The greenhorn combats reverse-Orientalism

Salaam wa alaykum fii Amman asdiqaaii!

Arrived last night and met our SIT trip's academic director, Dr. Raed Tabini, at the airport. Checked into my home for the next 5 days, the Al-Manar Hotel in the Shmeisani district, in the financial hub (I'm guessing) of Amman. Al-Manar is located right next to the main branch of the Bank of Jordan, for those familiar with the city (all two of you). Dr. Tabini and I roamed the proverbial Arab street last night and had some shawarma and lemon & mint drank (delicious!) at a local cafe. I can tell that choosing a cafe will be a newly arduous process each time, as there were about eight within one city block that all looked equally bad ass. WOULD have taken pictures and posted them here to prove my point, but my micro USB cable is definitely in Tulsa. Give me a couple of days.

Day one's theme is all about my encounters with reverse-Orientalism. If Orientalism is the process and system by which the body of knowledge in American media/political culture on the Arab world and Islam is generated and reinforced (exposing Americans almost exclusively to its grim side and establishing that as the main point of reference for all of the cultures and peoples of the MENA region), then reverse-Orientalism is the similar discourse on the body of knowledge in the Arab world on Orientalism. An interesting dynamic, no? Three experiences to highlight:

• In the car ride to Amman, Dr. Tabini stressed how this summer would be an excellent time for me to normalize my opinions and perceptions of Jordanian culture, that it's not what the Western media portrays it to be.
• Over breakfast, one of the hotel staffers and I chatted about my being in Jordan for the summer. During the conversation, he explained how I would come to have my perceptions of all Arabs as terrorists and fanatics changed by my observing normal, day-to-day life. He told me of growing up, fearing Americans because they all wanted to kill or see Arabs be killed (que torso chop demonstration), but when he got to high school and college and started taking English classes with American student teachers, he realized that they are good people, generally have good morals, and are in fact brothers as Christians and Muslims affirming a mutual faith in monotheism (لا إله إلاّ اللهّ).
• While being panhandled, I was assumed to be a Christian (que Hail Mary), because I obviously wouldn't give money to an "other" Muslim.

This also reminds me of the time I visited the mosque if Fayetteville, and after the prayers one of the congregates pulled me aside to make sure I didn't think he and the community anything like Osama bin Ladin (of course I assured him I didn't). What's interesting about these encounters is that these men took time to dispel notions they assumed I, or other Americans at least, hold regardless of what I actually believe and didn't really bother to fact-check otherwise. I think it speaks to the power of the Orientalist tendencies that have been pervasive in American media/political culture, and how those tendencies have been transferred to the subject and invoked a defensive reaction that does the same kind of assuming taught it by the Orientalist: a la reverse-Orientalism.

Not saying that this is a de facto Jordan-wide phenomenon (as the post-colonialist in me could never do), but I'm anxious to see the degree to which these kinds of beliefs are held by other people. I would also like to know to know a bit more about these assumptions: are they held specifically about me, in that do my interlocutors assume I hold Orientalist beliefs, or do they just believe them to be common in America and want to deal with things I may have heard but may or may not actually believe. It will be interesting to see what kinds of sources perpetuate this reverse-Orientalism: is it an experience with Western media, the portrayal of Western media in Arab media and culture, assumptions about the motivations for American foreign policy, etc.? One thing to note, that regardless of what they think I think about them, Jordanians have been incredibly friendly, hospitable, and somewhat surprised when I speak Arabic, which is sort of my Glock 9mm conversation starter.

OK, there, I just proved all of you wrong who said I wouldn't actually update the Dulce. Feel the pwn.


*Editorial note: I should add (thanks to the tip from Dolly!) that I think this differs, however slightly, from "Occidentalism," the sorts of perceptions, stereotypes, etc. of Westerners in general, as perhaps a specific subset of that discourse that is in direct response to Orientalism. Surely all cultures have certain opinions and beliefs, some more true than others, of alien cultures; what I find particularly interesting is the knowledge of others' knowledge.