Orientalism

Written after reading "Orientalism" by Edward Said

In preparation for this journey of immersing ourselves in the literature of the Middle East, one of our first assignments was to read a text that examines the perceptions of the Middle East from the "West." I am very grateful for this exercise because I fear I might have fallen victim to the unsaid but practiced stereotypes of that area from the perspective of a typical American.

Edward Said mentions in this text that there is a perverse misunderstanding of the peoples and the culture of the Middle East from the West that is based on the observations of foreigners who either lived in the area mentioned as occupiers or from individuals who had never set foot in the area. This practice grouped the Middle East with the Far East under the context of "Orientalism," to try and group or categorized the area for foreign occupiers like Britain and France. The intent was to better understand the native people they were trying to rule, or to share that knowledge with their citizens at home. Unfortunately, this attempt was clouded by the lens of an Imperial power that saw itself as superior, possibly demeaning the cultures it was trying to understand to the point that these stereotypes became the "truth" for many foreigners who had no access to differing opinions or views. Hence, Eygptians, Indians, and Asians were all treated under this same umbrella. All Middle Easterns were Arabs. Backward and undeveloped or intellegent people. Said even quoted a notable University's department head, an expert on the Middle East, as saying the area was devoid of value and not worthy of too much focus.

Think of the last film you saw, even television show, that portrayed anyone from the Middle East. What was the depiction? A snake charmer? Belly dancer? Terrorist blowing up someone or something? Even the most benign of these illustrations may be clouding us, or allowing us to completely ignore the humanity and value of a whole section of the world. Remember the old "black face" routines of old? Think of how demeaning that might be for our African American friends...that is the same kind of feeling we are getting at here. The problem is that we might see the ill in racial slurs for Native Americans, African Americans or even the GLTB community here in America, but there seems to be a pass for this same sort of behavior when it comes to anything from the Middle East.

Again, reflecting on my past in Nicaragua, I have seen this before. How badly did the American media paint the Sandanistas during the Iran-Contra affair? When we teach Spanish to our kids in the US, we often teach Mexican Spanish. We rarely note that every Latin American country has its own destinct language and culture, at least one doesn't speak Spanish. Also, I think Americans immediatly assign Spainards to the Hispanic community, stripping them of the notion of their European roots. I can't tell you the number of Americans who came to study in Salamanca, Spain when I was there, who didn't know where on the globe they were and could not understand why they couldn't find a taco. (you really think I am kidding?)

To insert my own bias, I read the title "Orientalism" and thought of the Far East or Asia. Who can remember their grandma referring to Asian people as Oriental? Of course, for many Americans...if you have slanty eyes you are all Chinese. Now, my Sister-in-Law is Japanese...and I assure you in the education I have gotten of the region since I met her...there are HUGE differences between Japan and China, Korea and Thailand. A Japanese person can tell the difference between them and and individual from another Asian country by sight alone. I can't. There are some Americans who feel the same way about Black people. Then, they might call every Black person they see as African American...when some may actually be African, Jamacian, or even a person of an ancestry that never touched the continent of Africa.

When I was in Spain, embarrassed by my countrymen, I also tried to explain to my Spanish friends that it was just plan ignorance. "They don't know any better." This supposed harmless naivity is really having a detremental impact on this world, and our current state of being. Edward Said wrote this book in the late 1970s. If we would have had a serious disscussion in our schools, encouraged more classes on the learning of Arabic language and culture, maybe we wouldn't have been so fearful after 9/11. The understanding might not have prevented the bombing, but a cultural understanding might have given us more pause. Our response for war was based in fear. The lack of knowledge and understanding made it easy for those with agendas to manipulate information and feed it into our minds from a money thirsty media wanting us to consume.

Even if this wouldn't have prevented the war in Iraq, maybe it would have compelled us to be more understanding of our Middle Eastern friends and neighbors, some, who were born American, but were assigned guilt by their family name, food preference or association to the house of their worship. For some reason, it is okay to strip search a woman in a burka at the airport because of "national security."

This sort of racism is deeply institutionalized and engrained in the culture of our country right now. My hope is that Americans are good people. I know many of us who pride ourselves on being open and understanding. The problem is elightenment and a cause to action. We are too satisfied and self concerned that we rarely react to such large causes or ills without a great deal of effort. Again, I state, ignorance is not an excuse. Just because we refuse to look, doesn't mean it evil can't exist. In this case, evil is not the "Axis of Evil" it is our ignorance to reflect on our own stereotypes and perversions of Middle Eastern peoples.