Orientalism

The distinction between the East and the West in the context of imperialism and conflicts in which the West has authority over the rest of the world is called Orientalism (Tarak Barkaw and Keith Stanski, 2012). The West visualizes itself as a continent of modernity while the East is viewed as a cultural and disorganized part of the world. As Edward Said, the author of Orientalism stated that “Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West”. Hence, orientalism was an idea or a fantasy that has no correspondence with reality. The European attained their power by setting themselves above others and generating the ideal according to themselves. This later expanded into colonialism. In this essay, an array of discourse has been studied to determine the interpretation of orientalism.

When individuals visualize the Middle East and the West, they often view the Middle East as criminal, barbaric, and savage. The reason behind this is the outcome of what individuals had observed and perceived through the media. In the documentary “Reel Bad Arab” by Jack Shaheen and Jeremy Earp, they addressed various movies that represent Arabian as a cruel criminal and a murderer. Even an innocent little girl in the film called “Rules of engagement, 2000” turns into a vicious person. Most of the media that people perceive only demonstrate how Arabian is the criminal and only create hateful action and they only show where the Arabian killed people without hesitation. For this reason, the reputation of the west as a victim and only attack in order to protect themselves still lives in the subliminal mind of individuals. In “Fear Up Harsh: An Army Interrogator’s Dark Journey through Iraq, Tony Lagouranis 2007” the chapter “The Arab Mind” by Raphael Patai, shows additional support to this context. The part where photos of guards beating, humiliating, and treating prisoners in an inhumane way were leaking and one of the colonels just stated that “We’re not doing anything wrong”, shows how the West views Arabian as a criminal and should not be treated as a human. Innocent until proven guilty does not apply to the Arab in the eyes of the west. In the documentary “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib” directed by Rory Kennedy in 2007, Ken Davis, former military police who worked in Abu Ghraib was told that if he sees anyone who looks like an enemy just shoot them. The officers round up anyone who is Arabian and exploit them. The west did not view the Arabian on the same level as humans like them. Most people do not feel anything when they see pictures of Arab citizens who had been killed or tortured by the American soldiers, some even feel that the Arabian deserve to be treated that way. The illustration of the Arab that the west provided as a criminal took over the world allowing the west to appear as a victim and a hero which enabled them to raise their power over the world.

In the past, racial factors have been brought up as a primitive notion of what is articulate or not. In linguistic terms, the English language has been considered a language that symbolized civilization and is viewed as a language that should be used worldwide up to this day. Although using the English language can be viewed as modernity, racial differences still dominate it all. In the reading “Burmese Days” by George Orwell, Ellis, who’s one of the local managers, feels frustrated and tries to thwart the butler when he uses the proper English language. They would not allow the natives to be able to speak fluent and coherent English language as they were afraid of losing their power of taking control. Additionally, in cultural terms, the east culture is inarticulate for the west. The term “Inshallah” used by Arabian was viewed as a joke when it is their religious and cultural beliefs. This is one of the ways to show the world that the West, who visualize themselves as an articulate nation, obtains tremendous power in their hands and needs to spread their orientalist fantasy way of thinking to the rest of the world.

In conclusion, through various texts I have studied, I have concluded that the power that the west obtains is associated with race. If individuals have racial differences then, they are not at the same level of humanity as the west. The East will always be viewed as an undeveloped continent or a savage criminal that had to be enlightened by the west. The west fantasized about how they are above others, this is orientalism and later developed into colonization which we still suffered from the impact of it in the present day.