Part 4

Hello and welcome back to my blog! The fourth section of “Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria?” focuses on critical issues facing racial identity and expands from just blacks and whites to all the other ethnic groups in the United States and the problems they face.

For this blog, I want to move away from the racial dynamics of blacks and whites to another highly prosecuted group of people, the MENA (Middle Eastern and North Africans). The prostitution of the MENA population in America stems from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“On the evening of September 10, 201, these were sensitive, intelligent young people experiencing adolescent identity issues typical of the children immigrants who practice a minority faith tradition. Twenty-four hours later, an important part of their identity had been marked as the source of absolute evil. (290)”
We as Americans wanted someone to blame for the tragedy we faced but instead of placing the blame on the parties involved we blamed a whole race/religion. The religion of Islam has been deemed as hateful and violent due to the actions of a tiny minority, the repercussions of these ideas have been great, there has been a considerable increase of hate crimes and anti-Arab legislation. “According to the FBI, in 2015 there were 257 reports of assaults, attacks on mosques and other hate crimes against Muslims, a sharp increase of 67 percent over 2014. (295)”.  Coinciding with the conservatory with the 2016 presidential election and Donald Trump's “Muslim Ban.” Within the first few weeks of Donald Trump's presidency, there was a travel ban barring immigration and travel from seven Muslim majority Arab countries ( Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Iraq), giving preferential treatment to Christians from these nations (Rothwell and Krol). This act has been repealed and revised over and over again for the past two years now with a big landmark decision in June 2018 the Supreme Court found the travel ban to be within the presidents' jurisdiction. It is important to note that at this point the list of countries barred was revised and included two non-Muslim nations (North Korea and Venezuela) and dropped three of the Muslim nations initially involved in the ban, showing no religious bias (Robert.L). Even with the Supreme Court rulings and the more recent revisions, the message from the first draft had an impact on the way MENA were viewed and the way they were treated. Even with the hate in the media, many came to support the Muslim community showing how far we've come, but at the same time, there is still a lot of work to be done to be accepting and to decrease hatred in our country. Today I'm going to end this post on a hopeful note with a quote from a Muslim-American and his experience living post the 2016 election.
“Even though Trump represented the racist underbelly of a nation, light rose to the surface, even through the most negligible of cracks, to resist it. (296)”
Until next time,
KM

Works Cited

Rothwell, James, and Charlotte Krol. "Everything you need to know about Donald Trump's 'Muslim ban.'" Telegraph, 31 Jan. 2017, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/29/everything-need-know-donald-trumps-muslim-ban/. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.

Tasi, Robert L. "Trump's Travel Ban Faces Fresh Legal Jeopardy." Politico, 27 Mar. 2019, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/27/trump-travel-ban-lawsuit-supreme-court-unconstitutional-226103. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.