Light In The Forest Themes

During the years of post-9/11, Americans have started to become wary of non-Americans in their home land of the fear of another terrorist attacks. The 9/11 attacks have changed American views on the muslims and on the Middle East. It also had made security regulation more strict and discriminatory. Since post-9/11, Americans the wrong impression of the Middle East and have negative views of it and also have stereotype of it as well.

After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2002, the government of America felt threatened. Society as a whole went straight to thinking that all Middle- Eastern people were terrorists and were going to plot more attacks. Many people who look of Middle- Eastern descent were beaten out of the anger from the attacks. It was common belief that people who are Middle-Eastern are terrorists.

It ties back to the research in that people are hypocrites who think it’s okay to attack Middle Easterners and then complain that they are the threat to others.The label is the misconception of who Middle Easterners are, the truth is: most Arabs are not terrorists, most Muslims are not Arab, and many of the early Arab immigrants adjusted well in America. The news on TV decides to create a different image of Middle Easterners, warning the public that they are a dangerous and can’t be trusted. The public then thinks it’s okay to harm them, with the excuse that they look similar to the people on the news, or just because of the intense hatred that they have against them. They have a fixed mindset that leads them to believe that Middle Easterners are what social media labels them to be. Vicious murders such as the one in Manhattan proved this hostility when a Middle Eastern taxi driver was stabbed in the face and throat because his passenger discovered he was a Muslim. America has made these attacks on Middle Easterners a common threat. The feud between whether or not this group of people should stay in America now becomes a more pressing issue than just hateful comments on the internet. If the news does not begin to inform the public on the true connections, if any, that Middle Easterners have to terrorist attacks then these immigrants will never feel safe in a country that wants them

After 9/11, Americans had immediately started to stereotype Muslims to being terrorists. Ever since the planes hit, the media had portrayed the Islamic culture as if they were all terrorists. This makes it to where all Americans become fueled to become a stereotype culture towards the Islamic religion (Jolls). There was a guy by the name of Aziz Ahsan he is a Muslim that was in the event of 9/11. He says that “Muslims died and Muslims survived 9/11”. He also said that “People just automatically assume that Muslims were not the survivors."(Frumin). With this the Muslims will not be able to ever come out and live a normal American life without the antagonism of

The novel The Light in the Forest portrays the fictional tale of a white boy raised by Indians, who is sent back to a society he has been raised to hate. He must learn to adapt to the new society, and he realizes the faults between both cultures as he seeks to find his new identity. The author, Conrad Richter, states in the beginning that his goal was to create a non-biased novel that portrayed both cultures equally and “give an authentic sensation of life in early America”. Conrad Richter's novel "The Light in the Forest" is unbiased between the two cultures, proved through historical events that happened both in reality and the novel, the views and human nature of both cultures, and the point of view in which the story is told.

Immigrants of Middle Eastern descent have been victims of hate crimes since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The graph above, depicts statistics show the major increase of attacks towards anti-Islamic hate crimes after that attack (name, year). In the next 12 years, data shows how they stayed consistent and have not varied to much. Something to note is that their was not any attack towards the United States that has been as spectacular at the one towards the twin towers in 2001. That being said that does not mean that other attacks and incidents that happened in the rest of the world did not make an impact in peoples’ views towards Middle Eastern people in general. For instance, the attacks in Paris in 2015 made people rethink the issue of

Prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001 most Americans knew very little to nothing about Muslims nor had an opinions towards them. The lack of knowledge quickly changed due to a combination of factors. Terrorist attacks against America have unfortunately persisted for years, the attacks of 9/11 were fundamentally different. Such attacks evoke a response and the response has evolved and transformed Americans attitude. Non-economic factors, such as prejudicial stereotypes, place a significant role in shaping intergroup relations and in influencing public attitudes. Negative treatment of Muslim Americans in the United States after 9/11 was not caused by the 9/11 attacks alone, but by pre existing social constructions that configured them as

Most, many people when they think of terrorist think about people from the middle east. I have no clue why but when terrorism events happen the increase of stereotypes grow and with that racism increases. After events like this stereotype start to rise and People usually Americans, even make fun of the middle eastern religion. For example, after the twin tower attack on September 11, 2001. Middle Eastern people were automatically to blame just because they looked like the person piloting the plane. Even Muslims were to blame when all Muslims do is promote peace, but there is always those Extreme radicalistic from the Muslim religion that stands out, and everyone assumes all Muslims are extremist. But if humans take things in perspective the first terrorist in America was Christopher Columbus he nearly killed 4 million people in four years. He did it legally in some people's eyes (Cook). Hate crimes will also increase because people want to attack the group that "did" the

This is due to the attacks of 9/1, which was caused by Al Qaeda, an Islamic extremist group. 9/11 has changed the mind of Americans on what they think of Muslims. According to Elaine C. Hagopian of Haymarket Books, “Muslims and Arab-Americans are increasingly under attack as a result of the U.S ‘war on terror’- at home as well was abroad. Since the tragic events of September 11, Arabs and Muslims have faced major assault on their civil liberties.” The 9/11 attacks have damaged the reputation of Muslims. The Muslims are not viewed as everybody else to most people, but something bad. They are being blamed on the actions of other people on a different continent! Additionally, by Christopher Ingraham, “If the incident does turn out to be motivated by anti-Islamic sentiment, it would be one of dozens of such events that happen each year, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports program. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, the program typically recorded between 20 and 30 anti-Muslim hate crimes per year. But in 2001 that number rose more than tenfold to nearly 500. In the years since, annual hate crimes against Muslims have consistently hovered in the 100-150 range, roughly five times higher than the pre-9/11 rate.” Since September 11, more and more people are hating on innocent Muslims because they have the same religion as the group behind 9/11. People are assuming that bad and deserve to be harshly treated. The strive of destroying the Muslim faith has become a problem caused by American grudge against Al

Since Islam is a religion that promotes peace and kindness, one could ask where the stereotype that all Muslims are terrorists originated. Following the tragedies of September 11, 2001, Arabs and Muslims have been presented as potential terrorists. This idea stemmed from the theory that, “media bias increases when a specific ethnic, religious, or racial group is seen as a threat to national security.” (Stiffler, 2013). Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 Muslims and Arabs have been “hyper-visible” in the media as potential terrorists. Due to the negative media attention and failure of most media platforms to

I believe they, the Middle Eastern people and Asians were already being stigmatized way before 9/11, especially the Asians during WW II, and it took them 20 years later to repeal the two laws which allowed for imprisonment of people, deemed to be in collaboration with foreign enemies and the second which was the Executive Order 9066, that used the presidential power of the Chief Executive Officer to order the wartime imprisonment of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans in Concentration Camps. (n.d.). After 9/11 it has become worse, not only for the Middle Eastern people and Asians but for other ethnic people too. There seems to be a mentality or rather narrow mindedness that people have and it is not just in the U.S. but all over, no thanks to the media**.

A muslim committing a crime is equal to terrorism, but a white man committing a crime is equal to insanity. These are foundations our society has laid out due to propagated news and media. The attacks of September 11, 2001 have set off major prejudices and scrutinizing towards lots of innocent arab and muslim communities. Such stereotypes reverberated through muslims because they feel wronged on these accusations. Recognizing arabs and muslims as terrorist is harmful because it leaves society hating, acting violently, and close-minded. If society can be open-minded and receptive, we can be propelled from thinking all arabs and muslims are terrorist.

Western societies have fallen victim to the media and have been lead to misconceptions about the Middle East (due to lack of awareness). As defined by Merriam-Webster, a stereotype is “to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same”. Some would say that it is merely human nature to have preconceived ideas, but it this case these ideas are being driven and encouraged by the media. The danger with the media is that it plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and when issues are addressed incorrectly or entire regions are portrayed in a way that they are not, then negative, and not to mention, false stereotypes go flying in all directions. The media has kept the world from seeing anything

The idea of Middle Easterners being our number one terrorist threats stems from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. On September 11, 2001 Islamist extremist hijacked planes there were flying over the United States. Two of them flew into the Twin Towers and another flew into the Pentagon. This attack was one of the biggest attacks ever. After it happened much of the media and politics did not have many positive thoughts towards Middle Easterners. A lot of Americas Security got stricter especially Transportation Security Administration (TSA). TSA made it harder for just anybody to get into an airport by only allowing a person with a ticket passed

"The US media has been clubbing together terrorism and Islam, influencing the American public to think that all Arab Muslims are "crazy and violent terrorists"… The American media has been a primary agent responsible for creating racist stereotypes, images and