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.
It was so intense, the anti-Muslim sentiment. I'm also in my 40s and I also remember it too well, unfortunately.
I remember arguing with my family why we shouldn't go to war with Iraq. I told them how it would kill tens of thousands of people (I was off by an order of magnitude). Iraqis and Muslims were referred to by them in slurs. Every bit of propaganda you've ever heard was mentioned. There was no getting through to them. It's probably one of the most radicalizing things I've ever seen first hand just how set they were in this. Like a switch had clicked on this topic and all you could hear was what was said in the news and from your worst coworkers in hushed tones.
But that's the kicker, these things weren't even said in hushed tones. You could be openly Islamophobic in public. You could use slurs in public against Arab peoples and get grunts of approval in the fucking grocery line at your local Piggly Wiggly. There was no mask. The only filter existed in liberal media and even then that filter was not N95, let me tell you.
What's strange is I did now an older guy who was a family friend who had retired as a sniper and decided to do the PMC (Private Military Contractor) thing in Iraq when it kicked off. Mostly escorting convoys and shit. You'd think he'd be hoorah but for him it was just a money thing. And when he came back he had more sympathy for Muslims and Iraqis. He had some wild stories and some people he worked with were actually Iraqi themselves (one guy was a former Mr Iraq body builder guy who sadly died in an IED ambush). I think Iraq either woke some people up to the humanity of the other or cemented it in their minds.
In rural areas it never really died. I moved away from rural Tennessee in '04 and Islamophobia showed no sign of abating. Talking to my mom/grandmother over the last year who live in North Tennessee and South Kentucky reinforces that. They still have that same fucking mentality. It might have cooled for a few years but all you need is some white people dying at the hands of a guy in a turban and the hate boils back over again. Really gross.
this was so fucking bad during that period. like jim crow levels of racism. it's just openly practicing Muslims were so rare in the area i lived. i really only came into contact with them closer to the big cities. and that was my Pashtun friend, hanging out with Iranian foreign exchange students, and this Syrian guy who liked to throw huge parties
so maybe i lucked out somewhat
i also had a (childhood) friend that did the PMC thing after serving. in Iraq then Afghanistan. he was a tech but last i talked to him he also seemed to have liberalized his war on terror-era brainwashing as well, probably from working alongside locals. big contrast to my other friend who became a bloodthirsty psycho.
but yeah i almost feel like i was really insulated, especially from things you describe. my parents are libs and I intergotated them on their feelings about israel and they agreed it was doing a fascism but refuse to shake off the news medias conditioning and still see the Palestinians as equally bad and think the campus protests are racist.