Orientalism
Clueless was the term to describe my knowledge about America and the Middle East before watching the film "Orientalism". This film opened my eyes to many surprising things that I was unaware were happening. The view of Americans towards those of Middle Eastern decent is primarily what I found astonishing. I say this because this view applies to even those who do not come from the Middle East they may have lived in the United States their entire lives yet they will still be viewed the same way. First of all the immediate opinions about people from the Middle East is what is wrong. The impression that people have when they hear things such as Middle Eastern, Muslim, Islam, and Arab is usually terrorist. It seems like these days anything associated with the Middle East is categorized as different, or negative.
It is stupid and blind of us to make uneducated decisions especially regarded the way we treat people based on race, especially when a lot of people of Middle Eastern decent fight in various branches of our armed forces. When the Oklahoma City bombings took place immediately everyone pointed the finger at middle easterners saying that we had been victimized by Muslim terrorists, in actuality it turned out to not be a foreigner but an American. I agree that due to the facts about many terrorist attacks that we need to watch out for certain qualities in people to prevent more terrorist attacks. Some say it is unfair and it can be but when people see the same things happening over and over again they tend to start making judgments about the people committing the acts. It doesn't make any sense to me, to say an entire group of people deserves of a punishment that only a few deserve. However, in my opinion the actions of a few should not punish an entire group. We as a country need to not make rash decisions about other races and try to learn about people before judging them, but at the same time trying to achieve our ultimate goal of protecting our country and its freedom. With all of these instances to consider, Americans associate these terrorist actions to people of Middle Eastern decent because they are the ones committing the crimes. It goes along with "guilty by association" theme; most people feel that since middle easterners have committed so many of the crimes that everyone of Middle Eastern decent is guilty for those few people's actions. But I disagree with saying that all Muslims or anyone from Middle Eastern decent is guilty of terrorism. There have been so many instances of hostile takeovers, hijackings, and suicide bombings of public facilities involving people of Middle Eastern decent, especially the attacks at the World Trade Center on September 11. We need to learn from the mistakes made in the past such as the Civil Car, and WWII, so that we don't keep going to war over stupid ideals. We should be aware of who is doing what in the country but we cannot make rash judgments and say that all Muslims are terrorists and that anyone with a Muslim name should be flagged as a potential threat.
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Acceptance Essays
