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aisclaradm's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Racism and Islamophobia
Moderate: Xenophobia, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War
savvylit's review against another edition
4.75
I was sickened to be able to track the way that a handful of racist generalizations became established as fact over the course of a few centuries. What started as a supposed analysis of language or culture eventually became (mis)information used to make devastating global policy decisions. Most disturbingly of all was how eerily familiar I found the stereotypes that Said pulled from Orientalist literature. Though this book was published in 1978, I - as a US citizen who grew up post-9/11 - shamefully recognized the ongoing perpetuation of these racist ideas. Islamophobia and East-focused xenophobia are still such an ingrained part of the Western culture in which I live.
In light of the current genocide of Palestinians, Said's analysis is perhaps as relevant as ever. There is one passage in particular that I keep noticing over and over again in the Western reporting on Gaza: focusing on the Palestinian people as a mass. This idea of a faceless mass allows news outlets to rob Palestinians of their individuality. Which in turn makes it very easy for reporters and viewers alike to maintain racist generalizations. And generalizations in turn mean that those of us consuming the media can look away from the tragedy because it's just something that's happening "over there" to "them."
Graphic: Genocide, Racism, Violence, Colonisation, and War
gentle_garbage_baby's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia
Minor: War
thevampiremars's review against another edition
3.5
“I use the word “arbitrary” here because imaginative geography of the “our land–barbarian land” variety does not require that the barbarians acknowledge the distinction. It is enough for “us” to set up these boundaries in our own minds; “they” become “they” accordingly, and both their territory and their mentality are designated as different from “ours.” To a certain extent modern and primitive societies seem thus to derive a sense of their identities negatively. [...] Yet often the sense in which someone feels himself to be not-foreign is based on a very unrigorous idea of what is “out there,” beyond one’s own territory. All kinds of superstitions, associations, and fictions appear to crowd the unfamiliar space outside one’s own.”
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, and War
Minor: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Alcohol
quillify_'s review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and War