Consider the excerpt we read and your small group discussions. Have you ever felt discriminated against? Or have you witnessed someone being discriminated against? If yes, explain. How did you feel?
What do you think could or should be done to stop discrimination?
2 comments:
Many people I have met in my life have told me “because your Persian, you must be a terrorist”. Sometimes that has led to them excluding me in activities because they were scared that I would hurt them. Ever since then, when I would see a person being discriminated I would stand up for him or her, I know how it feels and I’m use to people calling me that, so it’s not hard to have them back-off for me. I remember, back in 5th grade I had a friend who was also Persian, she would convince me to pray with her every day during lunch since we were both Muslim at the time. I didn’t want to go but I went anyways so she wouldn’t be alone. One day, my other friend who is Egyptian and Christian Orthodox asked if she could join us because she didn’t feel like waiting outside alone. My Persian friend told her “no because your Egyptian, you don’t belong with us anymore so leave”. When she said that I stopped and told her to stop excluding her out just because she isn’t Muslim, so I left her and stayed with the other girl. Ever since then our friendship had gotten closer, we are practically sister’s.
As we discussed in our group and as a class, there are many forms of discrimination. Since the 9/11 terrorist attack, the security at the airport has become tighter and tighter. The terrorist group mainly functions in the middle-eastern countries of Europe. I was at the airport about five years ago. We were in line waiting to get past the security gate. The family in front of us looked like they were middle-eastern; the mother wore a scarf around her head. She walked through the metal detector and it beeped. She was ushered to the side. My mother walked through and it beeped too. The security officer waved the wand around and discovered the metal to be my mother's clip in her hair. The woman in front of us was also taken aside and had the wand waved around her. But even after they discovered the metal to be a button on her jacket, they decided to hand check their luggage. At that time, I didn't quite understand why she had to, but my mother didn't. But now, I think everyone should be treated equally. If my mother's luggage didn't have to be checked, her's shouldn't have either.
There is not much to be done to stop discrimination. There are too many forms, and the term 'discrimination' is too vague. For example, if someone was to give used books to all the girls, and new books to all the boys, would that be considered discrimination, or luck of the draw?
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