Oh The Things We Think

On Thursday May 1, 2008 I attended a discussion at Chico State University about what it’s like to be Middle Eastern in the United States. The name of the discussion was “Being Middle Eastern in the U.S.” The program was organized by Katherine Punteney, who is an international program advisor and there were six students who were from various Middle Eastern backgrounds. Part of their program that night involved question and answer and the other part involved video clips of a comic group who have done a tour called “Axis of Evil.” The whole idea behind the comedy within that group is to inform people about the different types of cultures that exist in the Middle East and help people to begin to understand that things that are different aren’t necessarily bad.

The students who spoke were from different countries in the Middle East such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Palistine, and Dubai. All of their stories were somewhat different and they’ve all had good experiences and bad experiences. The girl who was from Dubai said that she went to Florida at one point during her time in the U.S. and she and her friends were refused service, but she said it’s different throughout the states. She said that within California she’s never had a problem. Part of the issue with Middle Eastern culture, according to some of the students, is that people tend to associate the Middle East with Islam, which they then associate with Al Qaeda. By making those associations there are many people who assume that everyone from the Middle East has something against our country, when that is in no way the case. One of the students was born in Jordan and is studying abroad here. People look at him and see that he’s Middle Eastern and assume he’s a Muslim, but he practices Christianity.

The whole discussion was interesting because it made me realize how many people have misconceptions about various cultures because of the actions of some people within those cultures or ones similar to them. It’s a bad habit and that’s why they showed the comedy clips of this group of guys. They are all Middle Eastern and they talk about the various encounters they’ve had. It's weird to think that there's still so many prejudices against all cultures including our own and that they're very difficult to change.