Is it the Clashing of Civilizations or Pure Arrogance?

Critical Reflection #4

What?: “Do you wear a bulletproof vest to school?” was a question I could never answer well, and debunking ideas that Oakland public schools were dangerous and unsuitable for others’ children was an ongoing responsibility. My high school allowed me to see more than just my neighborhood. Whether it was protesting cuts to public education, discussing effects of gentrification in Oakland, or how to best combat street violence, teachers fostered discussions of social issues with friends representing every city neighborhood in a way that not every school in Oakland or in the state addresses.

Similarly, Edward Said, author of Orientalism, argues that Orientalism is the source of the inaccurate, cultural representations that were stemmed from Western thought and the perception of the Eastern world, specifically the Middle East. Said walks through the three different meanings of Orientalism and the prejudice that derived from them. The first meaning as described by Said is that, “Orientalist is less preferred by specialists today, both because it is too vague and general and because it connotes the high-handed executive attitude of nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century European colonialism” (Said, pg.2). Just as my high school is misrepresented by people who have only heard but have never experienced the haste and excitement that came with walking through the hallways, Said argues that the white French men who would go visit third-world countries, would come back and teach students what they discovered. What this inevitably created was a bunch of the people who were studying these “outsiders,” based on what the white man told them, synthetically created the monologue of “the other.”

Correspondingly, Said’s second meaning for Orientalism is that it is a style of thought “Based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between ‘the Orient’ and (most of the time) ‘the Occident.’” This approach is known as the moral view and study of knowledge, in where it pits Occidentalism against the Orient; allowing someone else to do the thinking for them. The third meaning discussed by Said is “Something more historically and materially defined than either of the other two…in short, Orientalism is a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.” This has a connection to power and how discourse can be used to change one’s view. For example, the history he is referring to is colonialism- which allowed Europeans to talk about “the other,” something Middle Easterners could not do about Europeans.

Discourse is powerful. As a people, we are the most powerful advocates in our schools, communities, city council, radio, TV, newspaper, etc. So, it comes with no surprise that what is said in the news or even in our classrooms, shapes the way people interpret and deliver messages to the public.

So What?: In Samuel Huntington’s essay-turned book, The Clash of Civilizations, the author argues that the post-cold war would be marked by civilizational conflict. Huntington believes that there is no “one” universal civilization: “In this new world, local politics is the politics of ethnicity; global politics is the politics of civilizations. The rivalry of the superpowers is replaced by the clash of civilizations” (Huntington). Instead, there is an abundance of cultures, each with their own set of values and beliefs. He mentions that the Islamic civilization especially, is troublesome because, “As the West attempts to assert its values and to protect its interests, non-Western societies confront a choice. Some attempt to emulate the West and to join or to band-wagon with the West” (Huntington), but he is saying that the people who live in Islamic societies do not share the same values and beliefs of the Western world. Instead, they wish to expand their own “Economic and military power to resist and ‘balance’ against the West” (Huntington).

I believe that Huntington’s argument of non-Western societies following their own trajectory and not becoming more Western, presents some of the critiques made for Ethnography, which is a method of study involving fieldwork to “Grasp the native’s point of view” (Malinowski, 1922). Much of Huntington’s argument is that while cultures “Can change, and the nature of their impact on politics and economics can vary from one period to another; the major differences in political and economic development among civilizations are clearly rooted in their different cultures” (Huntington). He claims that the people in non-Western societies do not want to accept Democracy or pluralism, but little does he talk about the circumstances in which these individuals lived in that perhaps did not allow for the manifestation of Western doctrines. Furthermore, Huntington illustrates the culture as static, unchanging, ignoring the fact that many of these cultures live under a regime ruled by fear.

Huntington creates a separation between “us” and “them,” something Said argues is the crippling effect of allowing the more “civilized” to talk about the Orient, because it creates a difference of cultural identity between the West and East. Thus, ignoring the different societies of the Eastern world and categorizing them all in the world of “the Orient.”

Now What?: In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find differing opinions. Thousands of newspapers and magazines and dozens of radio and television talk shows resound with differing points of view. The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which “experts” seem the most credible.

Much of what is seen nowadays on the news, are the ICE raids taking place in many states, including California, striking fear into immigrants, regardless of their status. Just as this has hit home for me and my family, it has undoubtedly struck fear in many of the people I see and meet at RotaCare clinic. RotaCare’s mission is to provide quality healthcare services to uninsured families and individuals with limited ability to pay for medical care. And a lot of those who receive care from the clinic are either residents, undocumented, or have family who are undocumented, which as I have noticed, poses a level of uncertainty about their safety and positionality at the clinic.

Some of the things they may be weary about is whether their personal information will be tampered or exposed to with the police or ICE. Everyone is on alert and preparing for what may be the scariest and worst day of their life. I know from personal experience, because my mom calls me almost everyday with a new hidden spot where she has saved my papers from school to swim team to my health insurance and tax documentation. She has also told me where to find her belongings and what she wants sent to her home country if she is to ever be taken away.

Thus, when Said states that we are “not a free subject of thought”, he means that we are still influenced by what is said in the media because we are critiquing it based on we know and have grown up to know and understand. So maybe we as a society are to blame for what has happened in the past year. However, the true testament to us as humans and as a community, is how we proceed to handle the problem and change the dialogue of “the other.”