Anti-Arab racism here in the U.S.A.

Post Reply New Topic

In this thread I will post links to news stories, etc., pertaining to anti-Arab racism here in the U.S.A. I'll start with:

Republican Senator Sparks Outrage at Hate Crimes Hearing with Racist Questioning of Arab Leader



A clip of Louisiana Senator John Kennedy's derailment of the hate crimes hearing, followed by a Democracy Now interview with Maya Berry, Executive Director of the Arab-American Institute.

According to the introduction on YouTube:

Some relevant news stories about the above incident:

- A Republican Senator Decided a Hearing on Hate Crimes Was a Great Time to Be Quite Hateful by Shirin Ali, Slate, Sept 20, 2024
- U.S. Sen. John Kennedy badgers Arab civil rights leader, suggesting she supports terrorists by Mark Ballard, NOLA, Sep 18, 2024

I posted about these last year in the Mideast War Blowback section
Three Palestinian students shot in Vermont

Landlord accused of killing 6-year-old Palestinian American boy pleads not guilty to murder and hate crime charges

Most correctly talk about the post 9/11 period as particularly fraught. It started way before that.
. A HISTORY OF BACKLASH ATTACKS AGAINST ARABS AND MUSLIMS IN AMERICA

Speaking of the ‘70s and the oil embargo's I don’t remember reading about attacks. As mentioned they were not tracked, that is because hate crimes was not a concept. There were constant characterizations and jokes.

The Clash were a British group. They were known for their lefty lyrics. 1982’s ‘Rock the Casbah’ was their biggest American hit. This following video for the song received constant play on MTV.

I just now looked up The Meaning Behind The Clash’s 1982 Hit “Rock the Casbah” by Tina Benitez-Eves. Also the Wikipedia article on Rock the Casbah. According to the latter:


The very idea of "Conservative Rock Songs" is a bit paradoxical. Back in the early 1980's, most conservative Christians, here in the U.S.A., still regarded rock music as "the Devil's music," and conservatives in general tended to dislike it.

It would seem that the Clash intended their song as a protest against musical prudery worldwide and did not intend any harm to people in the Middle East. However, the use of their song as war propaganda during the first Gulf war does illustrate one of the pitfalls of focusing on another culture -- especially in a very superficial, stereotyped way -- rather than on one's own culture when critiquing social ills.

to me these remain under the surface and spike every so often based on current events.
Anti-arab sentiment spike:
following major terror events
refugees - EU migrant crisis
rape cases like in Cologne Germany or in Rotheram UK
mosques getting planning approval
locals feeling compelled not to enter certain parts of where they live - Paris

these fluctuations also apply to
Indians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Indian_sentiment
east asians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Asian_Hate
Latinos - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68861660

And of course all of the above oppressors and marginalised groups are anti-this one group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Black_racism

The song was protesting the despotic theocratic rulers who were taking over the mideast in the late seventies and "keeping their own people in ignorance". Not a cry to westerners to bomb the people of the Mideast (though thats what it sounds like its about...it even has laser sound effects as if depicting laser guided munitions).

As an aside...our young hard drinking store manager told us all about "a cool new song that just came out ...called "Rock the Cash bar..ya know how the same place will have both a cash bar and an open bar-that takes credit cards...Rock the Cash Bar!".

Folks hear what they wanna hear...political or otherwise.

Last edited by naturalplastic on 23 Sep 2024, 7:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Like the Vapours "turning Japanese" song. People want to read what they want from it.

I was thinking that its more like Springsteen's "Born in the USA". A dark tale of a Vietnam vet that GOP pols take to be a patriotic anthem.

Ironic that we perpetuate racism toward these people who came to the US to escape the same radicalism that we despise.

In 1980 I worked with an Iranian guy who, during the Iran hostage situation, came to the USA to escape persecution.

There was no Wikipedia or Songfacts in 1982 to find out what they really meant, but that people hear what they want to hear is still true, especially in our polarized era. Whatever the intent and knowing The Clash I am sure it was anti-hate, the video which played endlessly on MTV was racist.

The Clash along with the Sex Pistols were the two seminal first wave British Punk Rock bands. Their lefty orientation was known enough that they were occasionally mocked as "Socialism for sophomores". Lyrics aside, this song was not a rebellious punk rock song but a mainstream rock song that was viewed by many as "selling out". That they played Shea Stadium further validated that notion. They weren't "So Bored with the U.S.A" then. They seemingly realized that as they broke up shortly after.

the punk movement which drove music meant different things in the 70s/80s to now. to conservatives back then, the songs were sufficiently anti-establishment to be considered highly controversial. But as with grunge which emerged in the 90s, it was just art through the medium of music being used to say something about society.

But the way it was communicated reflected the mores of the time. Perhaps the artists might not be so frivolous with their choices in 2024 as they were during the time of the Clash or Sex Pistols. Another example is the grunge movement gave rise to songs which communicated mental health breakdown and were people were critical for different reasons that some of the music glamourised self-harm type behaviours. Even popular mainstream female singers at the time like Alanis Morrisette's music was a diary of her mental health.

I think this is why underground music is still popular, it communicates to young people what's going on (as Marvin Gay and Public Enemy tried to do) and they relate to it.

@ ASpartofme

I got my notion of what the song is about only recently, and (Im pretty sure) it was from a Wiki article (maybe it was Songfacts).

Anyway the lyrics are rather ambiguous. Much more so than "Born in the USA" for example. So saying that lyric writing is flawed is a fair complaint.

Springsteen's use of "go kill the yellow man" is actually a direct quote from the Vietnam vet who contributed to the words for the lyrics. Capturing the zeitgiest of the time, a number of cliches were used such as "kill any non-white person in combat under 6ft" (first time black conscripts were integrated in the army, perception was black soldiers were all tall).

that level of "artistic licence" might have been ok for 1984 but wouldn't fly 40 years later in 2024.

WTF are you talking about?

It would 'fly' even MORE today...because that was one of the very points Springteen was making...calling out the racism of the US war machine in Vietnam.

Not sure what Springsteen's thinking was at the time, but the song never struck me as "anti-war". Australian rockband "Cold Chisel" did a similar song using the memoirs of a Vietnam Vet, song was called "Khe San". Aussies still sing the words at parties after a few drinks (It's one of those unofficial Aussie anthems). the song itself would never get released in 2024 because, well...caution to anyone under 18 reading this
https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/73954/

Dont know if you're being honestly deaf, or willfully deaf to the lyrics, but the Springsteen song is obviously a dark social critiique of America in general (including the war). Dont see how anyone but a GOP politician could miss that. His narrator is a disgruntled vet who tells us that he got "into a hometown jam... they put an automatic weapon in my hand...sent me to kill the Yellow man....". He aint boasting about anything he did. He is implying that THEY (who sent him) were racist, not he himself.

And it was written in the 80s-after war. In the Sixties you had both pro and anti Vietnam songs. By the 80s pro Vietnam songs, even from Nashville, were rare.