After the invasion of Russians into Afghanistan, Baba and
many other Afghans start to hate the Russians for destroying and changing
Afghanistan. Baba’s hatred of Russians continues over in America. In one incidence,
Baba becomes very ill and has to go to the doctor and once he’s there he asks
the doctor where he is from. The doctor replies that his parents are Russian
which automatically sends Baba into frenzy as he demands to leave. Amir is
forced to find another doctor to help Baba because of Baba’s discrimination. It
is rather immature of Baba to act this way to every single Russian, as
realistically not all Russians took part in the destruction of Afghanistan.
Another example of racism
in the novel is the discrimination of Hazaras in Afghanistan. Hassan is a
Hazara and in Afghanistan they are considered an inferior group and because of
that Hassan becomes a victim of racism. He is bullied and raped because of his
cultural background and learns the hard way that he is not equal to Amir and
will never be equal. Their friendship eventually falls apart because of their
race difference.
It is a common thing to discriminate and blame a large group
of people for an incident that occurred with a small portion of that group. For
example, the Muslims are discriminated in America and other parts of the world
after 9/11 even though not all Muslims took part in the event. It is not fair
or right to blame a whole race for a couple of people’s evil doings as not all
of them took part in the incident or even in the decision making and planning
of the incident.
This book was a very insightful novel on racism. We don't normally hear about the Muslim's point of view when it comes to racism but rather the Islamophia racism that is prevalent in our North American culture. Islamophobia relates to the irrational fear of Muslims or Islam; acts of hates or prejudice against Muslims or the discrimination of Muslims. When this occurs one usually identifies the Muslims by their religion and treats them differently compared to others. The Islamophobic people have a constant mindset in which they believe they are superior to the people in the Eastern countries and are considered the "good" people.
ReplyDeleteAll of the examples that Emilia mentioned contributes to the process of othering. Otherness is used to refer to a person or thing that is different or distinct from one already mentioned or known about it. However, in every single one of these scenarios the people should not be stereotyping an entire group for a certain selection of people's actions. One must have time to understand a country's culture, religion, history and different points of view in order to comprehend where people are coming from.