What we've got here is a failure to communicate

I recently received this picture from someone who I had perceived as a person with strongly held opinions but with an open mind, not blinded by prejudice. I am now not quite so sure about that perception of lack of prejudice.

I realise that the picture is meant to be a joke, a parody of the online dating services that many of us will have seen at some time or other. I am by no means a killjoy, but this sort of parody, based on ridiculing ethnic or religious ideas, behaviour or stereotypes can often be incredibly demeaning in its attitude towards the targeted group(s). I believe that this one oversteps the bounds of 'reasonableness'.

Here the 'cartoonist' shows the idea that the Moslem male regards women as less than human in status, on par with valued animals, maybe even hinting at a sexual side of this attitude, invoking the stereotypical jokes about Arab men and camels, etc. Then there is the mocking of the idea of Moslem women covering themselves with the garment called the burqa. Whether any of us agree with the wearing of this garment or not is irrelevant. For a significant number of Moslem women this is what they wish to wear. The covering garment may not necessarily be as totally encompassing as the burqa, but rather a variant such as the hajib, or head scarf. The list of ideas mocked is greater than this, but I think that by now you will understand what it is that I am concerned about.

I wonder, for example, what the reaction would be to a similar web page targeting Jews. It might have a heading of "Diamond Joe's Blackhat Dating Service" with a photograph or caricature of a certain widely known Australian Jewish ultra-orthodox religious identity. Instead of the women in burquas we could have pictures of unattractive women with large noses wearing ill-fitting wigs, etc. This web page would exhibit a range of ethnic/religious stereotypes in the same way as the one which I received - Shades of the virulently anti-Semitic cartoons in Julius Streicher's newspaper, 'Der Sturmer', during the Nazi period in Germany.

The creators of such cartoons or writings are very clear what it is that they want to communicate - ideas which foster ethnic & religious intolerance. For the rest of us, I think we often overlook the serious implications of the ethnic joke, wanting to only see the 'funny' bits. This is not good enough! If ordinary people do not want to encourage intolerance and hatred between various groups then now is the time for them to take a stand. All of us who are offended by racism must clearly stand up and say to others that racism is never OK, regardless of what form it takes. Here I am including all manifestations of racism, not just that of 'Westerners' showing lack of respect for other ways of looking at the world. I am offended by many actions of groups like the Taliban in the same way that I am offended by people in this country abusing Moslem women who wear the hijab. The attitudes are similar - total lack of respect for the rights and beliefs of others, and the idea that it is OK to ridicule, marginalise or commit violent acts against 'them', the 'other', the 'not us'.

The 'them' and 'us' attitude that such material fosters is something that all decent people should become aware of and thus be able to counter in whatever community they live. This can be through comments made to friends about the lack of desirability of such material as the web page I have displayed here. It can also be voiced in the political sphere by not supporting organisations which by their policies encourage these divisive attitudes - at home or abroad!

As for my perception of the person who sent this web page to me, I hope that they have acted from a position of 'seeing the whole thing as a joke', not perceiving the darker aspects of such material.