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These Americans who are like ‘why do we only hear the ruckus when black people do it & not when white people do it?’ just shows how American-centric they are. Many have reported the actions of white foreigners in Indonesia. Unheard of because they’re not international news.
This is the first one that explicitly promotes what privileged foreigners have been doing since the time of the Dutch colonization (cheap, easy living) AND has gained traction that captures international attention.
Race only became an issue when fellow Americans jumped to her defense, *understandably* thinking that she was rejected for being black. It’s not the issue at all. It is her American citizenship and privileges. Not a matter of race, but of nationality-bestowed privileges.
This can be a call for Americans of any race to consider issues beyond color even if they may likely intersect. Class. You can’t expect to achieve the same results by interacting with Indonesians like we’re white people when the dynamics are different.
Gentrification is a many-layered thing. In this case, we criticize an American citizen’s role in perpetuating it. Aside from that, we also have to criticize the governments as well as the urbanized locals who want to seek profit from the tourist-centered economy of Bali.
Many areas in Indonesia have to submit themselves to gentrification and conversion from their agricultural lives to a tourism-centered one. Many lose livelihoods or find it hard to maintain them in the face of constant urbanization.
Begpackers, digital nomads, ‘Native Speaker’ English teachers, and yogis may be less privileged in their countries of origin, but here, they are no different than the Europeans who moved here in the 1870s when more profit could be gained with cheap labor and living costs.
The person may have genuine intentions in wanting to help the local economy by redistributing the wealth of foreign visitors, but this is similar in tone as the Ethical Policy of the Dutch East Indies at the beginning of the 20th century. How so?
'We feel sorry for the struggling locals and we want to better their lives by giving them our resources all the while we live in an economy that exploits their labor and livelihoods'.
By promoting more people to come to Bali and live such lifestyles, it would only push the tourism industry into taking advantage of the locals' labor and livelihoods.
Of course what the person is doing does not amount to colonialism as it was a different thing altogether, but historically, Indonesia has experience with foreigners that exploit the local conditions for their benefits, at the expense of the well-being of the locals.
When interacting with locals they may not consider this as a big issue. Not shocking; to them it's just a way of life. As the underprivileged, many of these locals shift with the forced changes. Some complain, some do not.
We see this perspective when, for example, local workers in the service industry serve foreigners with better attitudes, while they may not do the same for locals or for tourists from other Indonesian regions, often acting curt or not giving the same level of assistance.
The foreigners themselves may not think that they're better, but the locals treat them like they're better because they live in conditions where they have to do that in order to survive in an economy that lives on the pockets of foreign money.
There is nothing wrong with moving to Bali or any other area in Indonesia and finding happiness. Indonesians criticize this person because she promotes that way of life during a pandemic and in a situation where it is tone deaf to the issues that occur locally.
Considering that she was criticized before the promotion took off & the fact that there are others like her (perhaps with less genuine intentions), I hope we can criticize the government and urbanized locals too on their roles of perpetuating gentrification with the same vigor.
In my study of discourse analysis on Twitter conflicts, many people flout the maxims of conversational correspondence and comment on Indonesian social activists views on BLM because of this issue. Let's not get sidetracked & make unnecessary comments that would deepen conflicts.
If we don't want them to make it about race, then we shouldn't make it about race either. It can be a valuable learning opportunity for future discourses where identities intersect, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
I think it's very easy for Americans to be confused at why Indonesians criticize this. Many of the comments from Americans say 'why do you hate them for trying to live their lives?'. It's not about that. Trust us, we are the experts of being hated on for trying to live our lives.
Being conscious about the effects of one's actions not only to yourself but to the people around you is important in communal cultures, not so much in individualistic cultures. This may sound like cultural generalizations, but it's an important concept that must be understood.
I myself am not sure about the specific details of the person's faults. From what I know the promotion of living in Bali involves them not paying their proper taxes. A lot of foreigners here get away with doing this because of their status as privileged foreign citizens.
But it is much more than just them not paying taxes. It's about an island that continually depends on tourism which forces the locals to gentrify their homes and shift their lives and livelihoods. It's about a history of foreigners taking advantage of 'developing countries'.
This scene in Crazy Rich Asians resonates with a lot of how Asian cultures view life and some Indonesians feel it’s relevant here. We don’t see happiness the same way Americans do as the ultimate goal. There’s much more to it than individual comfort and achievements.
(placing aside the film's own issues and understanding the problems that are inherent in feudal traditions in communal cultures but thank you for the reminder of this scene anyway @bennysiauw89)
This is why for example Maslow's hierarchy (which places individual rights at the top) has recently been criticized by BIPOC people because ideas of wellness in the Global South don't conform to that structure. https://barbarabray.net/2019/03/10/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-and-blackfoot-nation-beliefs/
For those wondering, is there racism towards black people in Bali and Indonesia? Of course, but this is either based on colorism or an import of Western racism through values distributed in the intersection of other factors such as class or political views.
It has different dynamics from what most people commonly think about racism, but a horse is a horse of course; racism is racism. Some commentators have used this in criticizing the person, which is injustifiable.
Indonesians cannot say that we don't care about the color or race of people when we are far from the poster child of racial harmony. This is another issue altogether but something that must not be forgotten. https://twitter.com/janpiterjonkun/status/1266502708980150272?s=19
Anw I'm muting this thread cause I wanna focus on my finals. If you have any important inquiries, just DM me. I haven't published anything about this specific issue, but I am writing about Twitter conflicts for my thesis. Hopefully it'll be published later this year.
Maap nih tapi orang Indonesia bisa gak sih gak make isu ini buat jadi rasis ke black Americans? Malu maluin anjir. Jangan goblok deh pake n-word segala dan bilang ‘sekarang gue ngerti kenapa orang putih Amerika sebel sama orang item’. Tolol lo anjing.
Biarin aja mereka ngatain Indonesia negara jelek blablabla kek kita gapernah denger yang lebih buruk aje dah. Keterbatasan pengetahuan geografis orang Amerika juga bakal ngebatasin pengetahuan mereka soal Indonesia, jadi emang cuma ngata ngatain gajelas doang 
Closing notes on the issue:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKOPp_TnJQ4/?igshid=19vnn5dn560hw
A great thread on Instagram that explains exactly what's going on with information about the economic situation in Bali, perspective about claims of anti-blackness, and details about the Visa violation in the previous post.
A great thread on Instagram that explains exactly what's going on with information about the economic situation in Bali, perspective about claims of anti-blackness, and details about the Visa violation in the previous post.
