In the last few months, particularly in the wake of the November terrorist attacks in Paris and the attacks on women in Cologne on New Years Eve, the casual racism with which the Syrian refugee crisis has been treated in the media and by fear-mongering high profile individuals, such as GOP presidential candidates, has reached astounding new heights. While systemic racism against Muslims and people from the Middle East has long been ingrained into Western society, it has recently become even more culturally acceptable in many circles to express bigoted ideologies against Islam and an entire geographical region. And even as rallies and demonstrations are held around the world in support of the resettlement of Syrian refugees, this bigotry continues to seep into governmental actions and decisions. A current example is a series of informational guides released by the German government in late 2015 aimed at the Syrian refugees who have resettled there.
Meant to provide refugees with tips on how to adjust to German society, the campaign, which features a 14-panel cartoon illustrating expected behaviors, was not published in response to the previously mentioned attacks in Cologne, as defenders of the publications have claimed. Rather, it was published months prior, as if it was a needed resource. It is a prime example of the casual racism at work in modern society, and while it thankfully has become a viral source of mockery, let's not forget that it is the result of a government actually believing that a group of people needed to not only be reminded to make eye contact and say "hello," but to not assault women, harass gays, or beat children.
An essential part of bigoted ideologies is the belief that your race/ethnicity/religion possesses characteristics and morals that makes it fundamentally superior to others. In this case, white people in the West have developed the idea that they are endowed with more compassion, social understanding, and open-mindedness - which is ironic, seeing as these conclusions are directly linked to extreme close-mindedness and a lack of understanding of other societies and cultures. To be clear, this is not unique to the the German government. Just recently stateside the Senate Democrats voted down a Republican bill that would have effectively blocked many Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the US - a bill that had passed the House of Representatives. What we see occurring with these worldwide attempts to restrict and recondition Syrian refugees is the acceptance and proliferation of dangerous racial, ethnic, and religious stereotypes. Western societies were built upon such xenophobic principles, and even in the modern era, they continue to not-so-subtly operate on them as well.
