Gaza & San Bernardino: Helicopters of Horror and Hope
Naim Aburaddi
Medium: Video (2022)
Issues: Colonial Brutality, Gaza, Israeli Occupation, and Palestine
Description
When I moved to San Bernardino in 2019, the first thing that got my attention was how active the helicopters were. For an American person, they may look normal and familiar. The first thing that may come to mind is protection, chasing criminals, looking for a missing person, or maybe helping to put out a fire. However, for me, these helicopters were scary and uncomfortable. Their noise revived a lot of bad memories. Whenever I hear it, I remember how these helicopters attacked our house in 2008 in Gaza. I remember how we used to stop playing soccer and run to our houses. I remember my friend Alaa’s smile before he got killed by these helicopters. I remember the walls of my high school that got attacked by them and many other things. While these helicopters are considered a sign of safety and hope to Americans, they are a sign of danger and horror to me and the people of Gaza. As with many things in coloniality, there are different implications to these helicopters in terms of their different locations and uses. Yet, these “other” implications are rarely depicted in mass media or even in niche locations of art and knowledge production. This is an invitation to think about what other things in quotidian life may seem harmless to you but which may arise traumatic experiences to others due to the violence of coloniality and colonization they have personally experienced.
Prior Showings:
2022 Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) Arts Matter
Bio
Naim Aburaddi is a Ph.D. student and Teaching Assistant in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has a BA in Journalism from Istanbul University and an MA in Communication Studies from California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB). As a result of his work and activism, Aburaddi was featured and interviewed by many media outlets such as Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, BBC and other channels and newspapers. In addition, he was awarded the 2022 CSUSB College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Graduate Student Award, the 2022 Department of Communication Studies Outstanding Graduate Student Award and the 2022 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Associate Award.
Aburaddi has over seven years of experience in digital journalism and media. He worked for several international media production companies as a digital content editor, social media manager, and communication consultant. In addition, he taught oral communication courses as a stand-alone instructor at California State University, San Bernardino for two years. Furthermore, he presented several academic articles at national and international conferences such as the National Communication Association (NCA), and Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ) Conference.
Aburaddi studies Indigenous communities’ self-representation and decolonization efforts using digital media. His research focuses on studying ongoing essential issues related to marginalized groups and Indigenous peoples using decolonizing methodologies. Aburaddi seeks to answer: What digital technologies do certain ethnic communities use to challenge stereotypical representations of them on digital media? What creative ways of self-representation do those populations use to promote their narratives? Do digital media corporations support or contest Indigenous self-representation narratives?