The Argonaut

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: News

Ali Ferdowsi

A new light was shed on the Middle Eastern culture at NDNU on Sept. 13 with a presentation led by Dr. Ali Ferdowsi.

Ferdowsi's lecture focused on the racist perceptions of Middle Easterners held by Americans after the 9/11 bombing of U.S. landmarks. Americans have begun to group all Middle Easterners together in a single category under "enemy" and have lost the ability to distinguish between the terrorists and people of Middle Eastern descent.

One of the main causes of this racism is in the fact that Americans do not seem to realize they are even being racist, Ferdowsi said. Even if we have close friends that are of Middle Eastern decent, we tend to separate him or her from the "rest" of the Middle Easterners.

Having a relationship with someone of a certain culture does not change the views on that culture, he said, leaving behind an unbreakable trail of prejudice.

This unbreakable prejudice toward the Middle Eastern community also holds up even against proven facts and statistics. Ferdowsi said, "Many Arabs living in the United States are not even Muslim; they're Christian. And many Muslims do not even look Middle Eastern, yet the racism is still there."

Ferdowsi's lecture also included his thoughts on United States foreign policy. The United States government bases a lot of its decisions on foreign issues on their predetermined racist views, creating policies that have "an element of racism" within them.

The government is able to get support for its foreign policies with the aid of the media. He said ever since the 9/11 attacks, the media has continued to show Middle Eastern civilians in a negative light.

"Middle Easterners are the same people they were before the 9/11 attacks, but because of racism, Americans cannot see the situation objectively," Ferdowsi said. "They don't understand that the people of the Middle East relate to American's pain and suffering."

Ferdowsi said he believes that it is important that college students understand the racism that is present within our environment and wants to be a part of creating a happier, more peaceful world.

"At this moment in history, your generation has to overcome psychological and cultural baggage. I want my students to live in a world where we don't have to blow people up" said Ferdowsi.

And once we as a community can learn to see past the appearance of our neighbors, we might actually be able to achieve that goal.

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