March 20

The Rich and Troudi article was a reminder of how common place Islamophobia has become since post 9/11. It was interesting that it is just as a reality in the United Kingdom as in the United States. The definition of Islamophobia on page 617 of the article uses the words “irrational fear.” I know so many people who have an irrational fear against people who are Muslim. It comes through when they talk with one another, othering Muslims by saying, “Well, you know how they are,” and “Must be a terrorist.”

My sister was recently flying to Texas. She was sitting across the aisle from a Muslim man who was very nervous. He caught her eye because he was very unsettled and looked like he was going to be sick. In the midst of this happening a woman behind her leaned up and said “I’m thinking the same thing you are.” My sister being as calm as she could looked at the woman and said, I’m not sure what you’re thinking but I’m thinking he really just doesn’t like flying. “ This is a prime example of Islamophobia post 9/11. If this woman would have taken time to observe and take in the big picture she would have seen how uneasy he was about flying.

But how do people overcome something as powerful as 9/11? How do we train our minds not to go to the dark place when the media has ingrained so many Muslim/terrorist images before our eyes? I think that we have to be disciplined members of society, more observant than respondent. Being an observer is a difficult skill and one that many people have not attained. With self-discipline and commitment it can be practiced and applied to situations like the one I described above.

On another note, It has been quite common in my experience to hear a person begin a sentence with, “I don’t mean to be racist, but…” The use of “I don’t mean to” is used to be a deflection away from the person being racist or making a racist remark. This use of words can be categorized under a new racism, a category of racism where people know what their saying is racist but it doesn’t stop them. What makes it “okay” is the acknowledgement that you don’t mean to be racist in the first place. This thinking is just not right.

Finally, when I was reading the Karim and Ibrahim article I wrote a huge question mark beside BESL on page 349. What is this? I asked myself. I had never heard of this acronym before. BESL (Black English as a Second Language) made sense as I read and understood the information presented in the article. The students interviewed said they learned English mostly from TV. As African immigrants they are going to identify with people who look most like themselves. Therefore, they are going to be drawn to rap and hip hop TV and consequently Black English will be the model that these ESL learners are exposed to.

So, I wonder will the students have a hard time code switching between BESL and ESL? Some native English learners have a hard time with code switching between AAVE and Standard English. This was just a thought I had in the back of my mind.