Orientalism: Why in the World Were These Peoples Grouped Together

Westerners shared a sense of superiority over everyone else. although, they had a strange fascination with them as if they were a new, discovered, different species. A term used by an English scholar by the name of Edward Said. He used it in a way to describe the European fascination with the middle east, Asia, and North Africa in the nineteenth century. Together they are described as the Orient. Western civilization's view on the orient was definitely stereotypical and racist. The sad thing is, is that they had vastly different cultures from each other, yet they weren't really thought of as separate.

It was described especially for the colonies they had because the people in the colonies did look different than them. They must have thought that since they looked different on the outside then they were different on the inside. It also showed how they thought westerners were definitely very ignorant because they described them as unable of understanding the orient without putting in the stereotype they have. They were thought to be uncultured by western society but most never bothered to learn the cultures of the different countries. They thought of the other non-western countries being more savage, and even primitive, and have continued to today. Westernized society is still see as superior and better. Racism is still a big issue. The idea that the west is white, so they are better, is still seen. the view of us versus them is definitely still clearly seen. The middle east is still seen as bad and evil. Many think that all Muslims are terrorists and that they are here to harm us, the west. Not all think this way but many think Christianity is better and Islamic and paganism, seen as non-western civilization is bad.

When I was younger when I though of the word orient my mind went to the Chinese. I didn't realize that the term was used to describe basically all non-western countries. I didn't really know until I read the passage in the McKay book actually. It's weird how people think they can just lump unrelated things and cultures together. People from the middle east are very different to people in Asia. Arabs are different than Indians. They really should not be all described as the orient. The Disney Corporation has been having this problem with the movie Aladdin. They seem to be having a lot of trouble finding the right actors and actresses for the live action. For some reason they can't find Arabs to cast for the movie. Hollywood doesn't seem to have many Arabs that are mainstreamed and popular and they haven't really looked elsewhere. I think they said the actor for the character Aladdin is actually Indian and people are upset about it.

I think an important thing to take away from this topic and this term is that these cultures struggled because they were all put in one group and they had an awful stereotype from the Western people, and putting people into groups does so much harm and doesn't help anyone.

works cited

McKay, John P., et al. A History of Western Society. Bedford/St. Martins, 2017

Gaillot, Ann-Derrick. “Disney's Biggest Problem Isn't Casting, It's Racism.” The Outline, The Outline, 13 July 2017, theoutline.com/post/1909/disney-aladdin-remake-casting-racism?zd=2&zi=idmhrtff.