A Positive Spin: Celebrating Gurpreet Singh Sarin on American Idol
Guest blogged by Simran Jeet Singh
Last week, people around the world watched a Sikh with a turban and beard – Gurpreet Singh Sarin – charm the judges on the iconic television show, American Idol. The show’s judges and producers played up his nickname, the Turbanator, and almost immediately, #Turbanator began trending nationwide on Twitter. As is often the case, however, the ugly face of bigotry reared its ugly head and reminded us all of the problems faced by Sikhs around the country. Countless Americans equated the contestant’s turban and beard with terrorism, and #Osama also began trending across the country.
Gurpreet has little control over how the producers of American Idol choose to project his image. Yet he has done an incredible job of working within the system to create positive change, and his breakthrough performance is something from which we will all benefit for years to come. More importantly, we as a community cannot learn how to build our image in greater America if we do not see Sikhs experiment within mainstream media and learn from those experiences. Certainly there were moments on the show that could have been improved, and while it is important to recognize and build upon these for the future, it is also important for us to take this moment to enjoy this unprecedented moment in our community’s history.
6 Responses to “A Positive Spin: Celebrating Gurpreet Singh Sarin on American Idol”
Just saying, people still don't know what the dastar and kes is where people may work or in society, even after all this "positive exposure." People are still to busy with their lives, and living in society. I have not met one person on the street who may say they saw the turbanator on american idol…
People don't need to necessarily be talking about this on the street … hopefully, repeatedly seeing the turban and beard in the context of a popular and mainstream forum will work in positive, subtle ways into the collective American consciousness.
Some people get dazzled by flashing lights. When they see people who look like themselves reflected in social or mass media they think that "social change" must be happening. It's all in the way things are being framed and interpreted, however. Sure, we see a sardar on our television screens in our living room and it makes us feel good at first. Until we realize that a sardar only ever gets presented in the media after he has been domesticated for public consumption (e.g., given another name, "The Turbanator", and displaying his paghri as a multicolored hat with flashing lights). This is not something new. It is a familiar pattern that goes back for decades, from Bollywood to Hollywood. You just have to take the time to recognize it.
Sure, we can all just "chill", sit back, have some popcorn and enjoy the show. (which seems to be what your message is here). I wish Gurpreet all the success in the world. But that doesn't mean I lose my critical edge. We cannot take our eyes off of the structural inequities that enable (and have enabled) negative images of Sikhs to be perpetuated in mass media for decades if we want to make some actual progress. Some of us want to keep our eyes on another prize.
Hold on a second, this trope sounds familiar. I think theres a blog post about this somewhere.
Well where I work no one saw that "exposure." This sorta reminds me of when people say "Well the Prime Minister of India is a turbaned man and it is good exposure." No one has ever told me they know who the PMOI is.
I love this idol and have to watch each and every episode and write my papers about new episode. Thanks for sharing everything about idol