American Orientalism couples inherited European alienness claims with produced Arab stereotypes.

Evidence

The second strand of the genealogy of Islam-as-race is a particular brand of Orientalism that developed in the United States in early twentieth century. American Orientalism is based on Edward Said’s seminal work on Europe’s relationship with the Middle East, Orientalism, and then on later works like Covering Islam and Culture and Imperialism which cover the United States’ encounter with that part of the world in the twentieth century. As it pertains to Islam-as-race, American Orientalism builds on the European historical episteme of Islam’s alienness and couples it with its own significant political and cultural production of Islam and Arabs as stereotypes of backward, lascivious, venal others. The political ideologies of superiority are exemplified by the “clash of civilizations” thesis advanced by Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 204

Categorization

• XREF: This is the second of three strands Choudhury names; the first (slavery-era Islam as civilizing intermediary for Africans) and this American-Orientalism thread together form the genealogy toward Islam-as-race as built in chapters 20-31, relevant to the reader’s MOC thread about anchors for racial inversion since American Orientalism supplies a domestic discursive target. — connects to: Said defined Orientalism as scholarship tied to governing the Middle East; American elites projected Orientalist stereotypes onto all Muslim-looking people regardless of actual ethnicity; American Islamophobia inherited European tropes but without Europe’s deep historical memory — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 836 (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• American elites projected Orientalist stereotypes onto all Muslim-looking people regardless of actual ethnicity #corroborates (0.95)
• American Islamophobia inherited European tropes but without Europe’s deep historical memory #expands (0.92) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 836
• European Orientalism was normalized and domesticated into American area studies #corroborates (0.90) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 749
• Lack of direct Muslim contact drove Americans to borrow British colonial stereotypes #corroborates (0.90) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 38
• American empire inherited and reformulated European Orientalism after World War II #corroborates (0.88) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 724
• Orientalist myths about Arabs reproduce and reinforce each other #expands (0.85)
• American Orientalism is the living root system that drives Islamophobia. #expands (0.85) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 168
• Early Arab immigrants were simultaneously exoticized and despised by Americans #exemplifies (0.82) — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 977
• American national identity was partly forged through media portrayals of foreign Arabs #expands (0.80) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 72
• Orientalism presents Arabs as static types rather than historical agents #qualifies (0.80)
• American Orientalism was a German-influenced latecomer to the field #qualifies (0.75) — Robert Irwin, For Lust of Knowing, 380
• American Orientalism was shaped by domestic Asian migrants rather than direct colonial administration #contradicts (0.70) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 286