[lbo-talk] The main expression of anti-Arab racism ( was a question, etc.)

Charles Brown cbrown at michiganlegal.org
Wed Aug 23 10:38:17 PDT 2006


Carrol Cox

Chuck wrote:
>
>
> I think that this really boils down to racism.

This is, I think, very nearly the _whole_ reason behind most conspiracism. Stupid arabs couldn't do anything that clever, it must have been done by the kind of guys that brought us the Bay of Pigs.

Carrol

^^^^^^^ CB: The main racism is in attributing to Arabs special inclination to do terrorist acts, such as blowing up thousands of innocents. It reminds of the old racist canard that the Vietnamese have less regard for human life than white people do.

Recall that when Timothy McVeigh did the Oklahoma bombing, there was immmediate racist speculation that it was done by "Middle Easterners". That's the way the racism worked. Racism didn't make anybody say, " Arabs are not 'clever' enough to do that. Only a white man is smart enough to do it" in that case.

In the 9/11 case, what racism does is make a lot of people think that it probably was Arabs who did it,just like their first thought in the Oklahoma bombing was generated by racism.

Racism also makes a lot of Americans believe that their white, government officials would never do anything as heinous as 9/11. Racism makes Americans think that Arabs are inherently more evil than Americans, not so much dumber than Americans. That's the main anti-Arab racism that American leftists on this list should be fighting against.

Clearing the Arab suspects of the 9/11 crime would be the most anti-racist outcome here. Claiming that they did it feeds the main anti-Arab racist thinking of today, i.e. "Arabs and Muslims have special terrorist tendencies, unlike Americans, Christians and their government officials."



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