The 9/11 Generation Part I

While reading Maira's The 9/11 Generation, the chapter that stood out to me was "The New Civil Rights Movement." In this chapter Maira speaks about the civil rights struggle and treatment of people who are Arab, South Asian, Afghan, Sikh, and Muslim American (among others she talks about in the book). After the events of 9/11, people who identify, have "characteristics" (racial profiling) or associate with one or more, or ones I did not list above, had their rights and lives threatened. This to me is an extreme of racial profiling because some, such as the Sikh Americans, were threatened for wearing headscarves and turbans (Maira, 78). However, the wearing of these items was taken as "potential terrorist" in racial profiling, even though Sikhism originates from India and does not believe in the same principles as Islam. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the Islamic faith is corrupted in the eyes of some (many?) American citizens. Another aspect of racial profiling is seen when Muslim and Sikh American adolescences get bullied for wearing hijabs or turbans, get called "terrorists", or are physically assaulted (Maira, 79). Again this troubles me because racial profiling is causing these adolescences to be bullied because of who they are. As I said last class, my family members that are Saudi American fit the "potential terrorist" stereotype, which I believe to be a racial profile and incorrect, but I would never call them terrorists because they are Muslim and Arab. The racial discourse the people Maira talks about have to fight to have basic human rights in America. For example, freedom of speech and religion. These rights are infringed upon by the Patriot Act that targets Arab, South Asian, Afghan, Sikh, and Muslim Americans, or people who fit the racial profile created by society. Unfortunately, some of these people who had minimal to no rights were afraid to stand up because they of lash back they could endure from the FBI (Maira, 80).

The other topic that perturbs me is that the adolescences of the time were targeted as well. Maira states, "He observed that many of the youth involved were too young to have experienced the moment of 9/11 but they did know about and had experienced its fallout..." (Maira, 80). I take this statement as the youth, that he (Raj Jayadev) sees and encounters, were in elementary and possibly middle school. By this I mean the children either were too young to remember the event, much like myself, or they were not old enough to understand what had happened beyond what the TV produced. Though the adolescences were not capable of remembering or understanding the events of 9/11, they are still victims to racial profiling, hate crimes, and the loss of rights.