AMAS 215 Quiz 2

Alsultay’s seven strategies of simplified complex representation

1. Inserting patriotic arabs or muslim americans

2. Sympathizing with the plight of Arab or MUslim Americans post 9/11

3. Challenging the Arab/Muslim conflation with representations of diverse Muslim identities

4. Flipping the enemy

5. Humanizing the terrorist

6. Projecting a multicultural society

7. Fictionalizing a Middle Eastern or Muslim country

Colorblind Ideology

• An ideology which perpetuates racial discrimination while absolving racists of accountability

• “Racism without racists”

• “I don't see color”

Post-Race Ideology

• 2008 election of Barack Obama

  • We elected a black president

  • Is racism over? NOPE

Quantico S1E1

• Connects to the 7 SCR’s, 8 themes, and 4 interests

• PLOT SUMMARY

  •  Recruits in FBI training school

  •  Alex Parrish, Indian-American FBI recruit

  • Episode begins with the aftermath of a bombing in NYC

• Episode is structured as a series of flashbacks to day one at FBI training academy: Quantico

Simplified Complex Representation

• “Discrepancy between the proliferation of sympathetic images about Arabs and Muslims and the simultaneous enactment of racist policies and practices that criminalize Arab and Muslim identities” (16)

  • Performative critique of state power

  • Liberal multicultural discourse about DEI obscured the racist reality

  • Entrenches ideas about “good arab” vs “bad arab”

  • Diversity patriotism

• Casting practices: casting of Latinos, South Asians, and actors who otherwise appear “dark,” as Arab or Muslim, “lends itself to the visual construction” and conflation of “brown” with “terrorist” (10)

  • Contributed to current rise in anti-immigrant sentiment

  • Trump’s discourse on Muslims and Mexicans

  • ICE and racial profiling

  • Brown = enemy of the state

Stereotype

• A systematic representation repeated in a variety of forms

• Descriptive

• Evaluative

• A way for:

  • “Powerful groups to characterize subordinate groups… [through] the systematic suggestion that all people of a group are this way, and this way by nature.” (Seiter 184)

• Stereotypes are not a kind of hegemony, but a reflection of hegemony

Stockton’s 8 Themes of Anti-Arab Stereotyping

• Sexual depravity

• Creature analogies

• Physiological and psychological traits

• Savage leaders

• War of darkness against light

• Deceit

• Secret Power

• Hatred of Israel and antisemitism

US Interests in the SWANA region

• Israel

• Economic

• Military

• Religious

The War on Terror (Transnational Front)

• Transnational front:

  • Afghanistan: 2021

  • Iraq: 2003-2011

  • Drones, and Etc. Wars: Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Libya

The War on Terror (Domestic Front)

• Domestic Front

  • PATRIOT ACT: Mass invasion of US citizens’ privacy

  • National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), 2002-2016

    • Non-citizens from “certain” countries

    • Fingerprinted, photographed, interviewed

• Unofficial drone war on Pakistan, 2004-2018

• Unofficial drone war on Yemen, 2002, 2009-present

• Unofficial drone war on Libya, 2015-2019

• US airstrikes in the Syrian civil war, 2016-2020

Afghanistan

2021

Iraq

2003-2011

PATRIOT ACT

• Suspension of civil liberties

  • Mass invasion of US citizens’ privacy

  • Enables domestic surveillance on US citizens

  • Indefinite detention, secret evidence, trying civilians in military tribunals, guilt by association, wiretapping, surveillance, deportations

NSEERS

• National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), 2002-2016

  • Non-citizens from “certain” countries

  • Fingerprinted, photographed, interviewed

  • Special registration for primarily Arab and Muslim men

  • Deportaiton

Unofficial Drone Wars

• Pakistan: 2004-2018

• Yemen: 2002, 2009-Present

• Libya: 2015-2019

• US Airstrikes in the Syrian Civil War: 2016-2020