While reading the selections written by Hayan Charara for this week, it was safe to say I was made quite uncomfortable by the displays of ignorance made in regards to his student Mohammed. It seemed so insensitive that agents of the government would profile someone based on their appearance. Although I’m not so naïve to think that this type of situation had never occurred before, or to anyone else, it is still unsettling to think that someone could be accused of something because they look a certain way. What makes the interchange even worse is that Mohammed was doing something innocuous when he was targeted for questioning. Why wouldn’t it be clear from Mohammed’s notes that he was working on a class assignment? It leads me to believe that the men jumped to conclusions about what Mohammed’s intentions were. That seems incredibly ignorant.
Ignorance, in that situation, was obviously a problem. However, I was thinking about my own reactions to 9/11, and I realized something. I was also incredibly ignorant at the time. I didn’t know what a Muslim was or where any Arab countries were. At the time, I probably couldn’t have even pointed out New York on a map, even though I knew vaguely that it was East of Cleveland. But this ignorance, which I exhibited because I was eight years old at the time, meant that I would have no reason to unjustly target Arab-Americans or Americans who practice Islam. My ignorance, in other words, prevented me from making unfair assumptions about people who may or may not be involved with terrible people. I did not make the mistakes made in the story.
So, my question to the class is this: can ignorance be a good thing, as in the example I provided, or am I misleading myself to think that ignorance was the cause for my tolerance instead of other factors. Let me know what you think.
My argument, I guess, would be that ignorance itself is not necessarily a good thing because it is important to make oneself aware of the rest of the world. However, it is nice when things work out in a way that prevents prejudice, even if it's because of ignorance. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would much rather there be a higher percentage of people who don't necessarily hold prejudices simply out of ignorance than a significant portion of people who are well-informed yet maintain unfair prejudices.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I think it's safe to say that education in no way directly correlates with having fewer prejudices, even though it can surely help. That being said, I believe that the most important thing is for people to really think hard about the prejudices they have. For instance, Hayan Charara's story about how he realized that he even had certain thoughts about other Arabs while he was in his restaurant really struck me. Once he realized what he was doing, he was able to really reconsider his thoughts, where they were coming from, and the unfairness of them. While ignorance can prevent unfair judgements, it would like result in prejudices more often than a lack of them, in my opinion. Thus, I would say it's better for there to be a push for education and self-reflection than allowing ignorance to exist because, in some cases, it can result in a lack of prejudices (although I don't believe that is necessarily your argument at all!).
Both of the readings from this week, Charara's and Danner's, described the ways in which our government have treated Arabs and/ or Muslims based on little or no evidence. I found both of these stories very appalling because of the ways in which the U.S. government uses their power to treat human beings like something less than human based on physical features, religion, nationality, etc. To answer your question about whether or not ignorance can be a good thing when it comes to tolerance of other cultures, religions, etc., I would have to agree with Ana that ignorance isn't the best answer. In my International Relations class we were discussing ethnocentrism and how it's related to education by what and how you learn about other cultures of the world, such as how your text books in elementary school portray different countries in certain ways in which you start developing opinions about these other people from a young age. The information written in your text books is likely to hold a certain view and try to guide you in one direction or another, even if it's unintentional.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, I guess my argument would be that ignorance in the short run may be able to prevent prejudices, but if one were to encounter even a small group of people, who they knew nothing about, and these people gave off a negative image, then it's natural for that person to make a generalized opinion of a larger population. Through education and learning about different countries and different people, I think that it would be more effective in the long run because if you had run into the same situation, a small group of people making a negative impression, you would be able to realize that not everyone in that culture, race, religion, etc. thinks that way.
Ignorance may have been the start of your tolerance, but I think your continuing education and desire to learn more about the subject makes your lack of prejudice stronger and will help you more in the long run. As far as other factors, I can say for myself that I was raised to not look at race, or religion, etc. I went to a school where I was the minority, my grandma is a die- hard left wing liberal, and religion wasn't a big factor in my childhood. Those are some of the factors I look at when assessing my own lack of strong prejudices.