I thought it was interesting to see this after our class discussion about how the press handles religion (namely, that it frequently identifies religious "outliers" rather than Protestants or other mainstream religions a story, even if their religion is not particularly salient).
I have seen few articles discussing Obama's religion since the pastor controversy and find it interesting that they framed this story around a woman in a way that emphasizes HER asking about religion, not the press. In this sense the woman is almost a scapegoat for bringing up a potentially controversial topic. It's sad, in my opinion, that a citizen had to ask Obama "the hard questions" rather than a reporter.
Another interesting facet of this article is the fact that the Pew study on religion is mentioned almost as an afterthought at the end. To me THIS is the meat of the story, as this points out a glaring ignorance / political bias among the American public. One in five Americans thinks Obama is Muslim? What? The fact that this is DOWN from one in ten before he was in office is even more alarming! It seems to suggest that the less popular Obama becomes, the more people are willing to allow negative political coverage to influence their perceptions. Ignorance is growing not because people are conveniently forgetting but because they are choosing to "look the other way", accepting political smears and stereotypes (Obama's ethnic heritage means he MUST be a Muslim) as replacements for actual facts.
Worrying.
What I find even more disturbing is that it should even be controversial for a US president to identify as anything other than Christian, especially when only 76% of Americans identify as such (American Religious Identification Survey, 2001). In a nation of alleged diversity, we have not seen much variation in terms of our political leadership, which has mostly been white, male, Christian and straight with the presidency falling under all four. These politicians, who speak on behalf of Americans to the rest of the world and hold substantive sway over how the world views the US, do not represent its diverse citizenry. I look forward to seeing a new face (or gender, race, sexuality, religion, even third party political view) in the White House, but it is difficult to believe this will happen since the underlying US outlook ostracizes and condemns rather than accepts any divergence from current social norms. Obama has challenged the status quo, and it has not gone well for him, thus proving that the US political world has not expanded its ideology much from where it began. Instead of bringing change, the Obama presidency has inadvertently outed covert American racism and divided the political realm even further.
ReplyDeleteThis is a situation that well illustrates the agenda setting theory. there is an obvious interplay between the agendas of the political parties (especially in light of the upcoming mid-term elections), the media, and the public. It is in the interest of the Republican party to have this kind of religious stereotype of Obama in the media, in order to play on the publics fears and racist thoughts against Muslims. This is terrible that the general public sentiment is set so strongly with prejudice against Islam, and that Islam is immediately identified as a negative quality in a president, and something that the democratic party must address in order to avoid consequences in the polls.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that a Muslim background would be portrayed as a threat to the integrity of our leader, rather than as an invaluable tool of diplomacy, demonstrates a mentality of "otherness" that fuels the public support of wars.