Anna Carter

Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
Middle Eastern Cultural Immersion

I attended an event at Western Kentucky University hosted by the Saudi Student

Organization. At the event, Middle Eastern immigrants and students gathered to listen to an

immigration lawyer give advice, and listen to a law student, Miriam Ball, explain their rights in

regard to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I talked to Miriam about her experiences as a

Middle Eastern woman on the drive to and from WKU. I also attended a lecture at a Louisville

synagogue where University of Louisville Arabic professor, Khaldoun Almousily, taught the

basics of Islam. I chose these events because I have little experience with Middle Eastern people

and I have limited knowledge about Islam. With the recent political climate, I believe it is

important to be educated and stand in solidarity with groups who are targeted and feel

unwelcome.

While it is useful to group Middle Eastern people together when discussing identity and

group experiences, it is also important to acknowledge that different nationalities and ethnicities

still exist within Middle Eastern people, creating cultural differences within the group. Professor

Almousily made this clear in his presentation when he was asked about the dress of Muslim

women. Some women wear black niqabs because they grew up in more conservative

communities, while other women wear only the hijab, or other women wear no head covering.

The Qur'an talks of modesty for both men and women, and it is a misconception that all Muslim

women are oppressed because of the hijab. Both Christianity and Judaism feature headcoverings

for women (a nuns habit, Jewish womens tichel), but neither of those religions are stereotyped

as regressive or oppressive. These differences in dress and custom illustrate that generalizations

of a large group of people often do not hold true and there are many exceptions. However, for the
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
sake of this paper, I will be using some generalizations I learned of many Middle Eastern

peoples experiences.

Because a large majority of Middle Eastern people are Muslim, the religion of Islam is

racialized. This creates specific experiences that Muslims of another ethnicity may not

experience. Middle Eastern people are often stereotyped as terrorists, untrustworthy, or savages.

These stereotypes can be seen in movies such as Aladdin, American Sniper, and Back to the

Future. These stereotypes contribute to the microaggressions and other discriminatory actions

Middle Eastern people face everyday. One form of a microaggression is the assumption that

Muslims and Muslim organizations are expected to publicly apologize after terror attacks are

committed in the name of Islam. The #NotInMyName hashtag, started by British, Muslim youth

denouncing ISIS, demonstrates the pervasiveness of this expectation, and the extremes to which

Muslims must go to distance themselves from the stereotypes assigned to them.

At the meeting with the Saudi Student Organization at WKU, many of the attendees were

international students from Saudi Arabia or other Middle Eastern countries. Being an

international student presents challenges of its own. As identified in Kim and Kims

Microaggressions Experienced by International Students Attending U.S. Institutions of Higher

Education, international students can experience judgement from peers and instructors based on

their accent, suffer assumptions of nationality and ethnicity, lack proper assistance to acclimatize

to a new culture, and be subject to insensitivity toward international perspectives and events.

This last microaggression is particularly impactful toward students from the Middle East because

of the turmoil in some countries in that region, and the often uneducated and biased opinions of

American students and instructors. Americans tend to forget that U.S. foreign policy has harmed
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
Muslims and Middle Eastern people, too, instead focusing on the actions of other agents like

terrorist groups. Assumption of nationality and ethnicity impacts international Middle Eastern

students and instructors as well. Professor Almousily told a story at the synagogue of being

mistaken for a Mexican immigrant at Walmart. However, Professor Almousily explained that

even when people correctly identify him as Middle Eastern, he is treated rudely and with

suspicion at public places and institutions.

In addition to being a racial and religious minority within the U.S., Middle Eastern

people are often immigrants. Miriam Ball helped explained to me some of the challenges Middle

Eastern immigrants face. International students must travel back to their home country every

year to renew their visa, or risk being deported and unable to finish their education. Documented

immigrants with green cards must navigate through an expensive and stressful web of

paperwork, bureaucracy, and American xenophobia to obtain their documented status.

Undocumented immigrants are left with few resources in an increasingly hostile climate, and

often come to the U.S. due to instability and danger in their home countries. These overlapping

identities and specific needs represent the complex nature of learning about new cultures and

people. It would be impossible for me to address the identity of every Muslim, every Middle

Eastern person, every international student, or every immigrant.

The driving factor of intolerance and hatred toward different ethnic and religious groups

of people is ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism, as defined by Donald Brown in Ethnicity and

Ethnocentrism: Are They Natural?, is a preference for ones own kind and their ways. In the

U.S., the ingroup is Western culture and white people of European descent. The issue present in

the U.S., however, is that it is a pluralistic nation. As such, symptoms of ethnocentric thinking as
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
identified by Brown like ingroup bias, loss of objectivity, and lack of empathy toward the

outgroup, create tension between ethnic and racial groups. The customs, appearance, and ways of

the outgroup are often mocked, feared, or unfairly legislated. For example, speaking Arabic in an

airport creates undeserved fear and hatred from other passengers and security agents. The

building of mosques is often protested in predominantly Christian neighborhoods. People leave

pig heads outside Islamic community centers in an effort to intimidate and mock. Trumps travel

ban, though now struck down, targeted Muslim countries. Ethnocentrism is a pervasive force that

can be difficult to break down. When you make a specific effort to interact with people of a

different culture, however, it is easier to connect and empathize with people who are different.

After the event at WKU, the Saudi Student Organization served Middle Eastern style tea

and coffee. When I politely declined the coffee, one of the leaders of the SSO insisted that I try

the tea. I felt apprehensive to interact and talk to other people, especially since I was the only

person there who was not Middle Eastern and had not studied Arabic. Despite my lack of

knowledge, people were still happy to talk to me and share their culture and customs. When we

went out to lunch, the Saudi students were insistent on buying appetizers, entrees, and desserts

for our whole group, a Middle Eastern custom to provide guests with plenty of food. During the

presentation, when Professor Almousily would make a joke in Arabic, he would explain it in

English as well, inviting us to join in the idiosyncrasies of the language. When Professor

Almousily was giving the presentation about Islam at the synagogue, he invited friends from

different Middle Eastern countries to attend in different styles of traditional dress to remove the

fear that comes with seeing something different than our norms. He even began his presentation

with a story about how he had been raised to dislike and distrust Americans and Jewish people,
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
yet had realized the mistake in this way of thinking. The ability to humanize and relate to people

of different cultures is the most effective way to overcome ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is not

an American phenomenon, but the multicultural nature of the United States makes ethnocentrism

a very dangerous and limiting value.

Due to ethnocentrism, many Muslims and Middle Eastern people feel pressured to

assimilate into American culture. Assimilation as defined by Sam and Berry in Acculturation:

When Individuals and Groups of Different Cultural Backgrounds Meet is a phase of

acculturation in which individuals try to distance themselves from their cultural identity. Muslim

women may choose not to wear the hijab out of fear, Middle Eastern people may attempt to

adopt an American accent, they may dress in Western styles and avoid traditional clothing, they

may avoid speaking Arabic in public, or choose to skip some of their daily prayers while at

school or work. Assimilation is often considered a success by native-born Americans, but many

Middle Eastern people would consider it a loss or even betrayal to their religion or family. While

acclimatizing to a new culture and country is important, assimilation often rejects ones cultural

identity in favor of the norms of a different culture.

While microaggressions, ingroup/outgroup dynamics, and ethnocentrism can often seem

abstract, there are very concrete and serious effects that make life more difficult for Middle

Eastern people, especially immigrants. Because of events like 9/11 and the Paris attack in 2015,

Islamophobia puts Muslims in danger of being harassed and attacked. This January, a mosque in

Texas was set on fire. In the same month, six Muslims were killed during a mass shooting at a

mosque in Quebec. Though not motivated by Islamophobia, the February shooting of two Indian

men in a Kansas bar was motivated by a hatred of immigrants. These sentiments have only been
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
fanned by the Trump administration. The entire reason for the event hosted by the Saudi Student

Organization was to discuss the travel ban created by the Trump administration. While I attended

a rally to protest Trumps travel ban in January, it was hard to conceptualize the tangible impact

this travel ban had on Middle Eastern immigrants lives. The event at WKU made this

frighteningly clear. Hearing question after question of Can I visit my family? and Can I still

go to school here? answered with No, No, I dont know, was very sobering. Trumps

rhetoric and policy has made it so much more difficult for international Middle Eastern students

to gain an education, for Middle Eastern immigrants to enjoy a life where they are treated with

respect and compassion, and for Muslims to be protected under the law like everyone else.

My immersion experiences demonstrated to me the privilege I have being born a U.S.

citizen and belonging to a culturally Christian family. I never had to worry how I would apply to

college, whether I would need to learn a new language to attend higher education, whether or not

I would be pulled over and asked for papers, whether somebody would mock and harass me for

my religious attire or traditional dress, or whether my family would be targeted for their

ethnicity. I can fly internationally without worrying that I will be stopped by security, teachers

never stumble over my name or try to shorten it for me. When I turned sixteen I went and applied

for a drivers license, when I was born I was given a social security number. Service workers

smile at me and treat me politely, my familys place of worship is never vandalized or protested

against. There are so many everyday things that I take for granted as a white, culturally

Christian, U.S. citizen. These little privileges make my life run smoothly, with no hiccups.

Society was built for me to succeed in these areas, because I am in many aspects what Beverly

Tatum calls in her book, Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria, the mythical
Anna Carter
Immersion Paper
HON 322-01
Brian Buford
norm. Interacting with the people who arent supposed to succeed and do not fit the mythical

norm demonstrates the true inequality and ethnocentrism that U.S. institutions enforce.

Ultimately, the multicultural nature of the United States requires people to put aside their

biases and seek to understand those who differ from them. Some Americans are not up to this

task and may never grow beyond ethnocentrism. However, I truly believe that experiencing a

culture through personal connections with others has the ability to set in motion positive

multicultural exchanges. I will continue to attend events hosted by Muslims and Middle Eastern

people to support their causes, and educate others in my life about misconceptions surrounding

this group. In the end, what struck me the most about my immersion experience was the joy I

witnessed when culture was shared. The skills and concepts I have learned in this class were put

into practice during my immersion experience, and demonstrated the value of cultivating

multicultural relationships.