It’s been 12 years since the attacks on the Twin Towers on Sept. 11 and one has to wonder if over those 12 years our relationship, and views, of people from the Middle East have gotten any better than they were on Sept. 12, 2001.
I was only in fourth grade at the time of the attack in New York City, but I wasn’t too young to understand the extreme racism that was happening throughout the country during this time. Like many people who grew up in small predominately white country towns, I was around racism throughout my childhood. However, what I began to see after these attacks was disgusting. People were calling for the U.S. to completely bomb the Middle Eastern countries off the map without even taking the time to understand which of the countries we were at war with. Sadly, there are still those people out there.
The questions is, has the view of Americans towards people from the Middle East any better than it was? I truly believe so. Don’t believe me? Just look around UTM.
We have students from all over the world here in Martin and a considerable amount of those students are from Middle Eastern countries, specifically Saudi Arabia.
I’ve been at UTM since the Fall of 2010 and over that time I have learned a lot of things about Middle Eastern culture that has helped me understand it better and helped me grow as a person. However, what impresses me most is the interaction I see between these students and American students. In my years here I have seen very few acts of racism or bigotry towards these students which is a complete opposite of what I saw from people following the towers being destroyed in New York.
Many will argue that the reason for the improved relationship is simply time. While I believe time helps, I think what has aided us in building our relationship with people from the Middle East is education.
When you are around these people for classes, live with them and eat with them you forge bonds, but more importantly you learn they are just like you. You become educated in the ways of a society that is one hand totally different from your own, but one the other very similar. One thing that is often lost is that regardless of sexuality, skin color, gender or nationality people are people. It’s such a simple concept, but it’s one sadly a lot of people fail to realize.
Is the relationship as good as it should be? Absolutely not. However, the progress that has been in the past 12 years provides hope for a very bright future.
