Cydney :
Honestly, I feel like sexism was maybe less of a factor here, but on the topic, I think the racism toward Abdul has been overlooked, and it has to do with a manufactured misogyny. It comes in the form of the age old phenomenon of making a Muslim person an enemy, if they cannot be a physical enemy (with propensity to physically harm) they are then characterized as a cultural enemy, and this is a form of oppression well studied; the weaponization of feminism against Muslim individuals. Which at first, to many of us feminists, sounds ludicrous, but when you acknowledge that a woman’s ability to become a worker bee has cemented itself as something very important in America’s moral values, it starts to make sense. It’s one of our proud, liberal, and free customs here, up and down the aisle. For good reason, most Muslim people agree with this. But Muslim individuals are forced into this imaginary amalgam, where each and every one of them is a danger to American culture. It becomes incredibly effective in alienating them; it’s spun that the men hate the women, the women wear hijabs—physical markers of their own willingness to submit and belief that other women should too. So when Abdul says things like “a politician shouldn’t be bought out” it’s run on campaign ads saying “Abdul’s said a woman was bought out!! He hates women!!!” Because…it’s easy to convince American people a Muslim person, man or woman, believes in subjugation of women. It’s easy to convince them they are cultural enemy.
2026-08-05 15:07:30