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Why They Hate Us So Much

I spent Sept. 11 quietly with the TV off. I didn’t need to watch any media with an all-star cast of analysts.

I didn’t need to see a constant retrospective of that day, when fundamentalists sent the world a message, flew planes into buildings, killed thousands and forced the survivors to race from dust, smoke and debris.

I, like most Americans, just wanted to mark the anniversary quietly, with reverence for the dead. And spend a few moments pondering our future — as Americans.

Notice, I didn’t say Asian Americans, though I did pause to remember the recent death of Yuji Ichioka. He’s the UCLA professor who founded the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, and who coined the phrase “Asian American” way back when in 1968 when he founded the Asian American Political Alliance.

Nor did I use the census phrase, “Asian Pacific Islander.”

Nor did I use the more stylish and in vogue term “Asian Pacific American.”

Note also, that while some choose not to use hyphens (this publication), I generally do. Except now. I don’t need to.

I said “American.”

Sept. 11 is the day on which our identity is very apparent. Without our hyphens, without modifier.

There are many of those days. I don’t usually go anywhere without my hyphen. But Sept. 11 is the day when you can say, “American,” and really feel you belong.

Too bad the feeling doesn’t last, because after Sept. 11, comes Sept. 12. And we know what began on that day.

If you were of Arab, Muslim or South Asian descent, or if your name was anything remotely Islamic in nature, or if you wore or displayed symbols of a different culture, America’s been a living hell.

Maybe we all felt a little fear, not knowing what would happen next. But when people started feeling a bit more normal, the United States was still rounding up Arab, Muslim and South Asians, whisking them away and sending them to jail without formal arraignment nor the right to speak to an attorney.

And that’s just our government in action.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations put the number of backlash cases against innocent Muslim and Arab Americans at nearly 2,000 in the first five months after Sept. 11.

It’s subsided a bit. But anniversaries tend to whip up the extreme sentiment.

And when you have a government trying to sell another war, a little extreme sentiment is always helpful.

Is this Emil’s Orange alert? All I can say is I’ve mentioned the hate crimes perspective during this anniversary week and the response has been amazing.

The pat answer from “rabid patriots” goes something like this: “Quit whining, cry baby. What a small number of hate crimes in such a large country. Consider how many there could be.”

Like I should be rooting for more?

I’m just amazed that people will actually argue the significance of numbers in that issue. All true Americans know that one hate crime is one too many in the land of the free.

Time to bring the hyphens back out.

So what about the rest of the world?

Dealing with intolerant Americans is one thing. But what do we do about the rest of the world?

After Sept. 11, I remember the question so many people asked: Why do they hate us so much? The “they” being those fundamentalists and would-be terrorists of the world.

The notion is if we could only understand the hate, maybe we could prevent another massive tragedy.

Of all the books that might help in understanding the strange dynamic that currently exists, I’ve found the most helpful aren’t all the retrospective books on Sept. 11 now on sale, but rather books on globalization.

The one I’d recommend is Benjamin Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld.

Barber, a professor at Rutgers, believes that the world has been divided into two camps.

On one side are the forces of globalization, the multi-national companies (like McDonald’s, Union Carbide, Coke, Disney) those who see dollar signs when they see world populations. It’s just one huge market to Americanize the world — selling our products, culture and values. But not necessarily democracy. You’ll see people do American Idol Kelly Clarkson in a karaoke bar before you see anyone lip-synching a George Bush speech. The result of it all is the world as a kind of global theme park. But since it’s not democracy we’re selling, we’re all about image and consumption. It’s America lite. It’s McWorld.

On the opposite side is “Jihad,” used by Barber as a symbol to stand for tribal, indigenous, traditional cultures in foreign lands. They see the march of McWorld as a form of imperialism, and as an affront to their existence. Remember the Taliban doesn’t watch Soul Train.

As Barber sees it, America has no one to blame but itself for the conditions that brought on Sept. 11.

As McWorld grows, as unfettered capitalism grows, Jihad grows angrier. Terrorism is the inevitable result. But the terrorism doesn’t just feed off McWorld, it also uses it to spread its message. If modern communications are run by multi-national corporatKons, what better source than CNN/Time Warner/AOL/FOX/ABC/DISNEY/GE/NBC to terrorize the world beyond the immediate confines of New York. Ask yourself this: Could bin Laden really exist without the media?

To change the scenario, Barber believes globalization needs to be much more democratic in its approach, with a greater respect for the self-determination of the world’s diverse cultures. It means nations must not abdicate their role to corporations, and must realize that we live in a world that is interdependent. We breathe the same air. We use the same scarce resources like oil. Because we’re equally susceptible to the ravages of globalization, we need the humanizing touch of democracy to provide a balance to the rule of the markets.

Does America get it? Colin Powell shows up at the last minute to the Sustainability Conference in Johannesburg this month and is promptly jeered by protestors. Bush and Cheney are trying to sell a war on Iraq, one of the world’s largest oil producers. Sept. 11’s anniversary hits us, and all the media wants to do is dwell on the date. We are placed on Orange alert. Somewhere in the world another Starbucks is opening. Should anyone be really surprised?

Tipping allowed: emil@amok.com.