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Discrimination & Stereotyping

Stereotypes and discrimination are two things that typically go hand in hand. I think its almost human nature to stereotype and that may be because of past experiences that may have caused us problems. Discrimination is something that knows no boundaries. You can be old, young, black, white and any other person can be discriminated against. “One advantage of stereotypes is that it enables to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before.” (Saul Mcleod, 2017) On the opposite side, stereotypes make you look at a group as a whole and never noticing the actual individual themselves. Survival instincts is a major roll in why we develop stereotypes, but it’s been taken to an extreme towards certain groups.

“Today, statistics show that the rate of discrimination against Muslims and people perceived to be Muslims is higher than it was immediately following the terrorist attacks in the united states on September 11, 2001.” (Hadsell Stormer Renick and Dai LLP, 2020) I was in 4th grade when this happened so I didn’t have much of a opinion on it back then but, I can tell you over the years growing up and being able to actually grasp the concept of it or even seeing it for myself I know that Muslims were the people everyone kind of stared at in the stores. Muslims were the ones everyone keeps an eye on or afraid of. I remember overhearing a conversation between a family friend who was a cop back than and another adult about how they were pulling over more Muslims after the tragedy happened. Linda Sarsour made a career for herself by translating for Arabic speakers rounded up by law enforcement in the aftermath of 9/11. It is discrimination and stereotyping. As much as it hurt our country it is a sad situation that we feel we needed to do that with Muslims. I have never agreed with any of this nor seen anyone who was Muslim in this way.

According to a recent pew research center survey stereotypes have fouled the recent rise in discriminations “The number of assaults against Muslims in the united states rose significantly between 2015 and 2016, easily surpassing the modern peak reached in 2001.” (KATAYOUN KISHI, pewresearch.org) The sad truth is as a society the further we try to distance ourselves from discrimination the more we realize we haven’t moved very far at all.

There is so many influential Muslims in America we have Ibtihaj Muhammad: The Olympian who has heard the stereotypes about Muslim women but beat the odds. There is Rami Nashashibi: The genius who was awarded the “Genius Grant.” By the Mac Arthur foundation. Keith Ellison was the first Muslim- American elected to serve congress in 2006. Dalia Mogahed: The data guru who is famous for her TED talk. So many more Muslims have done right by us in this country as much as people view them a certain way.

“For decades, many banks in the U.S. denied mortgages to people, mostly people of color in urban areas, preventing them from buying a home in certain neighborhoods or getting a loan to renovate their house. The practice — once backed by the U.S. government — started in the 1930s and took place across the country. That includes in many of the nation's largest cities, such as Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa and others with large minority populations.” (Khristopher J Brooks, June 12 2020) This is evident as far back as the earliest civilizations when the strong discriminated against the weak. The strongest people held positions of power while the weak were put in positions that served. This shows that discrimination has been a problem since the beginning of our time.

Discrimination is something is we are trying to rid ourselves of as a society but there are instances that are still happening till this day. For example, Corona virus has been labeled by our own government on more than one occasion as the china flu. In the early stages of the corona virus I seen on twitter of a woman being beat on the subway for wearing a mask and the guy calling her a diseased b****. All because of what? DISCRIMINATION. I have a friend who owns Chinese restaurant and after the corona virus came about their business subsided. People began to treat it as if they could catch the virus from any person of Asian descent. This was caused by a lot social media misinformation which led people to bulling, harassment, back to stereotyping and discrimination.

Like I previously stated Stereotypes and discrimination go hand in hand. I believe that society should have been passed this decades ago but unfortunately, it’s more evident now that it ever has been. The divide between genders, races, beliefs has widened too levels that you would see in other countries. This is not typical for a country that is all inclusive like the united states of America. We as Americans see ourselves as a group of people that is tolerant and accepting but, I feel like we are only accepting of people the believe the same as us.