Post Islamaphobia Talk
The talk began with a woman who identifies as Islamic sharing her experience here in the US. She told us that in 30 years, she has never felt more uncomfortable and at risk identifying this way than right now. Even during and directly after 9/11!
Why does she feel this way?
She feels this way because she senses a growing hate for her religion, hate for her culture, hate for the color of her skin. And where does this feeling stem from? Donald trump, the media, and more intangible things: the way she is treated on a day-to-day basis, the looks she gets, etc.
Why is this her experience?
Honestly, I can't even imagine what it would be like to have one's religion/culture/race so generalized, misrepresented and misunderstood. It seems like many people in the US and around the world have many associations and connotations to SO MUCH surrounding these people. We started the talk with a word vomit of all the things that came to mind at the mention of Islam: Mohammed, Muslim, terrorist, ISIS, Al-Queda, Jihad, turbin, bomb, brown, culture, religion, extremist, and the list went on.
The fact is that there are SO MANY Islamic people all over the world, living in a variety of cultures and societies, leading varied lives and practicing their religions in a variety of ways. The fact is that there are so many Islamic people and SO FEW extremists. But this seems to be the disconnect, that many people just aren't educated about this religion and just assume that it preaches militancy. This is not the case.
Such stereotypes are propogated by the media attention recieved when violent acts are committed by someone of the islamic faith, muslim, wearing certain clothing, coming from the middle east, and often anyone that just looks brown.
And yes, one of the biggest propogaters of such biased, insensitive and racist hate is Donald Trump. How would you feel if you lived in a country where one of most powerful men was giving hate speeches directed at you or things that you are often associated with?
It blew my mind the other day when someone connected Trump to Hitler. How did I never see that? In fact, Trump says even more aggressive and hateful things than Hitler did during his rise to power!! How do so many in our country seem to support the mad ravings of such a man?? The Holocaust was not so long ago! How quickly the public forgets and moves on from history that doesn't show us in our best light.
So what can we do to combat Islamaphobia. It seems education is necessary. Education in a classroom, workshops, or even better in the streets, in our homes, on the playground. I think it is good to learn about Islam in an academic setting, but I think it is far more impactful to just interact genuinely with people who you don't know much about.
This country and the people in it have work to do. And like with any privelege, if those in power (who have the benefit of comfort and safety) don't reach out to those who are oppressed, marginalized, misunderstood, then they are passively in collusion with those inhumane power structures.
Here is hoping for a society that is slower to judge people by the color of their skin, the food they eat, the clothing they wear, the accent they have, or the things they worship.
