Terrorism and the Stigmatization of Racial, Sexual and Religious Minorities

"Monster, Terrorist, Fag" highlights a long history of oversimplification by and misapplication of traditional Western psychology and social norms onto non-Western societies. They focus on the post-9/11 stereotyping of terrorists into what they call "monster-terrorist-fags". Like any other violent individual, terrorists have motivations for their actions that cannot be boiled down to a personality type or a few events in their childhood. These individuals have their own personalities, relationships, and many legitimate political concerns, once you get around the perverse views of their ideology. As the authors said,  there is no "terrorist psyche" in the same way there is no one criminal psyche, American psyche, or psyche of any ethnic group. America is not limited to white, cisgender, heterosexual, Christian males, so our idea of it shouldn't be either. We need to stop stereotyping groups and denouncing terrorists as fags or monsters. Labeling them "monster-terrorist-fags" only perpetuates the stigmatization of people who do not fit the traditional and  "patriotic" norm of America. What I would like to know is what are some of the personal reasons and beliefs people have that turn them to terrorism?

Laura Roser
Week 6
10/25/15


A common image of terrorists as an anonymous entity of likely Middle-Eastern origin