“A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit” in regards to Covid-19
Tiffany Midge’s piece, “A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit” poke fun, but also highlight, the insane culture of pretending to be another identity or even profiting off particularly Native American. She opens this piece with, “Has pretending to be Indigenous ever gotten you down?” (126) which immediately sets the witty and sarcastic tone of this piece. This piece, similar to many of Midge’s pieces is written in a very interactive form and unique style. The formatting of her writing is different in every essay, making every piece feel different. Midge calls attention to the way people often “Indigenous identity pirating” and comically suggests alternative identities for these individuals to pirate.
My personal favorite alternative identity being Justin Trudeau which Midge describes as “Our highest-selling package, as popular in the United States as in Canada” she continues, “While it isn’t always easy to convince people that you’re the prime minister of Canada, you’ll certainly have fun trying” (127). In this sentence, Midge gets at the heart of the meaning within this piece. She uses sarcasm to highlight how ridiculous it is that people pretend to be something they are not. She uses people like Justin Trudeau or Rhododendron Bush (or even A Real-Live F**king Grizzly Bear) to emphasize how one cannot simply take someone’s identity and it’s an absurd thing that people do. Midge connects the idea of pretending to be Canada’s prime minister (something no sane person would do) to pretending to be Native American, or another race—something that happens oddly often in America.
This piece is reminding me of a new kind of pretending of identity in America—pretending to be old, pregnant, or unhealthy in order to receive the COVID-19 Vaccinee. It was in the national news recently, two young women dressed as Grandmothers, or elderly people, receive the vaccine. And the worst part is, it worked. One news article states,
“We haven’t had any lack of willing arms to get vaccinated. We also have people faking to be old to be vaccinated. So yesterday we realized a couple of young ladies came dressed up as grannies to get vaccinated for the second time, so I don’t know how they escaped the first time, but they came (to get) vaccinated. The bonnets, the gloves, the glasses -- the whole thing and they probably were in their 20s” (Cutway).
When I saw this on national news, I was at first shocked, offended, and a little confused. My one grandmother is widowed and 83 and has been struggling to get the vaccine since she lives in an extremely rural town on a farm. Yet, these two young healthy women were able to get the vaccine. However, as the news story continued, I could not stop laughing at the mere fact that two young women lied about their birth year and dressed to be elderly to receive a vaccine. The idea is insane. Saturday Night Live recently made a skit about this, entitled “Vaccine Game Show Cold Open” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5rXK8HCL1Y).
When I think about this in relation to people of color, Tiffany Midge and her piece, “A List of Alternative Identities to Try for Fun and Profit” you can understand and see both sides of Tiffany’s frustration and humor in this. It is disheartening that humans would use other human characteristics for an advantage, and only use this characteristic when it is an advantage. But then again, the idea of faking an identity to gain something is also hilarious in the most absurd manner.
Comments
Post a Comment