Characteristics of Orientalism, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Characteristics of Orientalism, Prejudice, and Discrimination

Reading chapter 11 was very informative to me as I am like hundreds of others that grouped these two groups together. I now understand that Muslims are followers of the Islam religion, which has the second largest following to Christianity, and that the Arabs are not all followers of Islam which then does not make them Muslim. Most Arab Americans are not Muslims and practice Christianity for their religion. Arabs & Muslims have been coming to America for years and is now the fastest growing subordinate group. I also think it is the fastest group that is increasing with prejudice and racism over the past 10 years since the terrorism attacks of 9/11.

As Westerners, we typically group cultures from the Eastern populations into Orientalism as where they "originated" from. As time has gone on, this view has not changed but diversity between these cultures over there have significantly. It is a general stereotype and an unconscious prejudice. Our prejudice could be that we don't know enough about their culture so we don't embrace it, like encouraging their prayer times. Characteristics of Orientalism could be practicing the religion of Islam and having extremes opinions of Americans. Socially for women, being treated as second class or the way they are allowed to dress.

There are definitely hate crimes against these two groups of individuals. By just looking at them, one could assume that they are Muslim and believe some of the crimes against America are ok. Recently there was an attack against a taxi cab driver in NY and it was because he was Muslim. But as stated in McClathchy Newspapers in Aug. 2010 in a FBI study, "Hate crimes directed against Muslims remain relatively rare.... and have declined over recent years"