timberline High School in Lacey in October because she refused to marry an older man in another country.

A chilling new video of the aftermath shows Ali yelling in Arabic to wife Zahraa Ali, who has also been charged, appearing concerned about police stealing their car as he’s being led by cops into the back of a cruiser in handcuffs.

“Zahraa, Zahraa, come here,” he yells, according to a transcript of the arrest translated by the Daily Mail

He called to another daughter, Haneen, and his wife to “take the car from [police] and drive it away so they don’t steal it. They took the car! They’re going to steal it!”

“The car … they’ll steal it!” he yells again.

Ali’s attacked daughter told police that “her father had recently been threatening her with honor killing for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another country,” according to charging documents previously obtained by The Post.

She had run away from home and sought help from school staff on Oct. 18, which outraged her parents, who showed up and attacked her — some of which was caught on camera.

As Ali choked his daughter as other students — including the girl’s boyfriend — desperately tried to pry her away, the documents alleged.

“It’s not right … you are not supposed to do this,” her father told her with his hands around her throat before she blacked out, the girl told police.

The girl escaped with her boyfriend, running to the school’s main office screaming, “My dad was trying to kill me” — prompting a school lockdown as school staff blocked the girl’s parents from getting inside, according to court documents.

Later in the video, Ali asked police if he could see the daughter he’d just allegedly tried to kill, according to the Daily Mail.

“You will not speak to your daughter,” the arresting officer tells him. “We’re investigating a criminal investigation right now.”

“Just let me tell her to come home … If I tell her to go home, she will go home,” Ali pleads before the cop slams the car door.

Ali, 44, and his wife, 40, were charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnapping and assault.

The boyfriend’s father, Victor Barnes, said his family have had issues with the Alis for months — including an alleged physical altercation that forced them to get a temporary protection order.

Honor killing is a practice in some societies in which family members justify killing a person, usually a woman, by claiming the victim has brought dishonor to the family, according to Britannica.

[serpentinesheldonserpentine]

On the theme of the ‘collapsing dominant’.

The highly disorganized moment we are living in now…owes much of its tinny, squalidly masochistic flavor to the erasure of historical consciousness. We no longer know who we are because we no longer know who we were, which makes it rather easy for other people to sell us an identity. ­– Gary Indiana, Art Forum 1997

[calabria-mediterranea]

Riace, Calabria, Italy

Riace: The Italian village abandoned by locals, adopted by migrants

The hilltop medieval village of Riace on Italy's south coast was almost a ghost town 15 years ago. Houses were derelict and the local school was near to closing.

The village was in danger of becoming extinct as residents disappeared to northern Italy, and abroad, for jobs during the economic boom.

Since then Riace has seen a change in its destiny, by openly welcoming a controlled number of migrants, who live and work as part of the community.

This transformation was instigated by the mayor, Domenico Lucano, who set up a scheme, funded by the Italian government, to offer refugees the abandoned apartments and training. It has helped to rebuild both the town's population and economy.

"I do nothing more than what I think is right for our little community," says Lucano, who started the pioneering programme in 1998.

"The multiculturalism, the variety of skills and personal stories which people have brought to Riace have revolutionised what was becoming a ghost town.

"There were people without a house here, and there were houses without people here. It's simple."

Photos by @ludom_, @nina_giga, @giovanni_not, @carlo_galluzzo_fisio, @nataliaborri, @marcodautiliamddisegnini

Follow us on Instagram, @calabria_mediterranea

[wonwoodrivethru]

me every time i remember that english is becoming the global lingua franca 😑😑😑

[jangillman]

Yeah, thanks for nothing Gretchen and Joe!

[castilestateofmind]

When foreign banners fly over you ancestral land, it is not diversity but conquest.

[seoulciology]

the 4 most popular korean sociologists and their theories

i remember being in a psychology class and hearing a korean name. after learning the language and familiarising myself with the culture, i recognised it. (it was dongju seo, by the way. still haven’t forgotten the name). it inspired me to make this lol.

i find that oftentimes when we study sociology we get given a westernized perspective - it’s inevitable in my opinion. you might see this when i support my theories with western sociological theories and you must inevitably perceive it with my point of view on certain topics because culture literally shapes us.

so here are the 4 korean sociologists that pop up on google, let’s look into their internal point of view on sociological theories together!

chapter 1: 한상진 - han sang-jin

he has a theory on “joongmin” or “中民” about the middle class having an impact on where politics go in korea. also talks about involving citizens in politics. most importantly! he makes an interesting observation that modernization in korea has resulted in “reflexive modernisation” where people criticise institutions once they have modernised. he offers a very interesting look into politics and, with this, postmodern theory. in my opinion, it is definitely pertinent because of the growing globalisation in korea.

chapter 2: 서동진 - seo dong-jin

now this man is interesting - his most pertinent work revolves around critiquing heteronormativity in korea. his book “queer in korea” is now on my reading list. he links with our last one in critiquing postmodernism and also talks about neo-liberal theory.

i find it interesting how his idea of “commodifying diversity” in korea aligns with my theory of korea being in late-stage capitalism. this shows an example of society commodifying the human experience. with him talking about how queer people reshape norms, i believe he must have to dive into at least some research on minority influence.

chapter 3: 윤인진 - yoon in-jin

by now you must be wondering why these people are all named jin. for korean naming purposes, i think the “jin” means truth? although it could mean multiple things depending on the hanja. we could only know the true meaning if we had their hanja (chinese characters for names) but i obviously don’t so i can only guess. 

anyways, bringing it back to sociology, this man turns away from queer politics and looks into another very interesting topic: multiculturalism. he speaks on sino-koreans, north korean defectors and more through “diaspora” (studies that look into ethnic groups through their impact). argues that korea needs to be more multicultural - without “cosmetic diversity”, therefore, being truly diverse. i would suggest considering “mcdonaldization” or how this globalisation can create american dominance. still super interesting.

chapter 4: 박길성 - park gil-sung

the only non jin! how iconic. this man looks into hallyu! this means - how korea transitioned from poverty to being such a global sensation. also seems to looks into capitalism. fascinating stuff.

conclusion

i am begging you to share any extra information on these people if you have it. also, let me know if you’ve heard of other korean sociologists (particularly women because where are they???). this topic fascinates me! have a good day.

[wildcat-brazil]

Racists: "multiculturalism is destroying our society!!!"

The jewish-korean neighbourhood in Brasil during Carnaval:

[betweenthetimeandsound]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/06/14/mexican-flag-california-protest/

"So, when someone waves the Mexican flag in the streets of L.A., it strikes a nerve. But maybe what unsettles people isn’t the flag itself; it’s what it reveals. It confronts us with a complexity we still struggle to accept: that being American doesn’t require being less of anything else. That pride in your roots doesn’t cancel your claim to this country. That loving where you are doesn’t mean forgetting where you’re from."

Here's a thoughtful analysis of the multitude of Mexican flags in the LA protests. It's especially interesting considering that today (the article was published two days earlier) is the tenth anniversary of the start of Trump's cursed campaign, in which he used Mexican immigrants as a scapegoat for all of the U.S.' problems.

The general thesis about trying to balance between belonging in one country and still being proud of your roots intrigues me. I see myself as an American of Ethiopian decent, which is a fact, and nothing more. How do you find pride between two different worlds?