Sympathy for select enemies functions as a post-race performance of enlightenment

Evidence

Sympathy is a key emotion that emerged in relation to Arabs and Muslims after 9/11. It is a key post-race emotion, as it importantly signals a capacity to have nuanced emotions toward the designated enemy. Rather than demonize all Arabs and Muslims, having sympathy for some of them illuminates an enlightened culture that can distinguish between the “good” and “bad” ones, the perpetrators and the victims. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 518

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘post-race emotion’ — sympathy deployed to display colorblind sophistication by distinguishing good from bad Muslims.
• XREF: Parallels the ‘not like the others’ moderation signaling analyzed in contemporary discourse about immigration and gay rights.