It is one of those days that everyone remembers what he or she was doing, who they were with and what happened afterward. Everyone heard the stories of the guy stuck in traffic and didn’t make it on time or the woman who decided to call in a sick day. It’s a memorable day that affected everyone one way or another; some people were affected more than others. However it was the birth of extreme ignorance among the American people. 9/11 was a hard day for everyone, even for a small Arab kindergartener like myself at the time. The prejudice every single Arab-American had to deal with after this moment is something no one thinks about.
The fact that my family has to be ‘randomly’ checked at an airport because of our last names is to no interest to you. How my female friend who wears a hijab got called ‘Mohammed’ at a what-a-burger. How my brother who is traveling from Lebanon from my cousin’s wedding has to shave his beard and make sure that he ‘doesn’t look like a terrorist’. Or how when I reveal to people how I am an Arab they automatically call me a terrorist and ask me if Osama-bin-laden is my uncle. There are countless stories like these, some which are even worse like a covered woman being attacked on 9/11 just walking down the street! However, it has no interest to you, I mean
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The word ‘terrorist’ is used very loosely when talking about any race other than the Middle Eastern one. Any man that identifies as ‘White’ can go into a church, kill nine people yet still not be called a terrorist but that he has a ‘mental illness’. (Ford). Take any instance of a white man committing an act of terrorism, it is never called what it is. “A ‘hate crime’, many reporters and politicians quickly cautioned audiences to "wait for all the facts" before assuming that this mass murder was racially motivated. And several news outlets are still apprehensive or refuse to call him the ‘T-Word.’”