clearly prejudiced

Submitted by frank tamborello (United States), Feb 14, 2007 at 18:04

Do you know any Muslim families? Since many Americans don't, do you not think that shows like 24 could potentially incite violence against Muslim families? Or do you, too, believe that all Muslim families are terrorists?

This country has a history of stereotyping groups and they then become victims of violence. Do you believe in shouting "fire" in a crowded theater? I'm not saying events such as portrayed in "24" couldn't happen. But you obviously don't understand that TV is not real life: that what TV does is take a particular portrayal, pull it out of context from the real world, and then package it in such a way that audiences will react to it without considering the entire possible surrounding real world context (e.g., the fact that there could actually be Muslims who are not terrorists.)

Since you don't understand this, you will think of yourself as a hero who "tells it like it is". Maybe you don't realize that all the story isn't being told. If you are a white American, do you believe there should be a show about your ancestors who took part in lynchings? Would you be proud of that, and would you approve of a TV show that regularly portrayed whites only as lynch mobs, without any portrayal of whites in any other context? Unless one belongs to a group that has been demonized----Muslims, gays, immigrants, Jews----one doesn't understand the feelings created by portrayals like this. So, my guess is that you are not part of any of those groups and are living in a self-satisfied bubble: nay, you are living in a world where your freedom to demonize others is threatened by their insistence on defending themselves.

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