Dude, if I could quote all of this post, I would

[la_vie_noire]

Willow writes: Not Your Cabana Girl.

Watching television I've come across a code I hadn't really parsed before "They were so WARM & WELCOMING". It's a phrase I hear being used by whites, predominantly white USians, to describe the non-white individuals and how they were treated when they vacationed/honeymooned in a particular place. Given what I've been watching, it's usually them describing why they want to go back, or buy a house there, etc.

But I find myself thinking that 'WARM & WELCOMING' is code. Because it doesn't seem to occur to these individuals that being 'WARM & WELCOMING' to tourists is a JOB. Sometimes it's part of a specific job description as with hotel staff. But sometimes it's a national job description, wherein the job is being a native who's aware of what contributes to the country's GNP.

[...]

Charles Tan is essentially saying (and do note I've already made it clear I think he lacks reading comprehension and the ability and resources to be part of conversations I want to have) that people aren't being 'WARM & WELCOMING'toward white writers who make the decision (and effort) to write about something other than cultures that have been embraced as being white (Euro-Celtic-Med Cultures).

Apparently white writers who write about something other than these 'embraced as white 'cultures, should not be criticized, evaluated, analysed and told when they didn't reach the bar. Because they're taking a vacation in that culture and handing out large tips so they have a righteous expectation that reactions be 'WARM & WELCOMING'.

Comments

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

This makes me think of the convention of WARMLY WELCOMING and GRATEFUL to foreign volunteer-tourists who are using three weeks building a house (badly) as a resume-builder that will allow them to go back to their home country and get into law school. The financial value of what's being taken away (the ability to wow hiring committees and application-readers with what an Awesome Person You Are) is in most cases substantially higher than the financial value of what's being left in-country, and yet I think it's interesting how North American tourists tend to respond with this sense of outright aggrieved betrayal when people are anything but head-over-heels grateful that we've consented to show up, hit our thumbs with a hammer a couple of times, complain about the food, and leave again. I think it's a very similar phenomenon with writer-tourists.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, that's pretty much what happens. You sum it up.

And people who are doing those things pretty much every day of their lives? They are lucky if someone even acknowledges them. And leaving alone the fact that people from poorer countries who go to richer ones to do those same jobs are not only not thanked, but criminalized.

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

I had never made that last connection before. Thank you, and also, augh.