Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and Representation after 9/11

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163 Epilogue The thing that frustrates me is when I see us on TV nowadays. Who do they always show? They always show the crazy dude burning the American flag going: “Death to America!” Always that guy. Just once I wish they would show us doing something good, man. Right? Just once, right? Yeah, man! Right? Show us doing something good, like you know like baking a cookie or something, right? Cause I’ve been to Iran. We have cookies. Just once I want CNN to be like, “Now we are going to Mohammed in Iran.” They go to some guy who’s like, “Hello, I am Mohammed and I am just baking a cookie. I swear to God. No bombs, no flags, nothing. Back to you, Bob.” That would be the whole news piece. They’re never going to do that. Even if they ever did that, they would follow it up with another news piece: This just in: A cookie bomb just exploded. —Maz Jobrani, The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour Post-Race Racism in the Obama Era During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, right-wing activists accused Barack Obama of being a closet Muslim, a secret Muslim, and a sleeper cell agent.1 “Once a Muslim, always a Muslim,” declared the conservative political commentator Debbie Schlussel.2 The proof, critics claimed, was everywhere: Obama’s middle name, Hussein; the fact that he spent some of his childhood in Indonesia, allegedly attending a Muslim school; the fact that his father was Muslim.3 E-mails circulated accusing Obama of not wearing an American flag pin (which had, in recent presidential elections, become ridiculously reductive “proof” of one’s patriotism). Some e-mails circulated photos of Obama that made him look like Osama bin Laden; others associated him with an often vague but always ominous Islamic threat [see Figures 6.1–6.3]. Other widely circulated e-mails stated that he would take his oath for political office on the Qur’an, would side with Muslims over Americans, and is anti-Israel— all signifiers of being un-American, anti-American, or a threat to the United States.4 One such e-mail stated, “The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the US from the inside-out, what better way to start than at the highest level—through the President of the United States, one of their own!!!!”5 The Clarion Fund, a right-wing nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about the radical Islamic threat, distributed 28 million copies of a film, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War against the West, months before the election in an attempt to associate Obama with terrorism.6 164 Figure 6.1. Example of images circulated by right-wing activists accusing Barack Obama of being Muslim. Figure 6.2. Example of images circulated by right-wing activists accusing Barack Obama of being Muslim, implying dangerous radicalism. 165 Epilogue Obama had to “go stealth” with whatever associations he had with Islam or risk his chance at the U.S. presidency. On the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly asserted his commitment to Christianity, repeatedly assured the American public that he is not nor has he ever been Muslim.7 He distanced himself from his father’s Islamic faith, his Muslim relatives in Kenya, his childhood in Indonesia. He did not visit mosques despite invitations. The efforts were clear: as long as he could convince voters that he was not Muslim, he was acceptable as a U.S. presidential candidate.8 Despite these numerous attempts to discredit Obama—by turns inventive, amusing, and repugnant—he was elected president. The election of Barack Obama takes post-race racism to a new level. Many people considered Obama’s successful bid for the presidency the crowning evidence of a post-race era, an era in which the United States is finally a colorblind democracy and meritocracy. Claims to a post-race society became more Figure 6.3. Example of images circulated by right-wing activists that likened Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden. 166 Epilogue widespread and popular across party lines than ever before. What could be better evidence of a post-race era than the election of the first African American as U.S. president? However, Obama’s presidential campaign, while celebrated as evidence of racial progress, revealed continued strains of anti-immigrant, antiblack , anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim sentiment. A few years...