This weeks readings for my Multiculturalism in the Media course touched on a very large yet not spoken about issue that has been gaining a lot of support since the Orlando LGBT nightclub shooting this summer. A major theme that was discussed in one of the readings this week was ambivalence and a slowly growing accepting for members of the Muslim community in American society. The article described the way people from Arab countries and people of the Muslim faith are portrayed in modern media and news. In these shows people that fall into these categories are portrayed as terrorists, criminals, and enemies of the state whenever possible. These characters that reflect these groups of people inspire hate and violence towards an entire group of people based on fear and character portrays in the media. The fear and the ridicule is influenced heavily by 9/11 and Islamaphobia. Creating this tension allows for hate and violence to be the natural reaction towards people from Arab countries or of the muslim faith. However, there has been a some progress in terms of acceptance and attitude towards members of these groups as the years progress. People are becoming a lot more open minded and creating organizations to help people of this diverse community.
Islamaphobia is a very real thing, I have seen this fear and prejudice happen in my daily life and I cannot imagine what it must be like to experience that kind of discrimination. People hating you because you look like someone they should be afraid of. They make these judgements at first glance and don't even bother to get to know someone. Imagine this kind of pressure every single day and then double it if you are a member of an Arab country or of the Muslim faith and identify as LGBT. According to an article titled: “Muslim attitudes about LGBT are complex, far from universally anti-gay” by Lauren Markoe which analyzes and interviews Arab men and women who identify as LGBT. Markhoe writes; “No good Muslim can be gay, they say (Markhoe, 2016).” Members of the LGBT community fight many battles on a daily basis. Then to come from a culture that has a history of humiliating, outlawing, and even killing members of the LGBT community, adds significant stress to peoples lives. Markhoes article goes on to take a lighter tone saying that even though it is difficult, things are improving for LGBT members belonging to these other communities as well. Certain religions spaces have allowed openly LGBT members to pray, and organizations designed for Arab LGBT members are gaining ground to help people. These programs are a step in the right direction and offer a real chance at change for a group of people that deserve to live their lives embracing their culture and their sexuality at the same time.
American media outlets do largely appear to be locked into continual affirmation of Islamophobia, which is a real shame. I can't think of any movie, TV program or otherwise that has featured a positively portrayed Arabic or Muslim character in it, much less any TV journalism that has ever attempted to portray Arabs or Muslims as anything close to normal. It's so ingrained in the culture; there's even traces in your description of the stress Arab-Americans face on a daily basis. For example, when you write, "people hating you because you look like someone they should be afraid of," the word "should" still implies at least to a small extent that Arabic people are different from other Americans in a way that is potentially dangerous. You probably didn't mean to imply that, but what else can "look like someone they should be afraid of" be interpreted as? "Is afraid of" is starkly different from "should be afraid of".
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