Americans consumed Indian goods while simultaneously demanding Indian exclusion

Evidence

Anti-Indian animus also played into American Orientalism. Vivek Bald reminds us that from the late 1800s until the enactment of the Asiatic Barred Zone, west coast Americans argued vigorously against Indian immigration, worrying about the “dusky peril” and beturbaned hordes taking over their lands. Paradoxically, while Americans were attempting to exclude or expel Indians, they were also consuming Indian goods from textiles to Eastern spirituality. Owning Indian products became a marker of modernity and exotic luxury reminiscent of dancing girls and rajahs. Yet the disconnect between reality and fantasy remains at the heart of Orientalism. In other words, American understanding of Muslims, Islam, and the places they inhabit bears a disregard for real Muslims. It is a thin, prejudice-laden misunderstanding of a constructed monolithic Islam, and an ignorance of countries ranging from the Middle East to the Indonesian Archipelago to North, East, and West Africa. The knowledge produced by European and American corporate institutions is, however, always considered more objective and valid than anything the “natives” say about themselves. Thus, those natives cannot even refute the inaccuracies because of their ignorance at best, or mendacity at worst. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 221

Vivek Bald reminds us that from the late 1800s until the enactment of the Asiatic Barred Zone, west coast Americans argued vigorously against Indian immigration, worrying about the “dusky peril” and beturbaned hordes taking over their lands. Paradoxically, while Americans were attempting to exclude or expel Indians, they were also consuming Indian goods from textiles to Eastern spirituality. Owning Indian products became a marker of modernity and exotic luxury reminiscent of dancing girls and rajahs. Yet the disconnect between reality and fantasy remains at the heart of Orientalism. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 221

Categorization

• XREF: Builds directly on ch34’s earlier Said/Orientalism material and ties to the ‘dusky peril’ rhetoric that parallels the reader’s comparison of anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant racialization. Connects to Aziz’s argument about the retroactive racial coding of Muslims as non-white strangers.
• ADDENDUM: The consuming-the-excluded dynamic parallels the dress-appropriation point in World of Strangers where elites consume styles they police; also connects to ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ moral panic structure.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 221