In today’s society, there are an unlimited amount of problems that go on, on a daily basis. Some may be little nuisances of problems, some may lead to death, some may have been lingering for years on end without any major solution. Many of these issues can be easily seen by the average person, and some go on behind the curtains and have not made rise yet. All these problems are issues that if you are “the problem”, you may be forced to hide your true self or you must put a fake persona on in different places because you are looked down on because of your skin, race, look and identity. These societal discriminations may make everyday life hard for the people who identify themselves in a way that is frowned upon to society.
An average Muslim American man walks into an airport to catch a flight to see his family in New Jersey, proud to be calling himself Muslim and a man who stands firm in what he believes in will be looked at up and down constantly and be made uncomfortable. Why? Because society has put a label, a negative identity on a religion, a belief. These scenarios happen daily not just to people who believe in being Muslim but, it happens to African Americans, Gays, Women, people with disabilities, etc. Me personally, I’m from a city by the name of Egg Harbor City, New Jersey, Camden, New Jersey, and Philidelphia. All places with high gang activity, drug distribution, violence, a place where people would call it “ghetto” or “the hood”. I use slang on an everyday basis, and I have no problem using it in public because that is just the way I speak, and I am a product of my environment in my own ways. Of course, I walk into a job interview and I will have my tattoos hidden and I will put on a fake persona in the way I talk and carry myself because the way I speak is wrong and incorrect to societies eyes.
The simple fact that I would have to do that doesn’t bother me as much because of the simple fact that the way I speak is not correct English. On the other hand, something that doesn’t sit well with me is I would have to switch up the way I carry myself. Which may be a good thing or a bad thing. If I were to meet someone in my work environment and I have my fake professional persona on and I run into that person the next day in a location rather than my work place than it would one, be weird two, be very unexpected and it would make me look bad. But in work I look good and I look professional. Over a long period of time hiding my true self from coaches, teachers, parents and job managers, it gets old. I just don’t feel like me when I’m in the certain environments where these people are. It’s really an uncomfortable situation.
I feel like there are two different groups of people that face societal demands and must hide their true selves, compared to letting themselves be free and expose their true selves to the societal world. One group is the African American culture and the other is Women, even though racism towards the African American culture isn’t as strong as it used to be there is still people who feel the need to hide their true selves in certain scenarios. It is hard to bring an example into play because I personally don’t feel the need to hide my side of being part African American in any scenario. There are two movies describing certain scenarios, one is called “Sorry to bother you” and “Hidden Figures”. “Hidden Figures” is about the first women to work for NASA and how she was frowned upon and it wasn’t “correct” to society. “Sorry to bother you”, is about a very talented black man who worked for a telemarketing company and is forced to use “his white voice”.
There should be certain period where these kinds of people should be protected by society because of the many years of hardships, “Group-based identity politics is not dead. As I have argued. I still believe in a group-based accommodation model for existing civil rights groups. This is in part because I believe we made a commitment to those groups to protect them from such covering demands.”- Kenji Yoshino.
Overall, these examples, quotes, and scenarios that I personally shared with you and hypothetically shared with you should give you a better understanding in how these groups of people feel daily. So maybe next time you see a Muslim man or women out in public greet them, speak with them, smile and wave. Have a conversation with any of these groups of people if seen in public, it goes a long way and it definitely would if someone were to do that to me.
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