“Orientalism” by Edward Said

An anti-racism group that I am currently moderating just picked Orientalism by Edward Said to be our next book club reading. I recently finished it and I think it’s a very interesting and applicable work, I think the methodology behind it is sound, if it’s at times a little too academic-y.

The book takes the approach of looking at the study of the “Orient,” or really western parts of Asia, throughout history and by doing a close reading of scholars, provide a framework for how orientalism works and functions within society. Through this, he shows that orientalism props up a certain structure of power and thought that rarely gets questioned in society. Some hallmarks are that the Orient is “other” or foreign, that it is unchanging and backwards, and that it needs the West to help modernize it.

What’s really fascinating is how little these aspects have changed over time. You can see all of these aspects in how we talk about the Middle East today, or terrorism, or oil. It is kind of ridiculous in that all of these people are writing about how the Middle East never changes and yet they’re the ones using the same playbook throughout the generations of scholars.

I really enjoyed the format of doing these close readings of text, but to be honest sometimes the name dropping and quotes made it seem very academic and hard to follow. Which might also be a product of the book being written in the 80s, it’s older and not written for a modern audience. But once you get past that, the content is well worth your time!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about anti-Palestinian sentiments, or about racism towards Asians and Middle Easterns more broadly. It remains very relevant and super applicable today, so I don’t doubt that we have much we could learn from it.