The experience of marginalized Americans, specifically South Asian Muslims, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on New York City has been brought into light hundreds of times due to the extreme politicization of the event. However, few portrayals have been as powerful as Karan Johar’s movie, My Name Is Khan. Unlike most Western movies where the entirety of South Asia is deemed a constant threat to national safety, this movie uses a different point of view to show the “other side” of Islam. In this essay, I will examine the role of race in My Name Is Khan, by arguing that the movie lends oppressed minority groups a sense of unity with other minority groups.
My Name Is Khan, to put a highly complex story briefly, revolves around
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The reason this movie is so iconic is because it gives a view of Muslims that Western media would never even dare to. For example, when Rizwan is released from jail after he is mistaken for a terrorist at a rally, a police officer does a “I’m watching you” gesture at him, and Rizwan does the same gesture back at him. This really stood out to me because it shows the Western world that even the Muslims who stay silent in the face of racism, due to mental illness like Rizwan or other reasons, are fighting back to change the stereotypes. Rizwan does not allow the police officer to properly assert any dominance, and, with such a simple act, symbolically balances the …show more content…
After 9/11, the white population began to view all South Asians as anti-American “others.” Knowing how it felt to be pushed into the margins of American society, the black community recognized their troubles. In My Name Is Khan, Rizwan meets a stereotypical southern black family that welcomes him into their home with open arms. The mother of the house, Mama Jenny, and Rizwan bond over how they both lost their children in the war of terror - even though Mama Jenny’s son was killed as a US soldier in Iraq and Rizwan’s son at an anti-Muslim beating. Mama Jenny even adds Rizwan’s son’s picture next to her own son’s picture at the congregation, and invites Rizwan to speak about him. She is a Christian but she has nothing but genuine love for Rizwan and his family, highlighting how her kindness went above and beyond with
In my belief, this film was powerful in the way it illustrated the hardships that the Gullah community faced. By watching Daughters of the Dust I was able to gather new knowledge that I did not previously have of this secluded community. The filmmakers definitely evoked a response from the audience in the way they demonstrated particular aspects of this community. Although, I do not have any ties to the African American community, it was easy to understand the hardships of the Gullah community from this
Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2004. Print.
The military exploits of the Mongols under Ghengis Khan as well as other leaders and the ruthless brutality that characterized the Mongol conquests have survived in legend. The impact of the invasions can be traced through history from the different policies set forth to the contributions the Mongols gave the world. The idea of the ruthless barbarian’s intent upon world domination will always be a way to signify the Mongols. Living steadfast upon the barren steppe they rode out of Mongolia to pursue a better life for their people.
What this tells us, or rather the challenges faced by South Asian Americans through the lens of Americans is that they are barbaric, living in close quarters, with more than the “normal” number of individuals in a room or even a building. Another interaction with Erica was when they were both in the ocean and Erica comments “I don’t think,” she said finally, “I’ve ever met someone our age as polite as you” (Hamid 25). What this tells us, or rather the challenges faced by South Asian Americans is that they have to be extra nice and polite in order to compensate for their “barbaric and backwardness” view that Americans tend to associate with these group of people. And of which has been heightened following the aftermath of 9/11. Another interaction with Erica was when she invited Changez over her parent’s apartment for the very first time and during a conversation with Erica’s father, he asked Changez how things were back home, to which he had replied back as “quite good, thank you” (Hamid 54). Erica’s father response to this:
Movies, one can argue, are one of America’s greatest pastimes. Unfortunately, after 9/11, films have become increasingly prejudiced against American Muslims. In movies Muslims are frequently portrayed negatively. According to James Emery, a professor of Anthropology, Hollywood profits off of “casting individuals associated with specific negative stereotypes”. This is due to the fact that viewers automatically link characters with their clichéd images (Emery). For Muslims, the clichéd image is of the violent fundamentalist, who carried out the terroristic attacks on 9/11. As a result, the main stereotypes involved in movies display Muslims as extremists, villains, thieves, and desert nomads. An example of a movie that has such a negative character role for Muslims in film is Disney’s cartoon Aladdin, depict...
The attitudes toward Muslims today have not changed significantly since September 11, 2001. Any Muslim person; man, woman, or child is automatically suspect to instigate pandemonium, based strictly on their appearance and faith. Regardless of any evidence, reasoning, or perspective to the contrary, Muslims are seen as an enemy to United States citizens. The events of 9/11 left Muslim Americans unceremoniously lacking any respect from U.S. citizens regardless of any affiliation with Al-Qaida. We assess Muslim people with a common image of terror. We see the turban or hijab and assume a terrorist is hidden within its folds. Our mentalities inevitably come to a paralyzing halt, and we can never see through the fabric of the religious garments. When we see any one of these people, one person comes to mind, and that is the person who attacked our country. Today, in our nations cities and towns these arrogances still exist forcefully. Muslim people are still profoundly victimized and discriminated against by the means of assumption and negative mental sets. In the novel Zeitoun, author Dave Eggers takes time to assess the spitefulness encountered by Kathy and Abdulrahman Zeitoun, along with narrating the family’s endeavors with hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun presents racial differences in America, primarily in New Orleans, by discussing how they are created and the ways in which they exist today.
24 Jan. 2001. Mamiya, Lawrence H., and Charles Eric Lincoln. “Nation of Islam.” Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 2nd Ed.
Hartog, L. D. (2004). Genghis Khan: conqueror of the world (vii ed.). [eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)]. http://dx.doi.org/AN 112269
In the first scene we observe a Muslim man inside a firearm store, attempting to buy a gun. The owner is a white Caucasian male that presents a negative attitude towards the customer because of his Muslim background. This feeling triggers in the owner, negative attitudes based on the assimilation and stereotypes with the Muslim race. Being immediately associated with the Al Qaeda terrorist group, which was responsible for suicidal bombers that have killed thousand of Americans.
In the years after 9/11, sentiment toward American Muslims has become hostile. In 2002, violence against Muslims in the United States went up an astonishing 1600 percent (Lean 3). Statistics give a good idea of the overall effect of 9/11 on Muslim violence, but narratives can provide a much more personal and compelling account. Zeitoun by Dave Eggers present a frightening (yet real) story of dramatic injustice against a Muslim Syrian American during Hurricane Katrina. Zeitoun, the main character, is profiled, embarrassed, and jailed unjustly. In the text, we see that islamophobia manifests itself in the form of violence and discrimination. Kathy, Zeitoun’s wife, even says in Zeitoun that “any trip to the grocery store or mall presented the
About two years ago I read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s memoir “Infidel” and was immensely moved by her story, especially the atrocities she went through in her childhood in Africa and the way she struggled to flee from an oppressive life. At that time, I could not imagine that anyone (except fanatic Muslims), let alone victims of the same oppression that she was, would not share her feelings and views. However, the reading of Ian Buruma’s Murder in Amsterdam sheds light on bigger and obscure components of this story, which clearly influenced some people to disapprove her behavior – even Islamic women. Like in Hirsi Ali’s story, Ian Buruma also identifies nuances in the main episode of the book – an episode that at face value could be described as a murder of a fierce critic of Islam, Theo van Gogh (Hirsi Ali’s friend), by a Muslim extremist, Mohammed Bouyeri. According to Buruma, although the common theme is immigration – involving two guests, Hirsi Ali and Bouyeri, and one host, Van Gogh – there is no single explanation for what happened. Instead, each of these three characters, he explains, was influenced by a blend of personal experiences and external forces. It was thus the clash between their diverse cultural values and personal identities that ended up leading to the tragic morning of November 2nd, 2004, the day of Van Gogh’s murder.
Kahn, P. (2005). Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan. USA: Cheng & Tsui
F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
... Aside from power, the recurrent leitmotif is the constant comparisons that Changez makes between America and Pakistan. (‘Lahore, the second largest city in Pakistan, home to as many people as New York...’) Also, he resents the grouping of Islamic identity as one by symbols such as the beard, burqa, etc. Yet, he too homogenizes the American identity to an extent. He frequently describes other Americans as ‘not unlike yourself’ and their actions as ‘just as you are doing now.’
Weatherford, J. McIver. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. New York: Crown, 2004. Print.