Race, Ethnicity, and the Media Term Paper

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The determining factor seems to be the religion of the person or group in question as those who claimed to be Christian were granted the classification of "white." This ignorant and racially-based determination continues to plague the American psyche and Americans still seem to classify anyone who is Muslim as "non-white." The fact that the two responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings were immediately classified as non-white simply because they were Muslims is an example of this type of mentality. And the fact that they were from the region where the term "Caucasian" originates only makes those who claim that the Tsarnaevs were not white appear even more foolish.

The textbook claims that, according to symbolic interactionalists, labels can have an influence on the way people or groups are perceived. When a label is widely used, it can cause what is know as selective perception, or it can "lead us to see certain things while they blind us to others. If we apply a label to a group, we tend to perceive its members as all alike." (Henslin 328) This is exactly what the article claims is happening in America.

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When the identities of the two Boston Marathon bombers were released to the public, even though the two Tsarnaev brothers had an obvious Russian name, they were immediately classified as "non-white." For example, one headline found on Newsbusters stated "…Looks Like Boston Bombing Suspects Not White Americans" while in fact they were white and American citizens. (Beinart) it was the fact that they were labeled as Islamic that caused many to immediately classify them as "non-white." And their selective perception also caused them to ignore the fact that they had a Russian name and were from the Caucasus region, what the textbook refers to as shaking off the evidence that does not fit into a preconceived notion. This article is a fine example of how the two suspects were immediately classified by many in America as "non-white," simply because they were followers of the Islamic faith; and their names and origins were ignored so that an outdated notion of race and religion could be upheld.

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