NowComment
2-Pane Combined
Comments:
Full Summaries Sorted

Xenophobia, the Other Face of Racism

Alexander Dawoody

America is the land of immigrants. This unique quality is both a blessing and a source of ongoing problems. The blessing arrives from the fact that it is the composition of many different immigrant populations that brought to the young country talent, expertise, skills, hard work and dedication that contributed to the building of the nation and making it the most powerful on earth. It does not take long for one to look at America and witness the world assembled in its mosaic. Yet, and despite the uniqueness of this blessing, the American mosaic has its troubling aspect as well, manifested in tensions that burp out in forms of racism. However, due to the collective good of the American people and the progressive policies to create a better and more integrated and cooperative human society, this ugly symptom is gradually fading and retreating to the trash bin of history. The recent election of Barack Obama by majority of Americans as the first African-American President of the United States is an example of this direction.

With globalization, however, racism is giving birth to another form of hate and discrimination. It is known as xenophobia (or the fear of foreigners). Unlike its predecessor, this form is hidden, devious, and often packaged within layers of established social and institutional codes of behavior. It is often manifested in protectionist policies, the practice of various organizations, the behavior of a few individuals in key decision-making positions both in public and the private sectors, the media, the entertainment industry, and academia.

With the rise of globalization and the interconnectedness of languages, cultures, expertise, and human communities, and with the increase of America’s weaving into the fabric of global economic, political, and social affairs, xenophobia is burping out as a reaction to paranoia, resentments and hatred, especially by those who feel threatened and marginalized by cooperative globalization. Hence, racism is resurfacing once again but within an innovative form of phobia by targeting groups of human beings who are now considered as the new outsiders.

Unlike classic racism which is a pronounced and articulated form of hatred, xenophobia and to a larger extend is disguised within established professional codes. It aim is to maintain America within pre-globalization ethnicities while disallowing what are considered to be “new comers” from taking part within this mosaic or establishing their roots in the country. And unlike classic racism, this tendency lacks clear economic objective. Anyone from abroad is a target as long as the person is a newcomer (a foreigner), despite the newcomer’s economic status. Yet, and even within this blanket form of phobia there is a prioritization of hatred set by an individual’s ties to regionally-oriented political events.

If the newcomer, for example, is from a country or region that has produced an intense political event that is still stressing, that person may be prioritized by xenophobia as hate target number one simply for guilt by regional association with the generating region of such tension. An Iraqi, for example, may be regarded as such simply because of Iraq’s recent political stress in relation to US national security. The next in ranking would be someone who is from a region or a country that is producing a stressing political tension with the United States that seeds within a recent historical context. An example would be someone from Iran (with the Iranian Revolution of 1979 constituting a stressing recent political history and continues to escalate in its tension, especially in relation to the issue of nuclear weapons).

This is perhaps followed by someone who is from a region that has produced a stressing political situation with the United States in the distant (yet not too far) history. An example of this would be someone who is from the former Soviet Union or a state within the Warsaw Pact (since the former Soviet Union and its allies in the former Warsaw Pact had created the Cold War and continue to play, although to a lesser degree, some form of political adversaries to the United States), followed perhaps with someone from Germany or Japan (with Germany and Japan being the primary producers of political tensions that led to WWII). Those may then be followed with others from a country or region that pose economic or cultural conflict, such as Mexico, and so forth.

The ranking in hate, of course, has no rationalization or systemic functional operation. It is produced uncoordinated and spontaneously by individuals who use institutional setting and organizational behavior to give voice to their paranoia. Due to the unique nature of globalization, this form is particularly pronounced in higher educational settings in the United States. Higher educational settings in the United States, unfortunately, are witnessing such a phobia because it is can easily be disguised and escape consequences due to the very nature of these settings.

Xenophobia, of course, has no rewarding elements to its perpetrators. The only reward is psychological. Because of this, xenophobia is a state of mind and a form of illness that differs from classic racism.

As a nation, we are in the process of destroying racism in our society. Yes, there still exist various practices of individual, societal, and institutional racism. However, we are on an irreversible path of ending this ugly phenomenon and forging toward emphasizing the integrated aspects of our cooperative mosaic. Xenophobia will also be eliminated and dealt a blow to as well. However, and in order to do so, we need to be aware of its hidden venues and better educate ourselves on how to identify, isolate, target, and then eliminate it. Whether the xenophobes like it or not, we are part of the world and globalization is here to stay. The old thinking of protectionism, isolationism, and burying ourselves behind walls of ignorance are things of the past and will never separate or divide us again.

I am hopeful that by exposing xenophobia and encouraging ourselves to stand up against it, this ugly phenomenon may also can be uncovered and rooted out off of our society. And, for everyone who is interested in the sharing of the American dream through hard work and dedication, they may do so without being subjected to hate or discrimination based on their country of origin. As racism before it, and as many other phobias alike it (sexism, misogynism, homophobia, Islamophobia and others), the more we hide this ugly phenomenon and sweep it under the rug, the longer it may live and creep into our lives to disable our cooperative human community from functioning with creativity and positive energy.

DMU Timestamp: November 09, 2018 23:10





Image
0 comments, 0 areas
add area
add comment
change display
Video
add comment

Quickstart: Commenting and Sharing

How to Comment
  • Click icons on the left to see existing comments.
  • Desktop/Laptop: double-click any text, highlight a section of an image, or add a comment while a video is playing to start a new conversation.
    Tablet/Phone: single click then click on the "Start One" link (look right or below).
  • Click "Reply" on a comment to join the conversation.
How to Share Documents
  1. "Upload" a new document.
  2. "Invite" others to it.

Logging in, please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner