Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 10 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 23 years, 2 months ago by
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After Sept. 11, my family members tend to look at Arab people differently and hate even those who have lived here their whole lives. To me, this is the same as hating all gays or blacks or priests. I don’t feel you can judge a whole group by a few of its members. I was hoping I could get responses from Americans and Arabs on how they feel about this and what is happening in our world.
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Name : Nicole B., Age : 19, City : Mayville, State : MI, Country : United States,I believe your question is genuine. However, from the examples you cite, you seem to speak from a ‘superior’ position. Has it ever occurred to you to ask if Native Americans, African Americans, Africans, Aborigines, etc. should hate all white people based on hundreds of years of assault rather than just one event? Should Palestinians hate all Americans because it is American weapons and money backing Israel?
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Name : Debra25792, Gender : F, City : New York, State : NY, Country : United States,I’m a 19-year-old white guy, and after Sept. 11, I have looked at Arab people differently. For me, it’s hard to not look at them differently because all I hear about is violence from that culture. I hear about how the men oppress the women, and how their culture declares war in the name of Allah, yet this same religion they declare war in the name of is based on a peaceful life. I don’t hate Arabs, but I do look at them differently and will continue to look at them differently until I see them as a whole doing something to show they are peaceful and do not hate Americans. Frankly, I don’t have much respect for a culture that hates Americans.
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Name : Matt, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 19, City : Sacramento, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,It is typical. During World War II, many Americans hated Germans, Italians and Japanese. I even hear ignorant people saying we should shuffle all Arabs and Muslims in the United States into concentration camps, like we did the Japanese. Sheez, will we ever change?
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Name : Andres, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 25, City : Chambersburg, State : PA, Country : United States,I have noticed this same trend following the 9/11 tragedy, and it frightens me greatly. It’s very easy to alienate others based on physical features. As a result, people who are Arab or look as if they may be Arab deal with the backlash of hurt and anger. We need to realize that one person or small group of people doesn’t correctly identify an entire group of people. When you make those types of generalizations, it becomes easier to discriminate and hate, leading us toward genocide, systematic racism and hate crimes.
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Name : Michelle, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black and Filipino, Religion : Catholic, Age : 27, City : Cleveland, State : OH, Country : United States, Occupation : library clerk, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class,The Al Qaeda network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks was an extremist group no different from David Koresh or other cults. The majority of Muslims and Arab people do not prescribe to these beliefs, and condemn those who do. I don’t know why, when somebody is white and does something bad, people don’t start judging and hating all white people. But when the person is non-white, everyone is ready to start hating all individuals in that race.
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Name : Kristina, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 20, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Transcriber, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,You can see how limited the American perspective on ‘Arabs’ is by the fact that all those accused in the Sept. 11 attacks have been labeled ‘Arab,’ whether they were Afghani, Pakistani, Palestinian, Egyptian, Iraqi, Irani, Tunisian, Algerian or whatnot. These are all different nationalities, whose members often belong to different races, religions and cultures. But I digress… The reason many people in the United States after Sept. 11 have begun to hate all ‘Arabs’ is that they have limited information on them; they have been programmed through years of biased movies and books (remember ‘The Seige’?) to hold no sympathy for ‘Arabs.’ Muslims have been demonized for hundreds of years in Western culture, and very few Americans know any Arabs on a personal level with whom they can form a personal opinion to overcome stereotypes. Of course, this isn’t true for everyone, and this is just my opinion. It’s a complex issue with no easy answers.
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Name : Hayat R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Caucasian/Asian mix, Religion : Muslim, Age : 20, City : Islamabad, State : NA, Country : Pakistan, Occupation : Journalist, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Arabs are very different, contrary to popular belief. Some Arabs may look White, blonde, brown hair and blue eyes and some look african american with very dark skin and curly hair. I go to a mosque where I know many Arabs and I have found that most people who are confused with being Arabs are usually Souh Asian. For Women it is not only Arabs but Every Muslm woman from Indonesia to India, Somalia, nigeria, and Myself born in the South being confused with ‘terrorists’ or the wives of terrorists or that we are opressed ( No I choose to wear the hijab). i was watching Oprah and even a wife of a victim in the 9/11 attacks is being harassed and looked at in a mean way becuz she wears a scarf on her head. WHat does she need to do? Write on herself that her husband died in the World Trade Ceter. IT makes no sense why people are so mean?
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Name : Jenna31019, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Muslim, Age : 22, City : Savannah, State : GA, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,It’s a disturbing trend, and one that upsets me greatly, for two reasons: First, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is among the most culturally diverse regions in the United States. I believe decades of working and socializing with people of all colors and ethnic backgrounds has desensitized me to the ‘us’ and ‘them’ syndrome; in my experience, people are not so ‘nervous’ about pointing out ‘differences’ — instead, I feel very relaxed asking about cultural traditions, or listening to my friend Dan tell me the harrowing story of how his mother left Vietnam in an airlift. So this is why I am horrified to think that the Middle Easterners I’ve known and worked with and gone to movies with could be lumped together with a band of fanatical extremists viewed with such suspicion and hate. It almost makes me wish that, if 9-11 had to happen, it had been a bunch of crew-cutted, ultra-white Timothy McVeighs responsible. (Nobody would start racial-profiling all young white men now, would they?)
If your family could get to know some Middle Easterners as human beings, they might feel differently. All hatred boils down to fear.
Period. The second thing that makes all this even more painful for me to watch is the knowledge that, during World War II, one of my great-uncles was required to register with the police, and had a curfew — he couldn’t leave his house after dark. No, he wasn’t a criminal. He was an Italian. Are we going back to those dark days, in which unfounded xenophobia leads to interment camps — only this time, for all people of Arab descent? God help us, I hope not.
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Name : J.R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : New Age/Metaphysical, Age : 40, City : Los Altos, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : Web developer-turned-artist, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I think that it is great that you have taken notice of the oppression of women in the Arab world. My question is, do you notice the opression of women in this country? Rape, Domestic Violence, Sexual Abuse and the absurdly short jail terms that perpetrators of violence against women get in this country? While we don’t force women to be covered while in public we don’t women in public or in their homes. Have you looked at American policies abroad to understand why some countries are so frustrated by us?
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Name : js, City : Portland, State : ME, Country : United States,Unfortunately, this is the result of ignorance, mass media and stereotyping Osama bin Laden’s group are extremists, and if you ask faithful Muslims, they’ll tell you Osama and his men were not acting according to Muslim doctrine at all. The problem with any extremist group is that they don’t actually follow what they claim, and their bad actions end up labeling their claims rather than their reality. It’s a generally human flaw to see only the bad things that happen and not the good, and extremist groups take advantage of that. It’s much like how mentioning Egypt brings to mind Arabs, when the reality is that the majority of Egyptians are not Arabic but are descendents of old Egypt, Greece and Rome who have intermixed with Arabic culture.
When terrorist groups and extremist groups appear on the news, you should always look at the group as being apart from their culture; otherwise, you create the same kind of stereotype that the group is ‘fighting to free themselves from.’
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Name : Daniel27223, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Pagan, City : Guymon, State : OK, Country : United States,
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