Akram

In the airports, Muslim people became “the usual suspects”, were thoroughly searched and often interrogated. In her article, O’Connor claims that the lives of American Muslims changed forever, and the statement is hard to disagree with (“How 9/11 Changed These Muslim Americans’ Lives Forever.”) Those who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks, their children and grandchildren were sentenced to face racism, hate and violence.

Islam in two Americas is a delayed thesis argument about the state of Islāmic/American relations in the US, post 9-11. As a delayed thesis, the author, Ross Douthat, opens the debate with a brief explanation of the “two Americas” as he sees it. Within the current political climate that is America today, it would be hard to argue that this divide does not exist.

She describes how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) divides the world into two camps: the camp of Islam under the caliphate and the camp of the West under the crusaders. Muslims who have not joined either ISIL or the crusaders are said to inhabit the “gray zone.” To win, ISIL needs to eliminate the gray zone by forcing “the grayish” to choose between the two sides. However, the Moroccan-American author also contends with this black and white view of the world in the United States. She experiences this when people express that the only Muslims they see are

The August 1897 issue of the Atlantic Monthly introduced Du Bois to a national audience when it published his article "The Striving of the Negro People”. He begins this article with what he calls “the unasked question” he continually encountered: “How does it feel to be a problem?” Meaning: how does it feel to be black in America after the end of the

Throughout the novel many problems occur. Some of the main problems are racial and equality issues. Events in this book show how prejudice and intolerance can ruin numerous friendships and change lives.

David Eggers, in Zeitoun, shows a story of a Muslim American family living through many challenges. After 9/11 Muslim families, like the Zeitouns, face many problems living in America. Eggers wants to inform other Americans on the situation of Muslim living in the United States, present day. People who are uneducated about the Muslim religion need to be informed on how similar lives are of other people all around the United States. These people throw out stereotypes and aim judgments wrongly at the Zeitoun family. Unjust treatment of the Zeitoun family is a cause of assuming and stereotypes. In this biography, Eggers helps inform his readers about

After September 11, 2001 I’ve had trouble finding what makes me more angry; the way the authorities handled the hurricane of Katrina or the way the Arabs were treated. I have herd countless stories related to the 9/11 attack and until today I see the way that has affected the lives of many. Through Eggers story, I was able to comprehend more about the tragedy in New Orleans and even though I thought I already knew about the aftermath that Katrina brought, Eggers grabbed my attention by introducing me to the story of a Syrian-American middle aged man named Abdulrahman Zeitoun. He was a father of four, married to an American wife Kathy and owned a

Expectations were met with severe disappointment for most blacks in America following the Civil War. Rather than gifting African-Americans with the freedom they dreamt about and fought hard for, the Emancipation led to an achievement of an ambiguous status in society, which created a larger problem of race that W.E.B Du Bois discusses in The Souls of Black Folk. In order to introduce this problem, Du Bois employs the use of a metaphor that compares the post-war life of Blacks in America to being stuck within a Veil as most held distorted images of self and self-worth. His use of the Veil metaphor emphasizes the severity of the “Negro Problem” in an attempt to convince white Americans that, in order for real progress of American industry and culture to take place, the problem must be solved.

How It Feels to be Colored Me is an essay by Zora Neale Hurston published in the World Tomorrow on May 1928. In the essay she describes her first experience with racism. The purpose of the piece is to show self-confidents and pride in her identity. She shows the reader the positives of embracing your identity and not letting society affect your true selves. Stating “I’m not ashamed to be colored.” (pg.416), meaning that no matter what anyone saying about her being black, she still has pride in herself.

When I first laid eye on the book,which was given to me by my great English Dr. Sameer Ismaeel, Al-Najah university,I thought it was another book of how miserable Arabs are in the United States.These stories are fimiliar in the Arab world.People are divided into two categories,those who glorify America and make it the dream land of everything.And,those who tare it apart and only see rape,drugs and carelessness.Genuinely,both are incorrect,as America is just

For a second, the U.S. stood still. Looking up at the towers, one can only imagine the calm before the storm in the moment when thousands of pounds of steel went hurdling into its once smooth, glassy frame. People ran around screaming and rubble fell as the massive metal structure folded in on itself like an accordion. Wounded and limping from the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, America carried on, not without anger and fear against a group of innocent Americans, Muslim Americans. Nietzsche’s error of imaginary cause is present in the treatment of Muslim Americans since 9/11 through prejudice in the media, disregard of Muslim civil liberties, racial profiling, violence, disrespect, and the lack of truthful public information about

In reading this book, I could directly identify with the various forms of violence and especially the violence against black individuals. Being a white moderate with seemingly no identity to find, at the time of reading this book, Citizen helped shape the ideas of what I would have to answer the question “How does it feel to be a problem?”, as well as helping me form an identity within myself. The question “How does it feel to be a problem?”, is a question that per Citizen, is not answered with a simple or easy solution. That being a problem is more a question on the individuals who have this problem, rather than the black individuals themselves who carry this burden of a” problem”. Citizen, for me helped illuminate the real problem which as described above is more of a matter of people who

Part I: While reading Zora Neale Hurston’s “How it Feels to be Colored Me” after I had referenced the historical timeline there were definitely some events within the prior twenty years that could have had an effect on Hurston’s essay. One event that stuck out the most was the race riots that erupted in Chicago in 1919. During the essay Hurston is bringing to light the discrimination she has experienced throughout her life. In doing so she is bringing attention to the problem and fighting for equal rights with her literature.

How does it feel to be a problem? My immediate thought process to the question lead me to think of the strife happening the world as of now. I would add something though: How does it feel to be a problem when you have no idea as to what you have done? This question has yet to be asked because no one knows how to ask it or how to word it where it would be less harsh. Du Bois says his answer is seldom a word. I gathered from this answer that it is something that he doesn’t like to talk about. But who would want to answer such a delicate question? How would you even formulate such an answer? Du Bois realizes that within society he holds a low position in society. Chapter one discusses the struggles blacks endured during this time. The struggle to gain the right to vote, to obtain a good education, and to receive equal treatment and justice. I concluded that Du Bois puts the Negro race

In exploring the problem of identity in Black literature we find no simple or definite explanation. Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that it is rooted in the reality of the discriminatory social system in America with its historic origins in the institution of slavery. One can discern that this slavery system imposes a double burden on the Negro through severe social and economic inequalities and through the heavy psychological consequences suffered by the Negro who is forced to play an inferior role, 1 the latter relates to the low self-estimate, feeling of helplessness and basic identity conflict. Thus, in some form or the other, every Negro American is confronted with the