“Zeitoun had long feared this day would come…he knew the possibility existed that he would be harassed, misunderstood, suspected of shadowy dealings.” Pg 222-223 in Zeitoun by David Eggers
Ever since 9/11, seeing someone of the Middle Eastern decent, the word terrorist is most likely to cross your mind. Racial profiling as plagued our society with detrimental side effects. A great example of this is in David Eggers’ novel Zeitoun, where the main character, Zeitoun, an American citizen, is automatically, because of his religion and race, accused of being a terrorist. But the most surprising thing to me is that he did not fight back. He confessed that he was waiting to be racially profiled. Should an upstanding American citizen just be waiting to be discriminated against or should he know that his dignity is always valued?
Even though racial profiling is a fairly new term, there are examples throughout the world: the Holocaust, slavery in the United States, and Japanese interment camps. These events have caused distinctions between people that will never be erased and this epidemic is no different. So do we really want to have that happen again to our country? Is it really that easy to judge a person based on their religion or race rather than really getting to know them? We are all not apart of the Klu Klux Klan, so why do we assume that they are all terrorists?
No comments:
Post a Comment