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Alternative Radio for June 02, 2008
1:02 PM - 2:00 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: "Anti-Arab Racism," with Steven Salaita
Edward Said, the great Palestinian-American scholar commented that racism against Arabs is the last acceptable form of racism in the U.S. Arabs are constructed as the Other, dark and evil. There have been numerous Newsweek and Time magazine covers depicting angry, bearded Arabs, wearing a checkered kaffiyeh, and brandishing a weapon. Radio & TV talk show hosts compare Islam to fascism. Hollywood movies contribute greatly to negative images of Arabs. They are the enemy du jour. The conventional stereotype of Arabs usually consists of the following elements: They are all wealthy, barbaric, cunning, untrustworthy, mendacious, misogynist, cruel and sadistic. Perhaps the most bizarre comment about Arabs is that they are anti-Semites. Bizarre why? Arabs are Semites. Arabic is a Semitic language. In these formulaic constructions, repeated ad nauseum, an entire people and culture have been reduced to caricatures.
Steven Salaita
Steven Salaita is a professor at Virginia Tech. He's the author of Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures and Politics. His latest book is Anti-Arab Racism in the USA.
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International.
Established in 1986, AR is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting, which urge that programming serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," be diverse and "provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard." The project is entirely independent, sustained solely by individuals who buy transcripts and tapes of programs.
Its "headquarters" is situated to correspond with its position in the mainstream mass media: down an alley, behind a house, on top of a garage in Boulder, Colorado. From this rarefied location, AR's programs manage to reach over 125 radio stations and millions of listeners. AR is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change.
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