othering for capital
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Islamophobia can be understood as a form of racism as a pattern of othering based on similar physical and cultural presentations emerges; physical and cultural presentations that, post-9/11, have practically been reduced to the concept of "brownness" or "darkness" that Rana mentioned existed even during the time of the Spanish Catholic empire. Western Christian empires manufactured this othering to justify the dominion and exploitation of the "oriental" world, and it is a legacy that has yet to cease as Husain highlights in their review of Rana's Terrifying Muslims. Western empires (like the British and now the American) prop up violence and create instability in Arab and South Asian countries, forcing their citizens to seek opportunities in places that accept their labor but deny them belonging (or even the right to life) and thus forever condemning them to the status of "migrants" caught in the ebbs and flows of market demands. Heems captures this in "Soup Boys," connecting American militancy in the Middle East to anti-Muslim and anti-brown incidents in his neighborhood, as well as the commodities he can consume ("Nikes, Timeport Motorola, Toyota Corolla") thanks to the cumulative output/outcome/objective of this wide-reaching imperialism. "The racialised figure of the Muslim was created... [to construct] an enemy in vulnerable populations such as easily deportable and expendable transnational workers" (Husain 6). Their faith, or rather incorrect perceptions of their faith, may have originally been presented as the rationale behind this vilification but as with the "Arab Slayer," Islamophobia has come to transcend religion.