The Cancer Alien: A Process of Unracialization.

The media artifact selected was a video commentary entitled “The Cancer Alien”, made by the Youtube channel Harmful Opinions (gathered over 90,000+ subscribers) produced in the summer of 2016. The video reached over 35,000 views and harnessed a number of mixed reactions. The channel was taken down by an anonymous hacker in January of 2017 but the video has been reposted. This research proposal serves to question; if one can occupy the non- human “corporeally and discursively” (Johnson 2001), then does one become Unracialized? Not the process of being ascribed or ignored of racial identity but a process of Uncategorization paralleling “Strategic Essentialism” (Gilbert 2014). To elaborate on this phenomenon we will correlate a number of key scholarly texts such as Patrick Johnson’s theory versus the material body in ”Quare Studies” (2001), Sara Ahmed’s discussion of the orient and othering in “Queer Phenomenology” (2006), and Roderick A. Ferguson’s expansion on race existing before the body in “Race-ing Homonormativity” (2005). We will also include Gilbert’s Queer Provocations in “Introduction to Queer Youth In Schools” (2014) from Queer Youth Studies in order to highlight an intergenerational reasoning for this Unracialization. Lastly we will include with Finn Enke’s fairly recent paper on Non-Binary Pedagogy in “Stick Figures and Little Bits” (2016) in order to encompass the contemporary field of Trans Studies. By including the contextualizations of race, youth, and trans studies we may be able to better understand the material, corporeal, and transient consequences of Unracialization. The word ‘Transient’ is used as a conflicting variable or alternative to ‘Strategic Essentialism” (Adrian Wu 2017, Queer Youth “Applying Transient Thinking to Youth Pedagogy; A Linguistic Adaptation.). Whether this be a negative or positive consequence, this artifact possibly could show evidence of a tangible reality in which the ‘uncanny’ in the ‘uncanny valley’ becomes a process of ‘uncatagorization’. This Unracialization is not the undoing of an individuals racial identity but places the individual in a space that does not inhabit ‘race’ or ‘life’ as what humans perceive ‘race’ or ‘life’. Within this context, both are viewed from the perspective of ‘social construction’. Furthermore the research paper will explore the meme qualities of “Cancer” and “Alien” as well as how “Cancer Alien” correlates with possible early understandings of Queer Inhumanism. Whether this correlation exists, foregrounds other questionable proposals...what is the inhuman or what is the unhuman?

Media Artifacts

The Cancer Alien - Cyber Violence [Mirror] - Harmful Opinions Archives - Youtube (2017) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_g_P4Kl2YE
Hate Speech LIVE - Guest- Adrian Wu - Harmful Archive - Youtube (2017) - https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkxsalKjV40
The Gender Tag - MTN - Non-Binary Transition - Neutrois Transgender - wumingbong - Youtube (2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHJeqPVGTUY

Bibliography or Resources

A Finn Enke (2016), Stick Figures and Little Bits: Toward a Non-binary Pedagogy.
Gilbert 2014, Introduction to Queer Youth In Schools.
Patrick Johnson (2001), “Quare” studies, or (almost) everything I know about queer studies I learned from my grandmother, Text and Performance Quarterly, 21:1, 1-25, DOI: 10.1080/10462930128119
Roderick A. Ferguson “Race-ing Homonormativity” (2005), From Black Queer Studies by Johnson, E. Patrick. DOI: 10.1215/9780822387220 Duke University Press, 2005. All rights reserved. Downloaded 06 Jan 2017 12:54 at 142.150.190.39