An Ethnographic Filmflam

John Jackson is an African American anthropologist exploring contemporary Harlem, NY. He starts his article by talking about a Sylvia's restaurant, a well-known location were you can find anything from hot sauce to men's colognes. Sylvia is well known; in her restaurant she has many pictures of celebrities/famous people and has been given the title of "Queen of Soul Food". This article is almost a dairy of an African American anthropologist researching African American Harlemites. And the process that he goes through in order to obtain knowledge about a culture, which is giving gifts, doing research, and videotaping the native subject/object. A friend of John's ask him if he would help her film some of her activist work in Harlem and then help her put together a short documentary. She sees this as a chance to "pool our resources. That way we all win. Harlem wins". But John sees this as a good opportunity to give a gift in order to get closer to an informant, in order for him to win as he wrote at the end of the article, "I'd love to help. Win, Win? Maybe". There are other opportunities that arise for him to help others and in exchange he hopes to gain an informant so that he can research and videotape the native subject/object. A parent asks John to tape the baptism of her son at their church so that his grandmother can see it since she could not attend. Another opportunity for John, "the first gift was their willingness to trust me with their thoughts and personal stories". John then takes the recorded video, gives one to the parent and keeps another copy for himself to use in his research. John goes on to say that all anthropologist give "gifts" as thanks, incentive, or bribes in order to come close to the subject and in return they often have a feeling of familiarity. After the exchange of the tapes John goes on to say, "this exchange has clear implications for the gift I am getting back in return: a quasifamilial relationship to my informant...these people that I study". John exploits these people, the natives he even goes says it in his article, on page 49 "As with all gifts, the potential for exploitation is endless". He doesn't care about the natives; he refers to them as subject. He wishes for nothing more then to just do his research, learn about them and be off. He says that they are his friends, but they are actually just informants passing information on. What I truly got out of this article was I, I, I, and I, in everything that he did, he looked to the future to see if he would some how benefit from that relationship/transaction.