Entry 4
Discrimination has been present all throughout history. It can range from things like slavery, segregation, or the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. In modern day America the Arab community has faced countless cases of discrimination, especially post September 11th. Such issues were highlighted in Moustafa Bayoumi’s How Does It Feel To Be a Problem. Arabs and Muslims are subjects of constant profiling and paranoia. This extends to housing, employment, media and travel. Air travel especially, has become a nightmare of fear and security theater, with the Flying While Muslim routine or TWA (Traveling While Arab). A firefighter purchasing a textbook online was visited by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, who completely ignored the fact he was a firefighter, hence his reason for buying a book about fire, much to his anger. After 9/11 many were subject to constant questioning, false accusations, even false imprisonment, just during WWII. Families would often move because it was as if their homes were cursed.
Even now 19 years later not much has changed. A lot of people still have that same paranoia about the Arab and Muslim community. I’ve seen and heard about various scenarios myself. Several people I know several people who have straight up admitted that they don’t trust Muslims. They say the same thing “I know it’s terrible thing to do but that’s just the world we live in”, as if that somehow justifies it. Everyday someone could turn hostile on you but does anyone bat an eye about that? No they don’t. Members of the Arab community often change their names to something “more American” in order to lighten the assumptions that are automatically made. My computer doesn’t even register these names I have to add them to the dictionary. Regardless of extent there will always be some excuse to see a certain group as a problem, and yet they are all people with individual thoughts and emotions just like everyone else.
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