Reversing the gaze : what if the other were you? / Genevi�eve Makaping ; edited by Simone Brioni ; translated by Giovanna Bellesia Contuzzi and Victoria Offredi Poletto ; foreword by Caterina Romeo.

"Translation of Traiettorie di sguardi. E se gli altri foste voi? Rubbettino, 2022."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-179) and index.

The anthropological journey of a Bamileke immigrant woman -- End of the anthropological journey of a Bamileke immigrant woman -- My not-very personal diary -- To belong, but to which tribe? -- Call me Negra -- The difficulty of dialoguing within the margin -- The anthropology of the other -- Harassment and more -- Daily experiences -- The many shades of Black -- Participant observation of an eccentric subject.

What if the Other were you? What if we were the Other? Being part of an environment is second nature to many of us. For others, it is not. Others are perceived as not belonging to by virtue of their language, appearance, skin color, way of dressing, gesticulating, and speaking. In this book, Genevi�eve Makaping denounces the structural racism of contemporary Italy, emphasizing the way in which diverse forms of inequality-race, color, gender, class-intersect and feed off each other. Drawing on her own experiences, Genevi�eve Makaping spins the customary gaze of anthropology around, and the gaze that in colonial ethnography was directed at the so-called uncivilized indigenous and Black peoples, now focuses on the white majority as seen from her point of view. She-a Black Italian woman, whom the white gaze often sees as the Other-has chosen the path of participant observation in order to study the white majority: "I gaze at myself who gazes at them who have always gazed at me." This reversal of perspective forces white people who are used to being characterized by "normality" rather than by "whiteness," to experience what it is like to constantly be "the Other". Genevi�eve Makaping's book-challenging, original, incisive-stimulates reflection. It forces readers, not just in Italy but all over our increasingly globalized world, to become aware of and to confront the question of racism through the retelling of everyday occurrences that we might have experienced as victims, perpetrators, or witnesses. But above all it urges us-all of us-to decide what side "we" are on and what community "we" belong to. It ultimately poses the fundamental question of who "we" are".

Print version record.

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