Bias: a preference that can be positive, negative, or neutral. A negative bias can often lead to prejudice and/or discrimination.
Explicit bias: consciously or knowingly engaging in biased thoughts and/or actions.
Implicit bias: unconsciously or unknowingly engaging in biased thoughts and/or actions.
Prejudice: attitudes/feelings about a group of people usually based on ignorance, stereotypes, or disregarding of facts, which often lead to discrimination.
Stereotype: an oversimplified idea or belief, often unfair and untrue, about a group of people based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual-orientation, etc.
Discrimination: treating a person or group of people differently, often in a negative way, based on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual-orientation, etc. Discrimination often leads to oppression.
Marginalization: the treatment of a group of people (racial, ethnic, religious, etc.) in a community as secondary, unimportant, inferior, or abnormal compared to those with more power.
Oppression: negative discrimination against a marginalized group of people by a more powerful group of people, often over a prolonged period of time. Whereas discrimination can happen on an individual level, oppression happens on a collective level.
Internalized oppression: the belief among historically oppressed people that negative stereotypes about themselves are true.
Minority community: the numerically smaller community of two groups constituting a whole.
Minority communities are often, but not always, marginalized.
Minority status can change depending on location. Jews, Muslims, and Arabs are all minorities in the United States. Worldwide, there are about 15 million Jewish people, 460 million Arab people, and 1.9 billion Muslim people. There are over 50 Muslim-majority countries, 22 Arab-majority countries, and one Jewish-majority country.
Xenophobia: fear or dislike of people from other countries and/or cultures; the belief that people from other countries and/or cultures represent a threat to one’s own country and/or culture.
Antisemitism: bias, prejudice, or discrimination against or hatred of Jewish people (also called anti-Jewish racism).
Islamophobia: bias, prejudice, or discrimination against or hatred of Muslim people (also called anti-Muslim hate).
Anti-Arab racism: bias, prejudice, or discrimination against or hatred of Arab people or people perceived to be Arab (eg “Middle Eastern”).
Note: Jewish people are an ethnic and religious group. A Muslim is a person who practices the religion of Islam. An Arab is a person who speaks Arabic. For more on this, see my post: A Guide to Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, and Religion.
Antisemitism, often called the world’s oldest hatred, has existed and evolved for over 2000 years. But antisemitism is more than just hatred. It is a persistent system of scapegoating and anti-Jewish thought consisting of common myths, stereotypes, and conspiracy theories that change with and adapt to the times. Antisemitism is often shrouded in coded language, making people especially susceptible to implicit bias/prejudice against Jews. The word “antisemitism” itself was coined by a German Jew-hater to make the term sound “scientific” to legitimize the marginalization and persecution of Jewish people. Some of this coded language includes references to a cabal, elites, puppet masters, globalists, or using the word “Zionist” in place of “Jew.” Common myths claim that Jews control the economy, Hollywood, health care systems, the media, and ultimately seek to control the world. Common conspiracy theories include blaming Jews for the death of Jesus, the Black Death, the transatlantic slave trade, 9/11, Covid, and much more. Throughout history antisemitism has resulted in oppression of Jewish people, pogroms (organized massacres), the Holocaust, and attacks on Jewish people, businesses, synagogues, schools, and daycares.
Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism often overlap, but are not the same; most Muslim people are not Arab and many Arabs are not Muslim. Likewise, neither group is homogenous. There is vast diversity amongst Arab and Muslim people and Arab and Muslim-majority countries. Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism are both largely rooted in xenophobic and Western-centric thought where Islamic religion and/or Arab culture is viewed as a threat to “Western values.” Many people view Islam and/or Arab culture as collectively oppressive toward women. This is often accompanied by a kind of saviorism wherein Westerners believe they must be the ones to punish the men and liberate the women. Muslim and/or Arab people are often infantalized as being simple, uneducated, and unmodernized, while at the same time, especially since 9/11, collectively viewed as extremists or terrorists. This has led to unwarranted and unlawful surveillance andprofiling, exclusionary immigration policies based on religion, nationality, or national origin, and attacks on Muslim and Arab people, businesses, mosques, etc.
It is generally agreed that members of specific communities are experts on their own experience and therefore get to define what bias/prejudice/discrimination/oppression against them looks like. In this case, Jews get to define antisemitism, Muslims get to define Islamophobia, and Arabs get to define anti-Arab racism. This does not mean that every time a Jew says something is antisemitic, a Muslim says something is Islamophobic, or an Arab says something is anti-Arab that it is unequivocally true. Rather, it ideally should be an intra-community discussion within that specific community and not defined by people outside of the community.
This also applies to allyship. Allyship is the active support for the rights of a minority or marginalized group without being a member of that group. While people can strive to be allies, it is generally agreed that only members of the specific group for which one is striving to be an ally get to define what true allyship looks like. Often, allyship is performative, meaning it makes the doer feel good without actually helping the community in question.
Everyone has biases and prejudices, especially the implicit kind we are not consciously aware of. One does not have to explicitly hate Jewish, Muslim, or Arab people to implicitly engage in antisemitic, Islamophobic, or anti-Arab behavior or rhetoric. Being in a relationship with, married to, friends with, or having a family member that is Jewish, Muslim, or Arab people does not make one immune to engaging in antisemitic, Islamophobic, or anti-Arab behavior or rhetoric. Members from these communities may also harbor negative bias and/or prejudice against their own people (internalized oppression). This is a brief, non-comprehensive introduction guide to these terms and ideas, yet I hope it will serve as a useful tool toward identifying biases, having more nuanced conversations, and being a better ally.
Sources:
Antisemitism:
Islamophobia:
Anti-Arab racism:
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