Sadaf Sadiq
Section 3
Week 5 Reading
In this week’s readings, it is apparent that the US has created a double stereotype in the aid it provides foreign countries. The Imperial University by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira depicts the overseas presence of US military forces in various countries which was “framed as humanitarian wars of protecting oppressed and victimized women” (7). On the other hand, “it is generally difficult to view the Arab or Muslim male scholar as in need of saving and support within the framework of of liberal white ‘civility’” (29). This negative view of men compared to women seems hypocritical, especially since The Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence depicts atrocious deeds done to these “oppressed women” (Hamamoto). It seems as though once the military regime occupies a country, then a significant number of soldiers come back with a hatred for the country they toured in and target victims from those countries. In Hamamoto’s piece, Dahmer abducted a young Laotian boy who escaped from his capture. The police however, returned him to Dahmer after he claimed they were having a lover’s quarrel. They disregarded the boy’s physical and mental state, and without properly investigating, sent the boy to his death. This might have been a very different story had the boy been a white male instead. In so many cases, people of color are repeatedly victimized, abused, and killed by their oppressive white male assailant, but time after time the criminals are down played as having mental health issues. We have repeatedly seen white males be the aggressive and vindictive force against minorities, yet they are always portrayed as our beneficent savior. One can only imagine this results from many men seeing themselves with a hero complex, brought about by US instilled ideals.
Question: Why are white men involved in mass murder labeled as mentally ill while people of color are immediately labelled as terrorists?
References:
Chatterjee, P., Maira, S. (2014). The Imperial University; Race, War, and the Nation-State.
Hamamoto, D. (2003). Empire of Death and the Plague of Civil Violence.
Statista. (2018). US Mass Shootings by Race 1982-2018. (Digital Image). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/graphic/1/476456/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-shooter-s-race.jpg
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