Since today is September 11, I thought it would be appropriate to consider the event that happened 6 years ago and the United State's reaction to our class discussions.
This year, in commemoration of September 11, there was a ceremony in New York. For details on the ceremony you can go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/nyregion/11service.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp
This ceremony consisted of many of the family members of the deceased and the community joining together to commemorate their loved ones. There they solemnly read the names of each person who died in the attack. Yet, according to the article, the ceremony was shorter this year and fewer people attended.
After September 11 I remember that there was a clear surge in patriotism. The biggest difference i remember seeing was on my ride to school the following few days and noticing all the new American flags on people's houses. But since then the US has been administrating a "war on terrorism."
Does an attack against a country usually unite it? Is this surge of patriotism truly a positive force? or does it, while uniting one country, alienate another? Also, since America is such a melting pot of different cultures have any one group of people been negatively impacted more by 9/11 than others?
5 comments:
Thanks for the article Tal.
After our country was unrightfully attacked, there was definitely a surge of patriotism. This patriotism came out of the desire to keep our country safe from further attacks. To answer Tal's question, I'd say yes, an attack against a country ususally unites it. People want to keep their loved ones safe. Once an attack occurs, people stop taking their loved ones' lives for granted. People feel that any moment, something else could happen and change their lives forever.
American patriotism struck after 9/11 because Americans wanted to punish whoever planned and executed the attack. For once, we were all on the same side. Everyday society faces many issues, such as racism and poverty, but these problems were ignored when we all came together after being attacked. However, once it had been identified who had planned the attack, Americans had resentment towards Muslims. This racial profiling began a new wave of racism in America. Because America is a home to many people of different ethnicities, Muslims were negatively impacted by this attack. To some, anybody who was Muslim was considered a suspect and a disloyal member of our society.
9/11 brought our country together, but separated one group from the rest.
I think 9/11 is a perfect example of the power of "us" versus "them." One of the best ways for nations and groups of people to unite is to find a common enemy. Sometimes it is easier to find a common cause to rally against than a common cause to rally for.
The discussion of the treatment of Muslims and those of Middle Easter descent after 9/11 reminds me of one of the readings that we did on race and the danger of making assumptions based on race. With race, there are often many incorrect assumptions made with the error of correlation versus causation. Although it may be true that many terrorists are of Middle Eastern descent, this by no means means that if one is of Middle Eastern descent he or she is a terrorist. Many people know this in their minds, yet many still cannot help but act on these learned stereotypes.
On this note, I HIGHLY recommend that you take the Harvard Implicit Reaction quiz which is a link on the front page of our site. It is a reminder of how we are all prejudice and how we all stereotype people to some extent, even if we do so subconsciously.
I agree with Melanie that it is very important to take that test that shows how, although everyone tries to be open minded and un-biased it is increasingly difficult.
If you guys don't want to hit the link of the front page... you can click here.
For those of you that read Blink it discussed snap judgments and their importance in daily life. I think since, for the most part we are all living in the same area, are views are not as different. But, if someone from a different part of the world, with different experiences and different world views would take the test do you think they would have different results? Are these biases held by only one country or area or is world wide?
i agree that the aftermath of 9/11 WAS a "we" vs "them" situation, but i think that NOW, 9/11 is more of a "memorial" day and has more to do with remembering those that died than "we" vs "them."
on another note... there's been a lot of talk recently about our constitutional rights being taken away in the name of homeland security. do you guys personally feel that your rights have been compensated? and relating back to the film we watched during class... when do we draw the line of "freedom" for that of safety? (ie... is "hate speech" protected by "freedom of speech?")
and on that note... CONSTITUTION DAY IS MONDAY, GUYS. GO TO THE FOYER DURING LUNCH! and yes, that was blatant advertising. :)
-coe
hate to post twice, but i stumbled upon this site while trying to find something for my portfolio entry and just had to put it here. :)
http://www.tolerance.org/index.jsp
(i've also linked to it on the main page)
it's "a web project of the southern poverty center" - the very organization we were talking about in class. you know, the one that combats hate sites. :) check it out when you have the time!
-coe
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