I came across this poster outside the marketplace. It reminded me of the labeling theory we discussed in class a while back. The labeling theory which focuses on how individuals view themselves in relation to society’s perception of them, can apply to the way in which say, a Middle Eastern person may feel about himself in relation to people’s stereotypical perceptions characterizing him or her as a terrorist. By grouping all people of Middle Eastern descent as criminals, something completely based on ignorance and lack of sensitivity about a specific ethnicity, severely affects people within this culture or ethnic group. The poster stating “All I need to learn about Islam, I learned on 9/ll” that this man is holding reflects the identity of Islamic people that has been erroneously constructed by society’s response to negative events directly associated with this particular region.
Manifestations such as the one captured in this poster, can have a serious negative impact on people affiliated with this region. This goes back to Mead’s concept of the “Me” which can be referred as situated and responsive, in other words people perform in relation to how they want to be perceived even if that means they need to alter their habitual self. A pertinent example of this is an Islamic woman decided not to wear traditional attire because she does not want to be associated with her culture due to all the negativity surrounding her country and her people. She might find it easier to hide her identity to avoid feeling overtly rejected by society just like this man seems to be doing with Islamic people. This in turn perpetuates racism and stereotypes because ignorant people (such as the man on the picture) continue to be ignorant about this minority’s culture. The term Islamophobia sounds ridiculous but it truly does exist, people who do not know any better view middle eastern people as all being terrorist which is something that will take a lot of educating to change.
Research Questions:
1) How can generalizations such as this one be eradicated in society?
2) How are people from nearby regions affected due to their proximity to Islam/Islamic culture or wrongly generalized as being Islamic in American society?