The movie Amreeka tells the story of Muna, a non-religious Palestinian woman who works in the banking sector. Every day, on her way to work, she has to cross the Israeli border, on both sides of which people are hostile to her because of her birthplace and religion. After winning the U.S. green card lottery, she has the opportunity to start a new life in the suburbs of Chicago. One of the key moments of the picture is the scene where Muna tries to get a job after moving to America. Despite having professional experience in the accounting, she is forced to leave the workplace because of her nationality.
This snippet is completely relevant to the course material as it displays the example of the ‘internal racism’. Rattansi (2007) explains the basis of this phenomenon as the process by which members of one society begin to dominate others due to race, gender, or religion differences. What was conditioned by the colonial policy of developed countries in the 18-19th centuries is now firmly rooted in modern society as a cultural pattern. Refusal to an individual to work, based solely on nationality, is an example of how xenophobia meets its modern manifestation. Despite the fact that the most radical ideas of the domination of one race over another are banned in most countries of the world, the problem remains relevant to this day. According to this well-known practice, white heterosexual male is more preferrable to take a vacancy than any other human being just because the difference between them is based on stereotypical type of thinking. These stereotypes originate from imperialistic ideas of ‘internal racism’ and ‘social Darwinism’.
References
Rattansi, A. (2007). Racism : A very short introduction. OUP Oxford.
Dabis S. (2009) Amreeka [Film]. National Geographic Entertainment Imagenation.