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.
itās visible even with leftists
Agreed. Honestly many western āāleftistsāā and āāprogressivesāā suck ass, even quite a few POC ones.
Donāt remind me, sometimes Iād prefer if western leftists would forget we existed rather than try to help us and speak for us.
people on this site have been banned for criticizing users who called Hamas and Hezbollah āfascistsā
western leftists love calling every single arab or muslim group or leader āfascistā and then hiding behind that, pretending they are progressive. This chauvinism isnāt a bannable offense, but getting āhostileā in response to these racist shitheads is.
For example, look up the user ProxyTheAwesome in the mod log. Banned for mocking western chauvinists who called Hezbollah fascist a couple days before October 7th. Now that user is more pro-axis of resistance after being bullied by people like PTA, but that doesnāt change that the mods chose to ban the principled person and protect the chauvinist. Many such cases
Serious blinders on with those whites. Proxy was being pretty patient and explaining material conditions outside the US. But Americans just couldnāt shut the fuck up and listen for a few seconds.