1) What did you learn from the “Arab and Other Middle Eastern Americans” article? Be specific and provide examples from the reading.
I learned that waves of immigration from the Middle East began to occur in the late 19th century and became an important source of immigrants to the United States. However, due to international relations and historical reasons, people have always had negative stereotypes about Middle Easterners, “The US repeatedly sought to deport politically active Arab visitors or immigrants as ‘terrorist supporters’, even though they have not been convicted of any crime. Negative stereotypes of Middle Eastern characters and of Islam have been common in US film and television, and in radio and newspaper commentaries”(Page 3). This has led to social and political challenges faced by middle eastern immigrant communities in the United States, affecting their sense of security and social integration.
2) Discuss something you learned and/ or can relate to from 1-2 of this week’s videos.
I learned from the video “Misunderstandings about Middle Eastern Culture and Religion” that many people have misunderstandings about the Middle East and Iran: the streets in Iran are full of camels, and girls wear burqas. I’m from China and I’ve heard similar misconceptions about my country: everyone wears robes, boys have long braids, the roofs are all tiles, etc. I guess this misunderstanding is due to the influence of media, historical events and other factors. This can lead to inaccurate opinions and biases, so I feel cross-cultural education and communication is crucial.
3) Discuss the article on “Literacy Reform in the Middle East.” Provide examples from the reading.
This article once again endorses the point we discussed a few weeks ago: literacy is a reform that can substantially improve the country in all aspects.
“A more educated citizenry is integral to building industrial and agricultural labor forces, improving public health, and increasing political freedom… workers with a basic education demonstrate more innovative tendencies and greater productivity…literate mothers are better able to access resources related to nutrition, contraception, and medicine, thereby decreasing child mortality, lowering population growth rates…literate mothers are better able to access resources related to nutrition, contraception, and medicine, thereby decreasing child mortality, lowering population growth rates” (Page 2 ).
This passage points to the vital role that better-educated citizens play in the industrial and agricultural workforce, public health, political freedoms, innovation, productivity, child survival, and population control. It is definitely more than that. Literacy is really an indispensable skill for people in today’s modern society. Improving people’s literacy and literacy penetration rate can make an important contribution to the prosperity and sustainable development of the country.
4) Share your source on this topic–let us know what it is, why you selected it, and why it matters.
This video tells the story of Frank Gardner who witnessed his fellow photographers being killed by local terrorists in the Middle East. He was lucky to survive, but he still loves the Middle East. He recounted how he became a very good friend of a local Egyptian simply by asking for access to her house because he had never seen the inside of an Egyptian house. Frank became very good friends with the Egyptian owner and He told how he loved word games of Egyptian, and there was a crowd of people who welcomed him but treated him warmly. After watching this video, I feel that we should not have a negative attitude towards a certain group due to superficial incidents. Here I would like to quote a sentence from the comment below the video, which I think is very good. “There are some unpleasant people from every country in the world but generally most people in most countries are good.”
