Abu-Jamal reframed John Walker Lindh as rejecting white privilege rather than betraying America

Evidence

“Johnny Taliban” is guilty—of rejecting his white-skin privilege, of betraying his class, and of converting from Christianity to the Islamic faith. He is guilty of fleeing the richest empire of earth, to seek spiritual solace in the dusty, wretched backwaters of empire. He is guilty of looking into the eyes of wrinkled sheikhs in Karachi, and seeing human beings instead of caricatures. … Rather than frame Lindh as a traitor, Abu-Jamal challenges readers to see Lindh as someone whose values extend beyond his own white privilege, someone who feels sympathy—even empathy—for people who have been deemed unworthy by dominant U.S. narratives. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 1139

Categorization

• XREF: A counter-narrative technique reminiscent of The Reluctant Fundamentalist’s reframing of who the real antagonist is.