War in Libya: Race, Humanitarianism, and the Media by Maximilian Forte

Ratings Table
Avg
	4338	0	0

One of the interesting and very neglected features of the current "humanitarian intervention" in Libya is the extent to which it implicitly buys into racialized nationalist myths produced on the ground in Libya, adopting them without question and thus without concern for context, with little in the way of a critical examination of the media manipulation and calculated spread of racial fear by the leadership of "the rebels." It is not a simple matter of the Libyan opposition showing signs of xenophobia -- if that were true, it would resent the involvement of North Americans and Europeans. Instead, this is a racially selective xenophobia, with a preferential option for Western (i.e., U.S. and European) intervention, and against the presence of "Africans" (code for Sub-Saharan, black Africans). It reminds me of an old racial saying I learned in the Caribbean, truncated here: "If you're white, you're alright . . . and if you're black, go back." The point here is to explore and critique an issue that thus far exists only on the margins of media coverage and human rights discourse around Libya, that being the extent to which racism, and specifically the demonization of Sub-Saharan Africans, provides the unifying logic that bridged local revolt with imperial intervention. [Follow link to whole article.]

URL: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/forte200411.html

Ref: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/forte200411.html

Tags: Africa/Sudan Government Accountability libya Media/Alternative Middle East/Asia militarism war

» Click here to return to the Resource index.

Comments