Ever since the 9/11 attacks on The World Trade Centers, a negative stigma has followed Middle Easterners. Because of the emphasis on the "Arabs" in the media since the attacks, all people of middle eastern decent are associated with terrorism and Islam.
The Islamic religion it self has a negative connotation in today's society, which is extremely offensive. Not only are all people of middle eastern decent associated with being Arabs, but they are also assumed to be Islamic, which is definitely not the case. There are many different middle eastern countries such as Iran, Libya, etc, and many other races and many people of different backgrounds who practice Islam.
In my opinion, the ignorance of the people in today's society is quite sad. Since the attacks, no middle easterner can go onto a flight without being looked at with suspicion, suspicion of being a "Muslim terrorist." This is very unjust and I believe that it is a direct impact of how the media has portrayed people of that region to the public. Along with portraying them incorrectly, the media also constantly shows all of the negative things involving them rather than progress and achievements made. For example, a few weeks ago, US agreed to aid Libya with 40 million dollars in their efforts to overthrow the dictatorship that currently runs their country. The problem is, no one would know this because everything taking over the news regarding "Arabs" are all of the negative things.
I definitely do not think that the Media depicts Arabs correctly and I really hope that I can turn on the news one day and see no ignorance.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Hate Speech
By no means do I believe that any sort of hate speech is ever acceptable or just, however, I do believe that we, as Americans, have the right to freedom of speech. Although we can mostly all agree that some extremely hurtful things that have can have a huge impact on others are constantly said throughout society, I think that without the right to express our opinions freely, what defines us as Americans would be non existent.
Of course death threats or any kinds of threats at all are completely unacceptable and frankly, against the law, I don't think that stating negative opinions should fall under the same umbrella. I mean, what if you were stripped of the right to state your thoughts freely? I think that hate speech that involves threats or can impact the livelihood of people are an extreme which should deem consequences, but stating political opinions, etc, are acceptable.
Naturally as humans, we assume the worst and think of negatives initially. This has been happening for hundreds of years and I think that we can all agree that it will never end. Sometimes, I believe that people need to have tougher skin and to try to not let people's opinions get the best of them, although I know that it can be one of the hardest things to accomplish. The world is filled with hostility, hate, corruption, and injustices and because of this, hate speech will never end.
Of course death threats or any kinds of threats at all are completely unacceptable and frankly, against the law, I don't think that stating negative opinions should fall under the same umbrella. I mean, what if you were stripped of the right to state your thoughts freely? I think that hate speech that involves threats or can impact the livelihood of people are an extreme which should deem consequences, but stating political opinions, etc, are acceptable.
Naturally as humans, we assume the worst and think of negatives initially. This has been happening for hundreds of years and I think that we can all agree that it will never end. Sometimes, I believe that people need to have tougher skin and to try to not let people's opinions get the best of them, although I know that it can be one of the hardest things to accomplish. The world is filled with hostility, hate, corruption, and injustices and because of this, hate speech will never end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)