Zohran Mamdani’s successful campaign was a form of what we might call, following Fanon, a “cleansing” counter-violence—not physical, but political and representational. It was an act of breaking the “unchallengeable” frame that Said described.

The accusations, therefore, were not merely a policy disagreement; they were an atmospheric Islamophobic event, an attempt to leverage one form of bigotry to enforce another and to re-center a candidate who challenges U.S. and Israeli foreign policy back to the marginalized “fringe” where the Orientalist frame insists he belongs.

this concept of psychological and structural violence is key to understanding the “atmosphere” of Islamophobia. The constant targeting of Muslims in the public arena, media, and political discourses is intended to inflict symbolic violence and use it as a tool to produce compliance.

this violence is not physical like that Fanon wrote about in the colony, but is a constant ambient. It is the surveillance program in your neighborhood, the suspicious glance on the subway, the sudden need to explain and justify your identity in the wake of a terror attack committed by someone you’ve never met. This is a form of “atmospheric... See more

He refused to be abstracted. He refused to be “covered” as a symbol

When politicians like Andrew Cuomo seeks to fearmonger, they are not creating an image from scratch; they are activating a well-worn neural pathway laid down by decades of cinematic and media representation. The “terrorist” trope is a readily available cultural shorthand, making it easier to cast entire communities as a fifth column.

This is the “atmosphere” in its most potent form. The Muslim, or anyone perceived as such (like Mamdani, who now represents the Muslim), is not an individual but an abstract symbol. They are “covered” not as neighbors or constituents, but as potential threats, representatives of a faith and culture framed as inherently antagonistic. This creates a... See more