Ridhwan Khan Interview

Ridhwan Khan is a coworker of mine whom I’ve slowly gotten to know over the past two years. As Fiji/Muslim American, Ridhwan, we’ll call him Rid, struck me as an interview subject because my knowledge and expectations of Fiji Americans and Muslim Americans are different than what Rid represents. For the first interview, we had to conduct it over the phone due to the fact that Rid was dealing with tensions with our boss. Rid’s an upfront guy with confrontations Short story short, our boss messed up his check, Rid got angry, he felt “jipped,” and told off our boss and manager. In the first interview, I got to know the basics about him: birth date and place, schools, where he lived, and his family. Our second interview took place towards the end

His first positive childhood memory was said to be at the age of 14, circa 2010. At that age, a young Rid experienced his first time kissing a girl. After the graphic detail of what he did with said girl, Rid appreciates this memory because it will always be the first time he “felt like a man” and was “not a little kid anymore.” To add to the childhood memories, I asked about a negative childhood memory. While Rid was in second grade, circa 2004, he experienced an awful confrontation. Keep in mind that this was just 3 years post September 11th. Rid’s teacher, “ms. McCracken,” a white skinned woman, always gave Rid a bad time. Rid believed that is was due to the fact that he was Muslim. After being accused of cheating on a test, Rid took initiative to fight back with the phrase FUCK YOU! After being sent to the principal's office and writing an apology letter with nothing but the phrase “I’m sorry” written 1,000 times, Rid was sent home where he had to deal with his parents. After being punished and suspended from school, Rid felt awful for his actions. In Islam, it is wrong to be rude to your elders, for you must always respect them. After cursing at his teacher, Rid compared the experience to cursing his own grandparents. Despite the vivid childhood memories, Rid was open about recent valuable adult