Week 3, Post 1

By Jared Behrend

McCain's Identity Divisions - U.S. vs. "Arabs"

At a recent rally, John McCain faced questions regarding the safety of Barack Obama's potential presidency. At this rally he faced questions that revealed a certain identity he has credited with "Arabs" and the Middle East in general.

"Last week in Ohio, a woman at a rally expressed fear of Obama and called him "an Arab," McCain shook his head gravely and said "no, ma'am" and again defended Obama's character: "He's a decent, family man, a citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with."
-Newsday http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/opinion/viewsday/2008/10/the_decent_arab.html

In McCain's refutation of Obama's "Arab" background, he states Obama's "decent, family man" nature. Setting up this dichotomy of the "decent" Americans and therefore Indecent Arabs is the first step to completely discrediting a whole population of people, and in turn potentially discouraging any type of discussion between the nations. This surely is part of McCain's approach to Iran. Seeing them as non-democratic, indecent people, McCain's view of their legitimacy is greatly lessened, and therefore results in a completely black-and-white, us-versus-them identity conflict. Through building up negative attributes of the "enemy," Arab countries are separated from the U.S., and chances of any diplomatic gains are lessened. Each side then has more reason to disagree with the other side and both sides in turn are further from each other's identities. In addition, the message McCain sends to Americans is that Arabs are less than human, unfit for our western ideals. As some have said, with McCain's help, those of Middle Eastern descent have become the new ethnic group misunderstood and hated for their identity, showing an America moving in the wrong direction.