Middle Eastern People & Stereotypes

I

Insomniatic

fo sho, yo
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
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15
Location
Bumfuck, Egypt
I started this because I know several families who are from Iraq. And with my experience, these people are very hardworking and friendly people. They often get a very negative response when people find out their Iraqi and it sucks, because if given a chance, you find out that these people aren't bloodthirsty terrorist. I use to work with an Iraqi woman and I love her dearly. She's so sweet and she's a wonderful mother and strong woman. She's quiet, but mostly because of language barriers. She's getting better at her English though and we now have full conversations. I also grew up with an Iraqi girl named Hind and she was a very outgoing and friendly girl. She had a strong sense of life and she loved her family. Just after 9/11, people vandalize their home and she often got verbally and physically attack at school. People thought: She's Middle Eastern... so she MUST be a terrorist. It's her fault.

I understand why people feel the way they do about Middle Eastern people, but it's a stereotype. What have your experiences been with these people and how have they shaped your opinion of people from the Middle East? And how do you feel about the stereotype and the reactions it receives?
 
i am from a metropolitan area that has the LARGEST concentration of arabic population in the country, Dearborn/Dearborn Hgts which is encompassed in Metropolitan Detroit. But surprisingly through all my years of shopping, going to parks and other activities in Dearborn, i never had the opportunity to many any personal aquaintences with anyone of middle eastern decent.

now i WILL be honest, i DID see alot of disturbing scenes unfold in smaller stores in the downtown dearborn area with men of arabic decent treating their wives, girlfriends like GARBAGE, verbally humiliating them in public. i made inquiries and from what i understand...that is common practice (women being treated like second class citizens) and i have a BIG problem with that. So i HAVE developed a prejudice against arabic MEN given what i saw in dearborn AND what i've heard through the years.

but its not just arabic men, anyone who knows me well knows i have a problem with men of ANY race that think its okay to hurt/abuse/subjugate women..DAMN culture of religion...its just not right.
 
I agree with that. I was almost hit by a man of Arabic descent (and would have kicked his ass, BTW) because I had the nerve to tell him that his wife needed glasses, despite his assertions to the contrary. The reality is that he did not think she needed good eyesight to do "her work". Her vision was worse than 20/200 in each eye uncorrected. It took his adult son to intervene for her to receive the glasses and then it was a new struggle for her to get the type of lenses she needed.

My biggest problem (and I think this is shared) is that what is acceptable in this particular culture is COMPLETELY unacceptable otherwise. It's not that people hate Arab men. The reality is that people would hate any man that would treat his lady the way I have seen them do. Similarly, criticism of Jews and Israel and a minimizing of 9/11 as well as defending terrorists as freedom fighters also does not go over well here. It is this situation that I find most bothersome in that there is a lot of tolerance for religious extremism in Arab society. That can make innocent people look like co-conspirators and lead to abuse.
 
its not like we dont have our own religious extremism festering in america....the religious right, pat robertson, the westboro baptist church etc etc...they are just as dangerous as any terrorist of foreign extraction.

i was not one of those people who, after 9/11, decided to villify all people of middle eastern decent. that's just stupid. my own issues were born from what i mentioned above...its more of a feminist issue for me than anything else but Garrick makes a good point.

though i'm going to be honest AGAIN and say just from some of the things he mentioned, there could and SHOULD be a rexamination.
 
I am also not one to paint people with abroad brush, especially knowing how that can be. But I am illustrating one BIG point that makes the US different.

It is true that we have Westboro Baptist, Pat Robertson, other extreme religions and views. But here they are opposing views expressed and minimal support for religious extremism. The big hangup is that many people who practice Islam are not having that dialogue, are NOT opposing extremism and terrorism. I think that in the big picture that t is not good enough to simply say, "I am OK." I think many people are waiting for it to be said in widespread fashion that "THEY are not OK and THEY do not represent me, Islam ,or Arab peoples". Until that is said, it is hard to make a distinction. I CAN because I have met and dealt with Muslims both Arab and non-Arab. Many others cannot and it is asking very much to expect them to.
 
My experience with Middle Eastern men have been quite different. I worked with a guy who is from Jordan and he was nice and respectful to me. But then again... he's lived a majority of his life in the US. He is Muslim and has grown up with the basic traditions that go with that, but most of his life has been as an American... not Middle Eastern.

But I have met men who spent a majority of their life in the Middle East and they've always been respectful and polite towards me. Maybe you have to know them better, because any man can seem sweet and polite and be a total monster. But I did spend a lot of time with a Iraqi family and they just seemed like any other family I've met.

I just hate the connotation that have been formed when you hear the words Middle Eastern, Islam, and Muslim. It almost like saying all white people are racist or all black people are gangsters. Those kinds of generalizations have really screwed with our relationships between races and people of different nationalities and lifestyles.
 
Rampage said:
The big hangup is that many people who practice Islam are not having that dialogue, are NOT opposing extremism and terrorism. I think that in the big picture that t is not good enough to simply say, "I am OK." I think many people are waiting for it to be said in widespread fashion that "THEY are not OK and THEY do not represent me, Islam ,or Arab peoples". Until that is said, it is hard to make a distinction.
Click to expand...

I must admit, statements such as the above make me bang my head against the wall. I'm not attacking you personally, as I know your intention was not of malice, discord, etc. however, what I always want to know is who says we are not having that dialogue? Who says we are not opposing extremism and terrorism?

What is "widespread" ?

Who determines the acceptable threshold of convincing? How many Muslims will it take?

If I pointed to statements and articles of over thousands would that be enough? If not, what is?
 
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