Selective outrage stems from domination structures, not mere human hypocrisy

Evidence

We might explain away the paltriness of outrage in the North American and Western European press over Afghan, Iraqi, or Palestinians victims of imperial arrogance by pointing out the hypocrisy of double standards. But that explanation suggests a fundamental indecency in human beings which it seems only proper to reject as demeaning and fallacious. The compelling question remains: Why is it that death and destruction causes so much loathing and outrage when it takes place in Mumbai, London, Tel Aviv, or New York and not when it is multiplied ten thousandfold in Baghdad, Kandahar, Beirut, or Gaza City? The answer cannot be sought in the sandy domains of malice and malevolence. It must be carefully cultivated in the immediate historical vicinities where the politics of despair and the economics of domination combine to create a moral mandate to divide and rule—where some are perceived as more human than others. — Hamid Dabashi, Brown Skin, White Masks, 56

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing note that ‘whole groups get silenced by exploitation and poverty,’ and to the dehumanization mechanics in ‘Things Fall Apart.’ — connects to: Sexism, racism, and anthropocentrism all share a value-hierarchized logic of domination — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 322

Related

• Unequal outrage tracks a divide-and-rule moral mandate, not malice (similarity 0.84)