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 entityās terrorist pager attack last month, the sheer depth, pervasiveness, and how itās 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 āterroristsā are attacked. They do not care about who the āterroristsā actually are or how many people suffer. Itās not worth interrogating what the āterroristsā are fighting for or who was harmed because to the white folks, the Muslim/Arab people donāt matter. Theyāve been dehumanized to the point where their lives are considered worthless.
To give an example, there is a person in my life who Iām about to cut out (should have a long time ago) who texted me something to the effect of āthat pager thing was crazy, but looks like they got a lot of terroristsā. 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 arenāt worth giving a care about.
Everything Iāve seen especially in recent weeks really shows how bad it is. Brown people in Western Asia donāt matter because they have a different religion and they are āprone to violenceā and they arenāt as ādevelopedā 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 āWesternā fighting off the āsavage Islamistsā. It plays into their already primed-for-racism-and-chauvinismā brains.
While I donāt 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 ācorn-fed white bearded operators killing all the Muslim terroristsā media in the way we look at minstrel shows now.
Like I donāt even agree with where Russia is now and I only have family connections (havenāt talked to most since before the SMO), but itās still family and I know theyāre not monsters, even the more āpatrioticā ones.
AIt was tremendously alienating after '22 when suddenly Iām hearing the libs in my life talking about the combat footage they watched of āorcsā getting killed with like an excited fervor and Iām just the fly on the wall going š¬
Itās categorically less bad than the racism and chauvinism directed towards Muslims, but if youāre from a state enemy itās what you can expect I guess.
A common tactic applied by almost all populations is dehumanization so it makes it easier to āpull the triggerā. Itās a tactic thatās 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.