Racial stereotyping has always been a major social issue. Racism is now always overtly present in society. In fact most racism is very implicitly stated, especially in the media. No matter how much we say we aren't racist, every individual has some deep rooted racial or stereotypical views that shape the way we see the world we live in.
Negative racist stereotypes usually arise from some act of violence that has happen in the past. Once something violent and negative happens and people get affected in a bad way, they start associating that negative violent event with the people that might have caused the violence. Even though we all know that it is rationally impossible for every individual of muslim decent to be a terrorist, we do start generalizing. We assume that every muslim hates America and wants to harm the country and its people. Now days we not only associate terrorism with muslims, but anyone that appears to be of muslim or Arab descent. This usually entails anyone with brown skin.
We have created a stereotype of a terrorist to be a foreigner of a muslim descent, having tanned or brown skin with a long beard and a turban. We have this stereotyped image of a muslim or arab man after the event of september eleventh 2001. This was the event that lead to the world shaping the way we view muslim culture and practices. This violent event was given the face of Osama Bin-laden since he was the master mind behind plotting this terrible event.
The media kept flashing images of Osama Bin-laden on all the news channels. They kept saying very bad things about him and unified Americans in despising Bin-laden. This shows how the media shapes our views on different events. If the media says that we all have to hate something we do it and if we dont comply we get accused of either beloning to the "bad" guy's side or that we are very anti-American.
Most people however, just go with the majority's view and agree with what their neighbors are saying. This is how the stereotype gets formed. All American's together with the influence of the media have created a stereotypical image of a terrorist. That is why today, it would be so much harder for a man of brown skin to get through security check at an airport. They are usually the ones that are being inspected and watched more carefully than how they inspect a white man. Its not just the brown skin, even if a person wears a turban he is not considered as a terrorist even if he may not even be a muslim.
The turban can be considered as a cultural artifact that has immense value given by the people who do wear it. But its important to remember that its not just muslims that wear a turban. People from indian of Sikh and punjabi descent also wear a turban as a symbol of respect and devotion to their religion and to their almighty God.
However, since we are all people it is inevitable to stop generalizing and stereotyping people into groups. It is just humanly instincts to categorize people based on our beliefs and our views of the world. In this case a cultural artifact fact for the islamic culture and the Sikh culture and the Punjabi culture would be the turban.
One example of this stereotype would be the mass shooting that took place at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The shooter was racist against muslims because of the twin tower terrorist attacks and he associated the turbans they wear and the long beards that they have to terrorists. In this case a whole group of people (sikhs and punjabis) are reffered to as also being terrorists and anti-america just because of the turban they wear on their heads, the dark colored skin they have and the long beards they have.
Once again, it is also important to remember that not all muslims are terrorists either. Just because their outer appearance resembles one, it doest means their inner beliefs are of terror and anti-america. No one should be judged by the kind of clothing they wear or the way they look. Stereotypes will continue to exist in the years to come, and we need to be aware about the real facts and stop generalizing a set of facts and ignorant beliefs to a larger grop of people.
The media kept flashing images of Osama Bin-laden on all the news channels. They kept saying very bad things about him and unified Americans in despising Bin-laden. This shows how the media shapes our views on different events. If the media says that we all have to hate something we do it and if we dont comply we get accused of either beloning to the "bad" guy's side or that we are very anti-American.
Most people however, just go with the majority's view and agree with what their neighbors are saying. This is how the stereotype gets formed. All American's together with the influence of the media have created a stereotypical image of a terrorist. That is why today, it would be so much harder for a man of brown skin to get through security check at an airport. They are usually the ones that are being inspected and watched more carefully than how they inspect a white man. Its not just the brown skin, even if a person wears a turban he is not considered as a terrorist even if he may not even be a muslim.
The turban can be considered as a cultural artifact that has immense value given by the people who do wear it. But its important to remember that its not just muslims that wear a turban. People from indian of Sikh and punjabi descent also wear a turban as a symbol of respect and devotion to their religion and to their almighty God.
However, since we are all people it is inevitable to stop generalizing and stereotyping people into groups. It is just humanly instincts to categorize people based on our beliefs and our views of the world. In this case a cultural artifact fact for the islamic culture and the Sikh culture and the Punjabi culture would be the turban.
One example of this stereotype would be the mass shooting that took place at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. The shooter was racist against muslims because of the twin tower terrorist attacks and he associated the turbans they wear and the long beards that they have to terrorists. In this case a whole group of people (sikhs and punjabis) are reffered to as also being terrorists and anti-america just because of the turban they wear on their heads, the dark colored skin they have and the long beards they have.
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