My Experience with Media and Jewish/Arab Racism

Submitted by Andrew Nitzberg (United States), Feb 8, 2005 at 12:21

I had a minor, but but very uncomfortable experience with the same issue in 1991 at the time of the First Gulf War.

NPR did a story on how innocent Arab business owners were victimized by a group of antisocial rednecks who went around the town of El Cajon, CA (a suburb of SanDiego), setting fire to the Arab businesses.

Clearly, these Arabs were innocent and good Americans. The story was about 'Anti-Arab Hysteria' in the United Staes.

I was a business owner in the same town, known to be Jewish, and my store was set on fire as well. Yet no mention of attacks on Jewish businesses was made.

The absence of my own experience had an impact on me. I have never listened to NPR the same way and I have come to avoid what was once my favorite radio station.

The media has a clear agenda and it is often a sound agenda. But it is incomplete. 'PC' has become a pejorative term because of its appropraition by very aggressive ideologues. It has become a narrow and controlled doctrine. My experience, described above, is a minor example of this problem.

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