By Rakan Amer
"We should not judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes." Queen Rania of Jordan
Although we as humans continue to innovate and improve, we still continue to judge people by pathetic stereotypes. Americans think that all Asians do not know how to drive, Arabs are terrorists, Latinos are drug dealers, Irish people are drunk, Indians are tech support, and Africans are athletic. But actually none of them are true, especially the Arab, Latino, and Indian stereotypes. So we should all stop judging human beings by stereotypes we created for them, but judge them by their individuals actions and abilities.
When Vishnu, a Sri Lankan American, was asked what do you think of Arabs, he said: “They have oil and are terrorists”. But it turns out that 6 percent of terrorist attacks in the U.S. were carried out by Muslims. The problem is when a Muslim commits a crime, he is a terrorist. But when a white person commits the same crime, he is a criminal. This type of thinking is called Orientalism. Orientalism originated in the 19th century in Europe colonialism and is found in the popular American culture. It was created to explain the diversity of the East in the Europeans point of view. They saw the Arabs are scary and vicious group of individuals. It later found itself in the “New World”.
"We should not judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes." Queen Rania of Jordan
Although we as humans continue to innovate and improve, we still continue to judge people by pathetic stereotypes. Americans think that all Asians do not know how to drive, Arabs are terrorists, Latinos are drug dealers, Irish people are drunk, Indians are tech support, and Africans are athletic. But actually none of them are true, especially the Arab, Latino, and Indian stereotypes. So we should all stop judging human beings by stereotypes we created for them, but judge them by their individuals actions and abilities.
When Vishnu, a Sri Lankan American, was asked what do you think of Arabs, he said: “They have oil and are terrorists”. But it turns out that 6 percent of terrorist attacks in the U.S. were carried out by Muslims. The problem is when a Muslim commits a crime, he is a terrorist. But when a white person commits the same crime, he is a criminal. This type of thinking is called Orientalism. Orientalism originated in the 19th century in Europe colonialism and is found in the popular American culture. It was created to explain the diversity of the East in the Europeans point of view. They saw the Arabs are scary and vicious group of individuals. It later found itself in the “New World”.
Although there are many people that judge people by their stereotypes, there are people that judge Arabs by their accomplishments. An example is Zachary Chroust, a Russian-American who lives in Texas. He answered that “They are pretty cool people and the first empire was founded there”, when he was asked what do you think about Arabs? He later explained that there are 129 Christian terrorists, while there are only 9 Muslim terrorists. At the end if there are more christian terrorist then muslim terrorist, then these people don’t have the right to call Arabs terrorists, if America has the real terrorists.
According to Dictionary. com a terrorist is a person who terrorizes or frightens others. So Arabs were only responsible for the 9/11 attack, in the Americans point of view. But as stated by Hillary Clinton: “the people we are fighting today, we funded 20 years ago.” This means that the U.S. government funded Al-Qaeda, who bombed the twin towers. So the American government bombed the Twin Tower in 2001. Over that, Americans are responsible for enslaving men and women from Africa, bombing innocent families in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and making many Arab citizens refugees.
In the end of the day, we should understand that “the whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this.” Chinua Achebe
According to Dictionary. com a terrorist is a person who terrorizes or frightens others. So Arabs were only responsible for the 9/11 attack, in the Americans point of view. But as stated by Hillary Clinton: “the people we are fighting today, we funded 20 years ago.” This means that the U.S. government funded Al-Qaeda, who bombed the twin towers. So the American government bombed the Twin Tower in 2001. Over that, Americans are responsible for enslaving men and women from Africa, bombing innocent families in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and making many Arab citizens refugees.
In the end of the day, we should understand that “the whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify. Instead of going through the problem of all this great diversity - that it's this or maybe that - you have just one large statement; it is this.” Chinua Achebe