"The conservative Florida Family Association, which is pushing advertisers to drop "All-American Muslim," cheered Lowe's decision. The group called the TLC show "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values."
C'mon really?
Heres the article -> http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/11/showbiz/all-american-muslim-lowes/index.html
The subject matter is a bit dated. However, back in December CNN ran a story about Lowes (Yes the "All American hardware mega store" ) pulling an advertising campaign away from the show "All American Muslim." If you haven't seen the show it was on TLC, which aired from 11-23-11 to 01-12-12. If you have preconceived on how a Muslim family is supposed to act, this show will change it. TLC does a great job, especially for a reality television show, in documenting what it means to be muslim to an All American family. No is wasn't a tear mill. They did not solicit a sympathetic response from viewers, it simply gave insight. Religion is an antiquated phenomenon with all of the 3 monastic religions. Christian, Jews and Muslims struggle with piety and the changing world everyday. In fact there is a couple on the show who has full sleeves tattoos which the Qu'ran forbids and labels as "haraam." As for those tatted Christians out there, the new testament and old testament also forbids the practice of tattooing. This goes to show that we are not that different. Muslims are forbidden to drink, there are some that do. No the bible does not forbid jews or christians from consuming alcohol but being drunk is not condoned by "the lord almighty". There are some Jewish extremist, there are some Christian, there are some Muslim extremist. All American Muslims wanted us to realize this in doing so, I've realized American culture is not comprised of one specific ethnic custom, we happen to be the largest melting pot in the world. So why in fact did Lowes pull their add campaign attached to the show? Is bigotry also one facet of American culture that we revel in? I am surprised nobody boycotted Lowes for the decision. In the words of George Lopez the ethnic hate torch is always passed like a game of tag... it went from I Love Lucy receiving boycott for Lucy (a white woman) kissing the cuban character Ricky Ricardo, Star Trek almost being cancelled for Captain Kurt (a white man) kissing the black character Uhura to Lowes receiving hate mail and pulling backing from "All American Muslim." I wonder who gets the torch next?
From someone with a lot a skepticism about any reality television, especially from The Learning Chanel which has featured such fares as Toddlers in Tiaras I'd have to agree to a small extent that AAM is a sort of propaganda. Having not seen it myself I'd also have to concede that it's got to be somewhat true because there's only so much creative editing can do.
ReplyDeleteI can't put this in any kind terms, but in my experience Americans are that bigoted that they will try their best to not understand people, or only go as far to learn about the people who don't like them. I had no idea about the situations you had posted, from I Love Lucy and Star Trek, and they are certainly better than anything I could come up with on short notice outside of the anecdotal. (I'm not saying that it's the same way for everybody but talk to any older white person and that's not counting the legitimate hate groups)Bigotry is ingrained in American culture, I hate to say it, but it's as stuck in our culture as apple pie is.
As for who's next, I'd suggest putting a sheet of paper with all the minorities listed on it you can think of into a bucket and pouring another bucket of water into it. Wherever the water touches is who is going to get the hate next.
I wouldn't focus too much on the network or whether or not it's propaganda. The point is middle class America is still not willing to accept the freedom of religion, supposedly an American staple. At this point everything on television is pretty much propaganda, if you're looking to television for an unbiased opinion, I feel like you have way too much time on your hands or more problems than beyond my comprehension . However, the word propaganda is thrown around a little to loosely today. I think All American Muslim is good propaganda, or maybe not even propaganda at all.It's an attempt at neccesary cultural awareness. But Lowes of all people who has an air of blue collared american would make a move like this is kind of disheartening. I would just ask that you sit down and actually watch an episode. It's actually refreshing to hear about islam without a seething feeling of vengeance or Bill O'reilly's analytical prowess. But outside of that I totally agree, I think the questions "who's next?" was more rhetoric and snarkiness than an actually question of concern.
ReplyDeleteWhat I've seen of the show is far less exploitative than some of these programs, and brings texture into our sense of what it means to be Muslim and Americans. Lowe's, to my mind, bowed to idiots.
ReplyDeleteI agree exploitation is a much better word than propagation. However, I thought AAM was a little more digestible and user friendly than CNN'S Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door...CNN has the propensity of Michael Mooring a special interest piece. I felt like Soledad O'brien asked loaded questions in that special. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRlqz3e9OrA <-here's a piece of it if you haven't seen it.
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