As most of our classmates have chosen to take the route of applying the master narrative of, “The Reluctant Fundamentalists” to their individual lives, it was easy to identify the overlapping themes in each blog. Common threads such as the “Us vs. them” rhetoric, the strong influence of media, and ultimately the culture of fear appeared recurrently and were woven together. These ideas sprouted from the novella, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist” which draws upon the proceedings and aftermath of 9/11 from the perspective of a Pakistani “turned” American. As the storyline moves along, readers are able to reflect on the protagonist’s (Changez) altering attitude as a result of the large cultural shift post 9/11.

Although the majority of us were just a few years old, many of the blogs tied their subjective experiences with growing up with the repercussions of 9/11. For example Tracy, who grew up in the United States, recalls her public school’s yearly presentation solely showing a small 24 hour slice of the complex 9/11 incident. She drew upon her friends biases against those of Middle Eastern descent, much like Isabel whose peers even reminded her of her “death wish” travelling to Iran. President George W. Bush, one of pivotal influencers in the “Us vs. Them” rhetoric, fuelled the fire regarding the culture of fear. Growing up in the aftermath of 9/11 instead of seeing it happen before our eyes and forming our own ideas on the situation, much of our opinions were derived from stories passed down to us, powerful political influencers, and the media we were exposed to.

I found Tessa’s blog exceptionally interesting as she provided a CNN-Anti-Muslim hate crime graph which revealed the number of victims of anti-Islamic hate crimes skyrocketing in the year 2001 and never returning to the initial numbers years prior. I suspect this is due to a multitude of factors, with media influence being a major contributor. Time and time again, we learn about how strongly the media influences our perspective of the world. For example, we’ve learned in our sociology discussion that 6 media giants: GE, News-Corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner, and CBS control 90% of what Americans read, watch, and listen to (Lutz, 2012). Because we are constantly exposed to these stories, it is near impossible to escape from the stories that are hand-selected by a niche group of powerful companies. However, in regards to 9/11, there seems to be a consensus amongst my classmates that media has heavily associated our common enemy to Muslims or groups of individuals from Middle Eastern descent. Perhaps Cherisse best describes the injustice against Muslims when saying, “Suddenly, the loyalty of entire ethnic groups was called into question.”

As these destructive stereotypes still affect many individuals worldwide, we must resist the norm of categorizing people of color as “threats”. It’s truly unfortunate how society can group entire nations as perilous and even further as terrorists. The age-old saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover” still pertains today and should be a continuous reminder that not everyone you see will fit the stereotype you associate them with. I’m glad to see my classmates and I recognize these injustices and are aware of the ways which these stereotypes contort our perception of people. I end this blog with the hope and faith our generation will be the one to break free from these constricts and produce a better more accepting world.

Citations:

Hamid, Mohsin. (2008) The reluctant fundamentalist /Orlando : Harcourt,

https://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6