Said (1978), Orientalism

1. Orientalism is a simplified representation that the West forced on the East.

Said (1978) argued that the West secured domination over the East through representation. In Orientalist discourses, all Eastern nations are collapsed to appear fundamentally similar to one another and fundamentally different from the West. This difference is also elided with weakness, which functions politically to maintain Western dominance.

2. Orientalism is pervasive in political and ideological interactions involving the West and the East.

Orientalist is still present as biases against Eastern, and particularly Arab, cultures and nations. This is because the project of Orientalism was deeply woven into the cultural fabric of the West through many institutions including philosophy.