Art and Society

Behind the Curtain: Unpacking Racism in Casting Practices

2025-09-28T10:01:57+00:00

This research studies systemic racism in Hollywood against Middle Eastern actors, claiming that such actors’ almost complete absence from blockbuster film and television is both structural and not incidental. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT), it examines systemic racism through longitudinal content analysis of the top 10 highest-grossing films released from 1995 to 2025 and comparative role analysis of Middle Eastern actors compared to white actors. The findings show that there are sharp contrasts: only 12 of the 310 blockbusters have actors identified as Middle Eastern with a significant role and all 12 were male; nearly half of each role taken by Middle Eastern actors conformed to a limiting stereotype (terrorists, hypersexualization, and tokenism). Qualitative analysis of how these portrayals of Middle Eastern actors are overshadowed by the complexity and depth shown about the roles of white actors implies that the last bias is an accepted stereotype and masks active discrimination from society. First-hand accounts from actors, comedians, and filmmakers such as Riz Ahmed, Rami Malek, and Salma Hayek all illustrate how typecasting, tokenism, and whitewashing are still impediments to legitimate representation in Hollywood. Lastly, it is further argued in the study that Hollywood’s exclusion of Middle Eastern actors has implications for real-life prejudice and hate crimes against Middle Eastern communities. By engaging with CRT’s notion of structural racism, this study calls for a structural shift in Hollywood, advocating for more diversity at the level of executive leadership, investment in Middle Eastern-led productions, and accountability for systemic replication of racism in casting. Representation must go beyond being a symbolic gesture for Hollywood to ensure that Middle Eastern actors can embody visible, humanized voices that are perceived to be complex.

The Protection of Consumers Against Dangerous Goods in Cameroon: An Overview of the Regulatory Framework

2025-09-28T10:04:11+00:00

Consumer protection in Cameroon gained legal recognition with the enactment of Law No. 2011/012 on Consumer Protection, which aims to safeguard consumers from unfair trade practices and unsafe products, including dangerous goods. This law, alongside other regulations on hazardous substances, seeks to ensure the safety, health, and economic interests of consumers in a rapidly evolving market environment. Despite the existence of legal frameworks, consumers in Cameroon remain vulnerable to the sale of dangerous and defective goods due to enforcement challenges, scattered regulations, and limited consumer awareness. This situation poses significant risks to public health and safety. This research paper critically assesses Cameroon’s legal and institutional frameworks in protecting consumers against the dangerous goods. The study employs a qualitative socio-legal approach, analyzing relevant statutes, case law, and regulatory policies. It also reviews secondary literature and official documents to evaluate the practical enforcement of consumer protection laws in Cameroon. Findings reveal that the 2011 Consumer Protection Law provides a comprehensive framework mandating product safety inspections, immediate withdrawal of hazardous goods, and penalties for illegal advertising and sale of dangerous products. However, enforcement is hindered by fragmented regulations, limited resources, and insufficient consumer education. Additional laws on explosives and hazardous waste complement consumer safety but require better integration and application. While Cameroon has established a solid legal foundation for consumer protection against dangerous goods, significant gaps in enforcement and public awareness limit its effectiveness. Strengthening institutional capacity and harmonizing regulations are essential to improve consumer safety. The research recommends enhancing regulatory enforcement agencies’ resources, promoting consumer education on product safety, improving coordination among relevant authorities, and establishing clear mechanisms for product recall and compensation to consumers harmed by dangerous goods.

Deep Learning: A Brief Study on Its Architectures and Applications

2025-09-28T10:06:46+00:00

Deep learning (DL) is a specialized branch of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) that uses multilayered neural networks, and teaches computers to process data in a way inspired by the functionality of human brain. It is based on “deep” neural networks comprising millions to billions of parameters organized into hierarchical layers that mimic human brain. It is a set of methods that uses deep architectures to learn high-level feature representations that allows the learning of more complex models compared to shallow architectures. Deep neural networks are a type of artificial neural network that have many layers in between (deep) the input and output layer. The DL has become one of the most popular and visible areas of ML due to its success in a variety of applications, such as computer vision, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning. Recently, it has become increasingly popular due to the advances in processing power and the availability of large datasets. The aim of this review is to provide an overview on DL frameworks in briefly.

Study on Living Inheritance of Manchu Banjin Festival “Mangshi Dance” (ICH) from Flow Theory Perspective

2025-10-09T09:28:49+00:00

With the in-depth advancement of the protection of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), the living inheritance of traditional music and dance has become a crucial issue. This study takes the Manchu “Mangshi Dance” in the Banjin Festival as the research object and introduces the flow theory to explore its inheritance mechanism. The research finds that the inheritance of “Mangshi Dance” is faced with problems such as insufficient participation of participants and weakened cultural identity. It is confirmed that the nine elements of flow experience are inherently compatible with the inheritance of ICH, and dimensions such as “challenge-skill balance”, “clear goals”, and “immediate feedback” can significantly improve the inheritance effect. The research shows that reconstructing ritual scenes, optimizing movement design, and strengthening interactive experience can effectively stimulate participants’ sense of immersion, enhance cultural identity and inheritance motivation. This study provides a new perspective for the living inheritance of ethnic festival music and dance, has enlightenment significance for improving the theoretical system of ICH protection, and its empirical model can be promoted to similar ICH projects.

Audit Practice and Fraud Control in Private Tertiary Institutions in Cameroon: A Systematic Review

2025-10-09T09:33:18+00:00

The study examined Audit practice and fraud control in private tertiary institutions in Cameroon: a systematic review. Audits are concerned with improving the quality of the private sector administration by assisting and encouraging agencies to achieve better practices in areas such as asset management, accounts processing, audit committees, the use of accrual information and debt management. Organization wishing to conduct its business in an orderly and efficient manner and to produce reliable financial accounting information to the entire stakeholders need some measures of control to minimize the effect of endemic business failure. Audit should conform to the structure of the organization and be related to decision centers accountability for performance. Audit is a review of any part of an organization operating procedures and methods for the purpose of evaluating efficiency and effectiveness. It is concluded that, auditing is aimed at prevention of mistakes, shortcomings and misdeeds in the private administration. It is a management function which seeks to ensure that operations are working according to plan.

Social Mirror and Identity Performance: An Art-Sociological Interpretation of the Donor Portraits in Dunhuang

2025-10-16T08:35:37+00:00

From the perspective of art sociology, the study of Dunhuang donor portraits reveals a dichotomy between two paradigms: the “Art-Society” paradigm, which uncovers their nature as a mirror of social structure, and the “Art-Sociology” paradigm, which focuses on the performative practice of image-making in the display of secular identity. This paper employs these two paradigms to interpret two aspects of Dunhuang donor portraits. First, at the level of social mirroring, the system of Dunhuang donor portraits is essentially a visual projection of the social structure of Dunhuang during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period; their sequence, spatial arrangement, and symbolic system multidimensionally reflect the local power structure dominated by powerful families. Second, at the level of identity performance, using Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory to deconstruct the performativity of patronage acts reveals that these powerful families used Buddhist worship as a “Front Stage,” transforming religious space into a field for displaying secular authority. Adopting this dual perspective, and building upon the first two levels of Panofsky’s iconological method, this study delves into the third level—iconological interpretation—to analyze the logic by which Dunhuang’s powerful families constructed power through patronage acts.