Photo Credit: Janko Ferlic
With all the ‘terrorism’ shown on the news, you’d think people in the U.S. would have an idea of what they were truly going to war against – but that is far from the truth.
The documentary Constructing the Terrorist Threat delves into this phenomenon. It explores the Trump administration’s 2016 ban on Muslims and the racism and xenophobia that the government – and media – have used to spin countries and religions different from our own into ‘terrorists.’
Terrorism, as we know it, is wildly misunderstood. In the United States, ‘terrorist’ has an instant association with being a person of color – likely ‘Middle Eastern.’ ‘Muslim’ is a dirty word to the white, privileged class of the United States; this word evokes a feeling that whoever it is referring to is the enemy. Despite this, most real terrorism in the U.S. is committed by white males. So how did this racist and blatantly wrong association come into being?
The short answer is, the government. In order to justify constant violent and political intervention in other countries, the United States has carefully constructed the idea of followers of Islam being ‘radicalized others.’ By using a few events to create mass fear and hysteria – 9/11 is a good example – the United States has (unfortunately) successfully crafted a public image of Muslims being militant, radical terrorists.
The government and news media have taught media consumers to fear Muslims ‘out of all proportion to reality,’ as the documentary’s Deepa Kumar says. If U.S. residents do not see Muslim people as humans just like them, then they can easily justify the terrible atrocities the government continues to commit. This is the way the government makes bombing civilians or installing dictators ‘okay;’ their actions are seemingly against violent, U.S.-hating terrorists that want to kill you, not just regular old people trying to go to work and feed their families like you and I.
Muslims are dehumanized and demonized. Their image, as the documentary states, is purposefully twisted to give us a certain perception of them as an entire group. When as a whole their religion is displayed to us as being ‘violent’ or even ‘evil,’ every member is lumped together as if they are not individuals. Not only are Muslim people dehumanized and seen as one giant ‘threat’ to U.S. society – they are also demonized and made to seem truly ‘evil’ with a desire to kill innocent U.S. citizens because they ‘hate America.’
The fact that the U.S. has been toying with countries in the Middle East and surrounding areas for decades, installing regimes and creating problems, is not something the government wants people to bat an eyelash at. If there is a big vague ‘enemy’ that the American people can fear and not understand, then anything is justified and right.
“Our imaginations have been constrained by a system that creates moral panics and focuses our attention on racialized threats” is a particularly thought provoking statement in the documentary on this subject.
The media reports on the news – and any conflict that the U.S. military or government is involved in is news. When the ‘news’ is continuously a person of color that kills white people, it creates a ‘threat’ that people can identify when they turn on the TV or read the newspaper – and it doesn’t matter if people of color actually commit far less terrorist acts than white people. If it is all people see on TV, it is all they know.
This whole idea of terrorism, obviously, is ridiculously wrong, unfair, and racist. It causes needless death, suffering, exploitation, and xenophobia that should never have happened. ‘Muslims’ are not a cult of extremists hell-bent on destroying the United States, just like ‘Christians’ are not a cult of white supremacists dedicated to eradicating people different than them. We are all individuals and no one should have to speak for an entire group just because they look like them or happen to practice the same religion.
I think this image will be ridiculously difficult to alter, given the amount of time the United States has been molding this image of the ‘foreign extremist.’ In order to end the xenophobic treatment of Muslims and dehumanization of individuals, we must see others who are not like us as our equals. This is a monumental task.
The media is what we see, so the media is what we know. I believe the only way to end this idea of the constant ‘terrorist threat’ is to do real, hard-hitting, truly accurate journalism. Years of delving into the real motives of the U.S. government’s militaristic agenda and portrayal of people that aren’t just white men could be a good start.
Until we can turn on the TV or watch the news and see people who don’t look like us or share our religion not being treated as ‘others,’ this problem will persist. Telling the real truth and giving a voice to those branded as ‘others’ is the only way we can begin to turn the tide.
Sidney Richardson: Blog 