A Bolshivist?
Arab woman here to chime in. I’ve been holding myself back this long, and I just can’t anymore.
That is not how the media has depicted my people. I don’t know what media you’ve been watching, but any time someone from the region of the world my parents came from, it was more of the same. “Muslim terrorists”, “Islamic terrorists”, “travel bans”, “stop middle easterners from coming to our country”, so on and so forth.
For every ten arab terrorists in entertainment media, we get one “good guy Muslim imam”. And all of those are charactertures of people, not even two dimensional ones. We need to go through three hundred arab terroist depictions to get one of those, and it’s traditionally the spunky sidekick.
The default media presentation of my people is still terrorist, suspected terrorist, or imam. The exceptions are few and very far between.
I strongly disagree that Milo, who couched his “there are questions we need to ask” bit in heavy anti-Islam, anti-arab language had anything worthwhile to add.
Just like I strongly disagree when people point to incidents of child abuse done by members of the Catholic church and use “just asking questions about the nature of the church” to couch their rhetoric. They too have nothing worthwhile to listen to.
And just for full clarity, I’m not offended by anything any of you posted. I’m just speaking my peace.
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While you’re right there are times when Muslims, Arabs and Muslim Arabs get a raw deal in media, to clarify, I was talking about the portrayal of Muslims specifically.
Also, when you say “your people” do you mean Arabs, Muslims or Arabic Muslims? It’s neither here nor there, I’m just curious here.
Some people do wrongly assume that all Muslims are Arabs or all Arabs are Muslims, which leads to people wrongly conflating the two when something bad happens.
While sometimes the “there are questions we need to ask” talk is sincere, as you said, it can also be used to hide an agenda; a sheep disguise for a wolf. I don’t agree with Milo’s full statement, only the point I previously mentioned. It doesn’t mean he has anything worthwhile to add to the discussions he said need to happen but aren’t; even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Not if it is missing a hand.
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The thing is, to the broad American media?
Those three groups you listed are one and the same. You’ll see some black Muslims here and there, the occasional stray white Muslim, but when the talking heads say Muslim? They mean all Arabs. When they say Arabs? They assume they must be Muslim. Media, be it news or entertainment, use the two words interchangably so often that politicians also use the words as if they are synonymous.
It is in itself a form of accepted discrimination. All arabs must be Muslims. Nearly all Muslims must be arabs. The two are basically one and the same. Movies, TV, news, etc. They all default to this assumption.
Hell. I’m old enough to remember when the words “Arab” and “Muslim” were synonymous for “Terrorist” to western ears. I have the scars to prove it (Insert Illidan quote here).
I’m not really interested into going into further details about myself beyond what I’ve already stated. I’m arab. That’s all that is relevant.
And no, I don’t feel that Milo has a point, that there are questions we need to ask regarding Islamic terrorists. Because those questions have been asked, keep getting asked, keep being answered by white men who barely understand the area, keep assuming the entire middle east and all the various forms that Islam takes are one and the same, and keep missing the point.
You are welcome to disagree of course. I’m speaking my opinion, based on my experiences and the media I consume. You consume different media and have different experiences. Both are valid.
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True, that does happen in the U.S. and other parts of the Anglosphere. I agree that there need to be clear demarcations on those terms used in the media.
Sorry to hear that it’s left scars, whatever kind they are.
Do you really think it’s only white people, and male white people at that, who do this to Arabs and Muslims in the U.S? Ironic that you say this after complaining about stereotyping by race.
Then the remaining hand is right 2 - 256 times a day, number depending on which hand is missing.
Historically speaking, white people seem to mistrust anyone with any skin colour that is not white.
Sure bigotry exists everywhere, but white colonialism didn’t manifest in a vaccuum.
Being critical or cautious of white supremacy isn’t racism.
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There’s been an archetype in fiction that’s begun emerging of American muslim LEOs, which I’m enjoying due to those characters being positive portrayals of people who have good values. Detective Roshan Amiri from the Netflix series Clickbait is one of my new favorite characters in fiction.
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No, I’m pretty sure I’ve received Islamophobic comments from certain Black individuals myself, as well as women.
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I really should have been specific in that sentence. The “white men answering questions about the middle east” bit is specifically talking about American politicians who, largely, are white and male (the one talking about the middle east, that is). Which makes sense; most American politicians are white men, and they spend little time actually learning about the many and varied cultures on the middle east when talking about them in the role of expert.
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Historically speaking, everyone’s done that at some point. By your logic, a similar historical observation could be made about Asian people towards non-Asian people or darker-skinned Asian people.
There’s a difference between criticizing white supremacy and pretending it’s the only form of racial supremacy out there, or that white people are the only ones guilty of colonialism (eg; swathes of Spain, the Ottoman Empire and Genghis Khan might disagree).
Yes but we are talking about America, aka The West and Western media. Which largely skews white.
But why single them out when they’re not the only ones doing it then or now?
Why not single them out? they are currently the most relevent ones doing it to the topic at hand which is still western media.
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Also, I’m considered white, but am clearly brown-skinned. Whiteness is a social construct.
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Because then you’re adopting the same approach as the bigots you condemn.
The recent turn in the conversation reminds me of when Obama ran for President. Some lady was saying Obama was an Arab, and John McCain tried his best to shut it down.
I respect McCain and he dealt with it in about the classiest way I would expect under the circumstances - but being an “Arab” should not be such a concern in the first place.
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For the same reason people single out “Arab Terrorists”, “Muslim Terrorists” and “Islamic Extremists”.
Except all of those phrases have immediate negative connotations. Saying the majority of America is white and the majority of politicians are white men is factually correct. It’s not placing a value judgment, beyond how they often have no experience dealing with the middle east at all while discussing the region as if they were experts.
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No, that’s a cop out argument. Being critical of white supremacy as a white person is no different than Terry Crews being critical of black supremacy, why is it okay when he does it but not when I do it?
You want to talk about how western media mollycoddles white people, look how language is used. A brown person participating in a peaceful protest is called a “rioter” an angry mob of white supremacists carrying torches and threatening to lynch a black politician is called “decent folks just trying to express their 1st amendment rights.” a white man shoots up a school, or a club or a mall or a theatre and the media will report “he was a decent guy, just a loner with no friends.”
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But it is not factually correct to say that they are the only ones doing what you’re criticizing when it’s also done to Muslims and Arabs by women and non-white people in the U.S.
Because you’re singling out one form of racial supremacy and ignoring or downplaying the others.