Of course, I knew Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism (really, those two concepts are inseparable and feed each other) were very prevalent in American society going back a long time, with it really ratcheting up after 9/11. But ever since the Zionist entity’s terrorist pager attack last month, the sheer depth, pervasiveness, and how it’s just out there in the open and considered perfectly acceptable has genuinely surprised me. It seems to have started with that attack and subsequent events have only reinforced it.
White Americans just seem to delight whenever they think the Arab/Islamic “terrorists” are attacked. They do not care about who the “terrorists” actually are or how many people suffer. It’s not worth interrogating what the “terrorists” are fighting for or who was harmed because to the white folks, the Muslim/Arab people don’t matter. They’ve been dehumanized to the point where their lives are considered worthless.
To give an example, there is a person in my life who I’m about to cut out (should have a long time ago) who texted me something to the effect of “that pager thing was crazy, but looks like they got a lot of terrorists”. I tried to keep my cool and explain how normal people like doctors and ambulance drivers were hurt and killed too, because lots of people use those pagers. Dude literally just used a shrug emoji in response, because I guess those people aren’t worth giving a care about.
Everything I’ve seen especially in recent weeks really shows how bad it is. Brown people in Western Asia don’t matter because they have a different religion and they are “prone to violence” and they aren’t as “developed” as us. I feel like this is really where the support for Israel comes from. Not from ideas of Israel fulfilling apocalyptic prophesy, but just because white Americans can turn on the TV and see people in Israel who look like them, who have a religion that is semi-compatible with theirs, and who live in a society that seems to be very “Western” fighting off the “savage Islamists”. It plays into their already primed-for-racism-and-chauvinism” brains.
While I don’t think American media is the source of racism and Islamophobia, I do think the last 20+ years of movies, shows, and games has really fueled the fire. I think (hope?) in the future people will look back on this period of “corn-fed white bearded operators killing all the Muslim terrorists” media in the way we look at minstrel shows now.
Sometimes, people who aren’t even muslim or arab face worse islamophobia/Arabophobia than people who are.
this was my experience going to school in 911 america.
i can relate. grew up muslim but not Arab and majority of Arabs in my masjid were white or white passing. me and my family unfortunately received a lot of phobic hate because we clearly did not pass as anything but brown and foreign and immigrated to the west literally in october 2001
Some of ’s best work was a three-part series on the history of Islamophobia/anti-Arab racism in America a few years back.
Like I don’t even agree with where Russia is now and I only have family connections (haven’t talked to most since before the SMO), but it’s still family and I know they’re not monsters, even the more “patriotic” ones.
AIt was tremendously alienating after '22 when suddenly I’m hearing the libs in my life talking about the combat footage they watched of “orcs” getting killed with like an excited fervor and I’m just the fly on the wall going 😬
It’s categorically less bad than the racism and chauvinism directed towards Muslims, but if you’re from a state enemy it’s what you can expect I guess.
A common tactic applied by almost all populations is dehumanization so it makes it easier to “pull the trigger”. It’s a tactic that’s been applied and used for eons. The use is prevalent in history. Its psychology is also proven as you are less likely to be empathetic to something that is not human and a proven enemy. Aliens are a perfect example in science fiction they are often portrayed as the bad/enemy but in reality we are nothing but a xenophobic and warring species. District 9/ET shows the complexity.
I think part of the issue burgerlanders have with conflict is that they’ve never really had to worry about it impacting them
The US hasn’t been invaded in literal centuries, the only real attacks on it’s soil in the last 100 years being a military attack on a naval base in Hawaii and a couple of targeted terror attacks
The inhabitants have never experienced what it’s like to be indiscriminately bombed or occupied, nor have they really had to fear that since WWII
Of course, this is obviously only a small part of the issue, but still
It took a loooong time of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan being clearly a pointless quagmire for the bloodthirsty islamaphobia of post 9/11 to die down to a simmer. The only way for Americans to ever care about a war is if Americans are dying and it’s not going anywhere. This comes at a massive cost to those they invade. Once Americans spend 10 years getting killed over this and not reaching any conclusive victory, the American people will mildly criticize it.
the only real attacks on it’s soil in the last 100 years being a military attack on a naval base in Hawaii and a couple of targeted terror attacks
Incidentally, your first example wasn’t on American soil—occupied Hawaii was not absorbed into the Union until 1959.
AKSHUALLLLYYYYY the Japanese did technically invade Alaska during the Aleutian Islands campaign in ww2 but your point still stands
Edit: yes I know it was a territory like Hawaii at the time but unlike Hawaii, Alaska is physically a part of North America. This made it seem much closer than when the Japanese attacked other pacific territories like Guam.
