Corinne Archambault World History
7/21/15 Ms. Sara Shelley 2nd Semester Outcast United To the townspeople of Clarkston, Georgia, home meant small houses with white picket fences. . To the refugees of Afghanistan, Burundi, Congo, Liberia, and Sudan to name a few, home had meant small wooden shacks and dirt roads; until civil wars destroyed their villages and towns. All of a sudden, home to the refugees now meant small bare-walled apartments in Clarkston, Georgia. Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, illustrates the struggles of both the refugees and the townspeople as they adapt to the changes in Clarkston. In particular, St. John focuses on a refugee soccer team led by a Jordanian woman named Luma Mufleh. While the soccer team helped refugee families adjust to American Lifestyle, it prompted changes in the community that the townspeople of Clarkston were not ready to acknowledge. The Clarkston residents had to alter their lifestyle economically, religiously, and culturally to accommodate for the changes the refugees brought.
The townspeople needed to change the way they ran their businesses in order to attract customer. Bill Mehlinger was the owner of Thriftown, a grocery store in the middle of Clarkston. In 1990, when Mehlinger bought the grocery store he had a customer base of half black half white. To cater to his customers, Mehlinger made sure the store had all American choices (173). The store was doing well until Clarkston’s population began
After reading the article, “Shattered Lives” by Kristin Lewis, Dania faces living as a refugee outside her country.The challenges that she faced are when they were in World
The story of a miraculous Jordanian immigrant coach, refugee soccer team, and the transformation of a small Georgia town. This tale follows Luma Mufleh, a female youth soccer coach of the refugee team, the Fugees. Warren St.John takes us into the lives of children with diverse cultural backgrounds, and shows us how Luma had shaped them into the people they are today, simply by coaching them in the game of soccer. The settling of many refugees affected not only the refugees themselves, but many of the Clarkston residents as well. After the town of Clarkston had altered due to the relocation of many people retreating war-torn countries, it gave the townspeople a greater need to adapt than the refugees. Adapting to not only the physical changes in the environment, but also the hate and isolation
In Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, the reader witnesses the struggles Luma Mufleh faces as she tries to get a suitable soccer field for her soccer teams composed of refugee immigrants from nations ravaged with war and terrorism; the conflicts she faces allows the reader to examine the changes (or lack thereof) that are happening/have happened across the world, even in our own hometowns. Without a doubt, the people of Clarkston are reluctant to accept the change that was beginning to envelope the town and that is the attitude that exemplifies the xenophobia that locks the closed minds of many Americans today. Truly, Luma would have had fewer problems acquiring the field necessary for the team to safely practice had they been a group of white
The Refugee Situation Worldwide Warren St. John, a “youth soccer” referee, was moved by the Fugees, a refugee soccer team, and decided to follow them to get to know their story. His book, Outcasts United, was published in April 2009. Warren St. John follows the journey and struggles of Luma, the Fugees and their families throughout his book. Luma was just a regular woman in Jordan who, because of her culture, was expected to marry and take care of her children and let the husband work, but she did not think women were any less than men. She was also very tough and she never showed emotion or weakness.
In Warren St. John’s Outcasts United, the citizens of Clarkston, Georgia had a fantasy of living in the ideal American town. However, that fantasy stood no chance when faced with the harsh reality of life. When a myriad of refugees from war-torn countries were placed in Clarkston, the townspeople saw their fantasy begin to slip away. Clarkston’s residents disliked the influx of refugees because they feared the thought of losing their ideal American town. The citizens were too selfish to live in such a state of liminality as depicted by St. John. Rather than helping their neighbors, the “old” Clarkston residents maintained their ideology by isolating the refugees and making it nearly impossible for the refugees to survive or have a desirable life in Clarkston. The Clarkston residents were driven by fear of the unknown and were reluctant to accept the refugees. Luma started a youth soccer program, which was aimed toward the refugee children to help the younger generation of refugees fit into the American society and lessen the tensions between the Clarkston residents and the refugees that was evident in her generation of refugees. The Clarkston residents had to accept and become a part of the inevitable change in their community.
“Refugees are part of humanity and we can’t leave them behind.” Ger Duany, Actor. If we have the ability and the power to help people we have to help. We can’t just shut the door on them. According to Warren St. John in Outcasts United, the town of Clarkston, Georgia, was chosen as a refugee resettlement site for several reasons, including access to affordable housing, affordable public transportation, and availability of low-skill jobs.
Outcasts United by Warren St. John is a wonderful book about a community of refugees who live in Clarkston, Georgia and their struggles to adapt with foreign environment of the United States. The book tells the stories of refugees that come from different background and countries in which they are connected together by an American- educated Jordanian woman called Luma Mufleh. Despite their difficulties in establishing new identity, they found their passion in soccer and with Luma Mufleh as their coach they create a soccer team called Fugees. In the early chapters of the book, it illustrates the difficulties to make a group of kids from different background unite and work together
One of the most recurring themes in Warren St John’s 2009 novel, Outcasts United: An American Town, A Refugee Team, and One Woman’s Quest to Make a Difference is community. Throughout the book, the protagonist, Luma Mufleh, creates a unique community amongst refugee boys living in Clarkston, Georgia. In the 1990s, Clarkston became a resettlement location for refugees and their families. The boys and their families were selected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for resettlement in the United States. These families were forced to relocate after living in countries with war, persecution, natural disasters, environmental crises, and poverty.
“Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.” ― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose. Outcasts United, by Warren St. John, follows the stories of war-torn refugees that found themselves in the small town community of Clarkston. Tensions were high as the wave of new culture clashed with the status quo of “Old Clarkston” residents. However, in light of the unstable situation, a group of young boys were able to find their home on the soccer field. The human need for belonging is explored in this book. However, refugees have an extremely difficult journey to acceptance due to the isolating tendencies that resettlement can cause.
Clarkston, Atlanta has gone through major change in the past decade. They have had a massive influx of refugees from all around the world. With this change comes the question of will Clarkston be able to adapt and survive this change? Some people of the town adapt better than others. Luma Mufleh helps some of these people get used to their town that is not the same. Some people in Clarkston can not accept that their town is made up of refugees and will refuse to communicate and cooperate. The refugees on Luma’s team and some from around her have taken it upon themselves to “be the bigger man” and try to get along with the people of Clarkston. Clarkston is still trying to make it.
In a small town outside of metro Atlanta, each year, at least 1,500 refugees settle in the city of Clarkston to start a new beginning at life. Refugees from Bhutan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Vietnam come in waves from every corner of the globe. Lately there has been an increasingly number of refugees from the Congo, due to the civil war that has been ongoing for many years. Currently, there is a population of 13,000 individuals who have made Clarkston their home away from home. We ask, what brings the refugees to this little city? Many wonder how this has happened, how Clarkston has developed its own little cultural sense of identity? Refugees started settling in Clarkston back in the early 1990's, and it's been the resettlement hub ever since. The reason so many refugees settled in Clarkston, Georgia is due to the low- income based apartments, easy access to public transit and it’s near the interstate, which can take you to any part of Atlanta.
First, the irony of the hopeful falsehoods that the refugees harbor creates a tone of negation and desperation. The refugees flock to California, including the Joads. The family listens to tales of poverty on a grand scale and of children “puffed out an’ jus’ skin,” but they continue to cling to the hope that they will prosper. (210) Multiple individuals caution the family about the foolish nature of their journey and
Due to past events, the Afghan government is now struggling to keep up with their citizens’ problems with living there. Bombing, wars, harassment, feminism, and abuse have been some of the main topics of bad events in the last few years in Afghanistan. Dystopia is a society that can be characterized with extreme hunger, poverty, misery, and the imbalance among the people; the Taliban taking over was the cause of how Afghanistan is still dystopian today. When one analyzes Ashraf Ghani’s choice to allow the Taliban to form, and the impacts the Taliban are still having on the people, one can realize how important genres of literature can be to educate the world about this dystopian
She had always been interested in soccer, even as a kid, however her grandmother constantly stopped her from playing because of her gender. With help from the YMCA, she formed three teams of differing age groups all having the same name of “the Fugees,” short for refugees. This team faced more challenges than Luma thought. From fighting for a place to play, to arranging convenient times and locations for all the boys, and even having to get all the significantly different boys from a dozen of different countries (Congo, Burundi, Sudan, Liberia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.,) to play together as a
The Displaced Person by Flannery O’Connor is about a family fleeing Poland some time around World War II and how they find solace at a farm. The theme that runs through this story is racism and how it affects people. O’Connor shows this through the plot and the characters in her story.