This American Life- Talk to an Iraqi
Of all of the articles from this semester this is the that gets under my skin the most. I dated this loser in high school who thought that taunting anyone who could have been classified as Muslim was hilarious. He thought that trucks with images of eagle "throwing up the bird" saying "Jihad This!" were totally appropriate. He got totally dumped.
It will never make sense to me why perfectly normal, respectable human beings will have to deal with such ignorance. It also makes no sense to me how we let ourselves become so poorly informed that we find these behaviors of hate acceptable. If we compare this obvious hate with the Blumer article, it makes for an interesting comparison. Prejudice is a group phenomenon according to Blumer and that is most certainly the case in the typical American disdain for individuals we label as Arab. Just thinking about this group behavior makes me crazy.
However, if I try to find a unique connection in this article that doesn't dwell on racial prejudice and hate, I find it interesting that the techniques these individuals use to handle discrimination and disrespect are the same methods that many individuals use to deal with other kinds of bullies. Humor, education, defiance, and passing are techniques used for protection by all kinds of people for many different types of bullying and hate. Why is that? Are these techniques effective?