I recently got sent this video by Vivek Shraya, a Toronto-based artist. This new short, Seeking Single White Male is a study of a brown body in (queer) white spaces.
Vivek Shraya is a Toronto-based artist whose projects include multiple records and a collection of illustrated short stories. His music was recently featured on Degrassi and Private Practice, and he has performed and read throughout North America, sharing the stage with Tegan and Sara, Dragonette, and Melissa Ferrick. His first short film debuts this fall.
My interest in this video stems primarily from living in Boston - and it being common place for Brown bodies to be viewed as exotic and “other” in predominantly white queer spaces. I’ve seen it go both ways. One where people fetishise each other based on stereotypes (both sexual and otherwise) and the other where people are completely against dating people of color because they don’t fit into stereotypes or beauty ideals. In my experience here, there is a lack of people of color in the more publicized, popular clubs and there is almost always an element of exotification in the mix - i.e. NO you cannot touch my hair, YES I’m from Brooklyn even though I’m so “unique” looking, etc. I think there generally needs to be more dialogue around the stereotypes, fears and expectations we have of one another. Perhaps this short can spark some of that discussion.
