Prejudice on Autopilot

by Shannon Noe`lani Schmidt
Harvard Divinity School & IPSEC

Media reporting does not necessarily immune itself against temptations of prejudice, particularly when its twists of rhetoric project a sense of collective guilt. Rather, it appears that when episodes of religious violence are (yet again) being reported, prejudice latches onto the psychology of “path dependency” mainly as a replication of attitudes set in motion by past events.

Taking the BBC reporting on Charlie Hebdo shooting as an example, one could easily notice how BBC tried (and perhaps failed) to challenge the tendency to associate Islam with terrorism. As it became apparent with the “Je suis Charlie” movement, the rage felt by many West Europeans tapped into existing prejudices, and had little to do with how media portrayed the Muslims in the aftermath of the shooting. If anything, the BBC made it good to prevent the development of mob attitudes against the Muslims in Western Europe.

In a quick exercise of analysis, which I developed as a field education assignment at the Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity, I came to the conclusion that sometime official media has little or no influence at all in curbing prejudice.

My field education supervisor, Dr. Marian Simion, and I embarked upon developing a research project meant to analyze the impact of the Charlie Hebdo shooting on media portrayal of Muslims in Europe. We selected a limited number of concepts (e.g., ‘Muslim,’ ‘extremism,’ ‘terrorism,’ and others), then set out to determine whether the presence of negative terms increased in their associated use with Islam. For purpose of sampling, we narrowed our focus on the BBC reporting. I started this research with the hypothesis that the amount of associations between negative terms such as ‘terrorism’ and ‘Islam’ had increased in the BBC reporting following the Charlie Hebdo attack. However, what I found in the BBC reporting was that the application of such associations remained fairly constant in their usage in the years preceding and following the attack.

The dominant conclusion that Dr. Simion and I have reached made it obvious that while the Charlie Hebdo attack was a glaring event on the timeline of modern terrorism in Europe’s history, prejudice against the Muslims remained fairly constant. The events that preceded the Charlie Hebdo shooting had already actualized the negative stereotyping of the Muslims by the European media in relation with terrorism and violence in general.

While our scientific conclusions felt intellectually sound, the spiritual implications are still daunting. The overwhelming tendency to associate all Muslims with a very small minority of violent members should be troubling, if one is to look not only into the popular culture (which tends to associate terrorism with Islam), but more so into the impact that such association has upon race relations and cultural history. It may be that while some media outlets maintain a professional note, they may, inadvertently, allow other types of prejudice to remain on autopilot. ~~~

Shannon Noe`lani Schmidt is a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School. She is also a field education intern and Research Associate at the Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity. (contact: sschmidt@hds.harvard.edu)

press conference & speech
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Romanian Parliament | November 16, 2017

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Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Petitions West to ‘Sympathize With Us’ (National Catholic Register)

For more news about conflicts affecting Orthodox Christians around the world, click here!

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The first part reviews ancient Christian writings, rituals, religious laws, and contemporary writings, for the purpose of identifying the core teachings of the Orthodox Church on violence and peace. The second part explores themes such as ‘evil’ and ‘dualism’ for the purpose of comprehending heretical attitudes that emerged during times of war. Political subjects such as Just War and Nationalism are explored for the purpose of identifying instances when members of the Orthodox Church sanctioned defensive violence and bolstered xenophobia. The third part recommends peacemaking methods applicable to Orthodox Christian settings in light of the tripartite dimension of violence against God, self, and another human being.