PressEthic

A friend of mine and I were talking about different forms of discrimination the other day. She, as a white lesbian woman, doesn't feel peoples' prejudices on a daily basis in a blatant way, because her difference is not physically visible. But, she said, she will always face discrimination until her basic civil right to marry is realized. Since what makes me different is immediately apparent, she asked, do I get it? Do people act racist towards me?

I hesitated to answer. As an Arab American Muslim, I face a unique type of racism. As she pointed out, I look different from any of the people you see in movies and on commercials. I'm dark, but not dark enough to be mistaken for black, and have distinctly Arab facial features. Most people can't peg my ethnicity right away, but when they do, the response is almost always fascination. There have been a few instances where I understood that a person's reaction to me was based on their prejudices about my heritage, but they have been rare.

But there's another, more injurious form of racism, which I distinctly remember feeling as early as grade school. Today I was reminded of that feeling when I read this article on the website of Media Matters for America, a leftist media watch organization. The piece refers to statements made by Michael Savage, the self-identified, "King of New York Radio," whose syndicated talk show is number one in ratings for its time slot.

On November 27, Savage complained about an incident in which six Muslim Imams were removed from a plane for praying in the airport before they boarded. He advocated, "an outright ban on Muslim immigration," and making, "the construction of mosques illegal in America and the speaking of English only in the streets of the United States the law."

He continued,

Now, we need the FBI to be strong against them. We need the Justice Department to stand up to these imams and possibly throw them out of the country for having staged this attack at the airport against US Airways specifically to impose Muslim views on society through civil rights and diversity training. I know exactly what I am talking about.

In previous statements, Savage famously called Arabs "non-humans" and "racist, fascist bigots," said there is nothing to distinguish "radical Islam and the rest of Islam over there," and advocated "kill[ing] 100 million" of Muslims.

The impact of Savage's show, despite its popularity, is relatively small. It is the wider climate of accepting racism against Muslims, Arabs, and other Middle Easterners that is so damaging. For a child, it is the fact that every Arab in a cartoon or movie is a pillaging murderer, or that the costume shop sells a mask called, "Scary Arab." As an adult, it's seeing Congressman-elect Keith Ellison bend over backwards to prove his religion doesn't mean he's "with our enemies."

For twelve years full of hateful racism, Talk Radio Network has syndicated and aired Savage's program.

We all think the media have plenty of flaws. Our desire to correct them is what keeps this blog going, and makes us study the improvement of our craft. Someday, I hope, we and our peers will be in control in places like Talk Radio Network, and other outlets. Society at large, and we as journalists, is capable of better.