The Clash in the eyes of an African-American

The Clash in the eyes of an African-American

This class was my first formal education on the culture of the Middle East. I had studied the governmental policies of Iran and Egypt, but I had never looked at the culture of the people.
Over the course, I have recognized many parallels between the treatment of Arabs and African-American. The exploitation of the culture in media, the trinity of stereotypes and the treatment by Europeans all have interesting parallels. I wrote my first post with this idea in mind. And throughout the course, the idea never left my mind. I was particularly affected by the idea of the media image of Black people and Middle Eastern people. Both are exploited for profit, the women are either incredibly over sexualized or incredibly angry, the men are brutish, lazy and greedy. These stereotypes or used to enforce racist government agendas, from lack of proper funding for education to illegal wars that devastate entire nations.
I do not know if the two communities will ever relate to each other and fight against the negative images that both receive. After all, both of us are educated about each group through the media. The only entity that can ever unite us is education. Without education I will forever be the rap video vixen, and my Arab counterpart will be the colonial harem.