10/24/15
Week 6
Reading: Puar Terrorists
After the 9/11 tragedy, a fear managed to root itself in American society. This fear is so strong that it still lingers 14 years from the event. The government and media portrayed the terrorist as Muslims or people that wore turbans. This stereotype struck so deep that Sikhs were being wrongly accused of being a terrorist. Muslim Americans and Sikh Americans that lived in the US before this event now have to live with this stigma and fear that they could be attacked or killed because of an event that skewed their image. I feel like this is similar to when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, because Japanese Americans who were part of the Nissei and Sansei generations, had no connections to their "motherland" and treated the US as their actual home. But this did not stop the majority of the populace from turning these once proud group of Americans into a pariah of society and even a criminal. Fear is a driving factor that pushes the public into retaliation and the government to act in favor of "national security."
Q: How do we bridge the gaps between races if fear has divided our society? Is spreading awareness enough?
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