The funny thing about this one is that we all know it but still do nothing about it. We remain uneducated, and frankly, uninterested. We even remain hateful and discriminatory. This is even heightened at times. We remain unnecessarily scared and nervous.
Why?
Single story perception.
This single story is an extremist group of a religion that has cast a huge stereotype over many different entire middle eastern countries. There are many countries in the "middle east" but we lump them all together into "terrorist." Dark Indian colored skin or an Indian color accent and we're on our toes. Add a turban or other religious attire and we're probably tip toeing away...
The truth is, we are extremely uninformed and ignorant. We see all Indian or middle eastern people as terrorists and this is simply not the case. Firstly, most of us can't even differentiate between the middle eastern countries. Secondly, most people don't know the difference between Islam, Muslim, Afghan, and Iraq. This is largely due to the media and what the media has exposed us to and how they've exposed it.
My first piece of media is an interview I actually did for another class regarding Islamophobia. I interviewed a 27 year old Muslim American girl that can be found here.
I agree that the media coverage leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to balance in reporting about Muslims, their culture, and general stereotypes about them. I think everyone needs to be cautious about stereotypes, and of course it does become difficult when people feel their lives or safety may be in jeopardy, but I don't think the media has done a good job at giving us a very real-to-life picture of Muslims in our country and what, if any, "threat" they pose to the average citizen.
ReplyDeleteI agree, but furthermore the effects are far reaching into all realms of our lives, currently the most pressing being immigration policy and stances on Syrian refugees. Great artifacts.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! Most Muslims are very peaceful and don't want to be violent. People don't understand the religion or the people it's sad that people like Donald Trump would just not let them into the country because of the violence of a few.
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