Quote:
Originally Posted by batair
But those same people dont usually have an issue with Hinduism or Buddhism or darker skinned people of other religions. I dont think its as big a factor as you make out.
This doesn't really imply anything, in the sense that racism (or bigotry in general) rarely works as overtly as just equating every single instance of say "having brown skin = bad". Perhaps in the most egregious cases that is how it works. But for the most part, it is much more subtle. For instance, a person might genuinely have zero problem with the smart black guy at their work, yet still be influenced by racist thoughts when they, say, see some black kids on the street and are more cautious than they would be with white kids or less likely to hire a black person or whatever else. So it isn't "I dislike all black people". But nonetheless a range of associations between people who look certain ways are made. For instance, visualizing a "muslim" often results in a very distinct racial image, when of course in principle Islam is entirely race blind.
Now Buddhism and Hinduism are almost entirely outside of the national discourse so there isn't the build up of animosity towards these religions (not that they are non existent). But this certainly doesn't mean the way racial undertones work has to be identical for every brown person, and it can be amplified in brown muslims in ways it is not amplified in brown hindus. It is a bit like saying one isn't racist towards black because one isn't racist towards asians.
But I am quite happy to use "bigoted" or "islamophobic" and other expressions most of the time. The principle issue going on is a division into ingroup and outgroup thinking, and that division occurs through various identifiers. Religion is one. Race is another. Cultural artifacts are another (one might not invite the person with the name "Abdullah Mohammad Hussein" to an interview, for instance). Mostly they are blended together and hard to disentangle. I don't think the racial part plays a role of zero. But this is a pretty minor argument.