When issues in America or Europe are discussed, like racism, sexism, and murder, they are just ‘issues that occur in society’. When the same issues are spoken about in Asian or African countries, they are automatically labelled as ‘barbaric’ and ‘backwards’. The Boston bombings for example, were called by some as a ‘barbaric’ terrorist attack by a fundamentalist. Once a white guy is a suspect, I don’t see the word ‘barbaric’ written anywhere. Obviously, they’re the only ones in the world that are able to develop psychological issues as a result of their environments. When you think of a ‘molester’ in Europe, you think of a sad man who has not had enough love as a child, but when you think of a an Arab ‘molester’ you have a picture of a dirty bearded man with a constant erection. This is in no way written to make Arab molesters seem ‘nicer’ than they are, but this barbaric image bullshit needs to stop.
People need to stop thinking like every issue in the Middle East is the result of a ‘barbaric’ mind-frame that is somehow part of our society, like if we don’t do shit the European way, we’re Tarzan in the jungle. Fucking white-man’s burden.
The comments section in this: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/06/world/middleeast/egyptian-vigilantes-crack-down-on-abuse-of-women.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 pissed me off. Look at all the saviours giving them a patronising pat on the back.
edit:
Searched the term which literally meant ”whoever is not Greek is a barbarian”. ‘In the Roman empire, Romans used the word barbarian for the Germans, Celts, Persians, Carthaginians, Iberians, Thracians, and in some respects the Greeks themselves.’ (wikipedia)
So when someone calls people ‘barbaric’ they are using colonialist language. Don’t try to convince me that you’re only calling the ‘act’ not the ‘people’ barbaric. Because you’d never use that label on someone who is not an ‘other’.
The fact that Greeks used it when they viewed everyone else as inferior just proves the point that when it’s used by people in the West they are viewing ‘others’ as a whole, as intellectually inferior.