Edward Said On 'Orientalism'

Best known for his monumental 1978 work, "Orientalism," Edward Said (1935-2003), literary critic, Palestinian activist, and former Columbia professor (English and Comparative Literature) helped initiate 'post-colonial studies' arguing that all discourse, particularly discourse about other cultures, is inherently ideological:

"My contention is that Orientalism is fundamentally a political doctrine willed over the Orient because the Orient was weaker than the West, which elided the Orient's difference with its weakness. . . . As a cultural apparatus Orientalism is all aggression, activity, judgment, will-to-truth, and knowledge"

In this clip, questions are raised about the West's nefarious judgments of Muslims -- with which they rarely have direct contact -- and the cross-cultural role of Hollywood and the mass media in terms of creating ideological categories: "Orientalism operates as representations usually do, for a purpose, according to a tendency, in a specific historical, intellectual, and even economic setting."

The piece begins with major U.S. media venues wrongly indicting Muslims for the Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing in 1995 ...