In Arabs, Islam, and Dogmas of the West, Edward Said talks about the negative stereotypes among the oriental mentality with different dogmas. One dogma that stood out to me was that the Orient should be something either to be feared or to be controlled. For many years, different countries have tried to control other countries because they appear to be different. This often stems when one society thinks of themselves as superior than another group, and all other ideologies are inferior to them. One example was the Yellow Peril, where the name was given to Asian people immigrating to America and they were viewed as monstrous people who wanted take the occupations of the western people. As a result, Asians were “controlled” through discriminatory acts and laws.
In Indo-Chic: Late Capitalist Orientalism and Imperial Culture, Sunaina Maira mentions how the marketing of Indo-chic goods in the United States involves the use of sweatshops and child labor. This is because American multinationals look for cheap labor, and cheap goods in order to be more profitable, regardless of how the products are produced. Child labor and sweatshops are still a big problem today in America, even though it may be less apparent. For example, products that have the print “made/assembled” in the USA could have the individual parts produced by sweatshops and child labor from different countries, and the company in the US simply assembles the pieces.
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