Who Are We Listening To?
Dec. 13th, 2011 04:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoyWow. The more I read about this Lowe's debacle, the more disgusted I get. It's yet another of those times when my SIWOTI complex slams headlong into the fact that tackling everything wrong with what people are saying would take weeks and likely just piss off the idiots who hold those opinions anyway.
I mean, look at this--according to a marketing executive, the first mistake was advertising during the show at all: "For a big national brand like Lowe's, they've always got to be incredibly careful when advertising during any show that could be deemed controversial." Because a) ordinary Muslim people are CONTROVERSIAL, and b) it's all about money.
And don't get me started on the rest of the Florida Family Association's bullshit. I can't even bring myself to link to it; you'll just have to google it.
This kind of controversy really pisses me off. It's a sign of sloppy thinking, to assume that all Muslims are like the ones you see on the news blowing shit up. I know we're wired to think anecdotally, and that causes a lot of misconceptions. That's something we can work to get past, though.
Trouble is, a lot of people don't. All-American Muslim seems to be trying to fight psychology with psychology--if we're going to go by anecdotes anyway, they present us with some new anecdotes about Muslims doing their everyday stuff. Admirable, cool, and apparently too late for the Florida Family Association people, who haven't got room for any more anecdotes.
Which is a crying shame. I am not a Muslim, but the ones I have met have all seemed like, y'know, normal people to me. In my dumb white American experience with Muslims, not one has tried to terrorize me. They've shown me Bollywood movies, played good-natured tricks on their students, gone completely nuts over birthday cake, played Super Mario, yelled back at Dora the Explorer, discussed philosophy, raced boats, learned to draw manga, rassled their kitty cats, given to charity over holidays, shared recipes, saved me when I had malaria, cheered for Stevie Wonder at the Paralympic opening ceremonies, and confessed to an unconditional love for Babysitter's Club.
That's the kind of thing they're showing on All-American Muslim, from the Muslims' point of view. And that is the kind of thing the Florida Family Association seems to find so objectionable.
Remind me why Lowe's listened to them, again?
I mean, look at this--according to a marketing executive, the first mistake was advertising during the show at all: "For a big national brand like Lowe's, they've always got to be incredibly careful when advertising during any show that could be deemed controversial." Because a) ordinary Muslim people are CONTROVERSIAL, and b) it's all about money.
And don't get me started on the rest of the Florida Family Association's bullshit. I can't even bring myself to link to it; you'll just have to google it.
This kind of controversy really pisses me off. It's a sign of sloppy thinking, to assume that all Muslims are like the ones you see on the news blowing shit up. I know we're wired to think anecdotally, and that causes a lot of misconceptions. That's something we can work to get past, though.
Trouble is, a lot of people don't. All-American Muslim seems to be trying to fight psychology with psychology--if we're going to go by anecdotes anyway, they present us with some new anecdotes about Muslims doing their everyday stuff. Admirable, cool, and apparently too late for the Florida Family Association people, who haven't got room for any more anecdotes.
Which is a crying shame. I am not a Muslim, but the ones I have met have all seemed like, y'know, normal people to me. In my dumb white American experience with Muslims, not one has tried to terrorize me. They've shown me Bollywood movies, played good-natured tricks on their students, gone completely nuts over birthday cake, played Super Mario, yelled back at Dora the Explorer, discussed philosophy, raced boats, learned to draw manga, rassled their kitty cats, given to charity over holidays, shared recipes, saved me when I had malaria, cheered for Stevie Wonder at the Paralympic opening ceremonies, and confessed to an unconditional love for Babysitter's Club.
That's the kind of thing they're showing on All-American Muslim, from the Muslims' point of view. And that is the kind of thing the Florida Family Association seems to find so objectionable.
Remind me why Lowe's listened to them, again?
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 12:45 am (UTC)During that nonsense with the Islamic community center in NYC, I kept having to explain to people about the nice lady who lives across the alley and talks to me about my garden (and gets her young son to pick bugs for me) ...oh, and who wears a hijab. I guess it mostly proves that the attraction of young boys for bugs truly is universal...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 05:15 am (UTC)And you know what? It's not even completely that person's fault. Sure, it would be great if people were a lot more broad-minded, but the media just keeps on showing the violent things that Muslims do. And there a so many zealous Muslims, who just keep on feeding the media with more violence! What about all the GOOD things we do? Like the compulsory charity every year? Or the one month of restraint we have to practice every year? Do those people, who HATE me, even know that the very word Islam means PEACE?
We are NOT trying to take over the world. We are NOT trying to convert everyone, or turn them into mindless zombies. An important teaching of our religion is "To you your religion, and to me mine."
I'm sorry, I got a bit carried away. I'm just scared of all the hatred directed towards me.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-14 01:39 pm (UTC)Here is my anecdote about Muslim people: I had a young Muslim woman as a student a few years ago. Nada was hilarious, insightful, and incredibly intelligent, the kind of student professors hope for. I ran in to her the other day. When she was in my class, she was an undecided major. Since then, she majored in Chemistry and has applied (and been accepted) to law school.
Apparently she got inspired by the discussion we had in class about how the lack of accessible and clean water has a negative effect on girl's education in developing countries. Nada has decided that her life's work will be 1) inventing an affordable, practical system to bring clean water and 2) fighting international buearacracy to make sure her system gets brought to these underresourced communities. These are the kind of people the "Florida Family Association" thinks are a threat?
Another former student told me that Nada inspired him to go ahead and pursue his calling as a Catholic Jesuit monk, because he saw how much peace and courage Nada's faith brought her. So much for Muslims trying to convert people...
no subject
Date: 2011-12-15 09:30 am (UTC)The problem is, people may even HEAR about things like the charity and Ramadhan, but they may not let it past the big wall of preconceptions or the media images. The Florida Family Association's big "complaint" about the American Muslim show is that it portrays Muslims who DON'T fit with their stereotypes. That's the kind of stubbornness it takes a whole lot of repetition to bring around. But it'll happen eventually.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-15 10:02 am (UTC)I'll give this "controversy" one thing--I hadn't heard of this show, but now I'm interested.
The saddest thing, as the Daily Show helpfully pointed out, is that the FFA's basically complaining that the show isn't conforming to their stereotypes. Which is rather discouraging. But it can be overcome. Eventually.