Muslim Bag Experiment

Racism is a noun with a long history behind it. As described in the dictionary, it is the hatred or intolerance of another race but not even this simple definition can truly capture the nature and actions that follow its prejudice. As demonstrated in news and on social media, one can clearly see that, even within our very developed country, there are still many who carry animosity for other ethnicities and continue to discriminate those associated. One group, in particular, that is being targeted are the women who willingly choose to demonstrate their Islamic culture by wearing traditional headwear, such as the Burqa. Their choice in clothing does not only display their faith but has also been one of the many catalysts for anti-Islamism. As

The purpose of the investigation was to see how randomly selected people, in a park, would treat a visibly Muslim woman and compare their interactions to that of an ordinarily looking American woman. Both volunteers would hold a bag and ask a random pedestrian if he or she could watch her bag for a quick second. First, he observed the reactions of the people who were asked to watch the American girl’s bag. “As you all saw, no one has hesitated to hold on to her bag and trusted her fully” stated Karim in his study. “Now let’s see what happens when the woman in the Hijab does the same exact thing.” No matter the variation, “I don’t feel very well” or “I’m going to leave right now” the response was all the same. It was a no for the general public. Very few people wanted to trust the woman in the visibly Muslim clothing and some, as a result, even became hostile. One man, in particular, took the time to fully state “Leave that bag there and I’ll call the cops! Grab that bag!” Even after his outburst, he continue to aggressively harass the woman causing the actress to cry. Overall the general public has clearly demonstrated their overall lack of trust and animosity to those women who display their

Even clearly demonstrated in Cohen and Kennedy’s work the “observed characteristics and appearance of certain ‘races’ constitute indications of a group’s ‘inferior’ or dispositions and abilities” (Cohen and Kennedy, 159). This means that, based solely on an appearance, society will automatically create a persona for anyone in a targeted group without getting to know them. Mainly, issues, such as the Burqa plight, are caused by individual interpersonal misunderstandings, prejudices, and institutionalized racism embedded in major public services such as the police or education (Cohen and Kennedy, 159). The text also clearly repeats the idea of ‘racism’ being the discrimination on the grounds of observable difference (Cohen and Kennedy, 162). These statements support the results taken from bag experiment but also clearly shows just how someone’s clothing may affect another person’s