Race: A Social Construct That Divides Critical Thinking Example

Arab Americans trace their origin in the Arab countries that have diverse cultures and religion. Some of these countries are Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Lybia, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates among many others. In terms of population, Arab Americans in the United States of America are more than 1,600,000 according to the 2010 US Census. Moreover, while majority of the Arab countries are Muslim in religion, Arab Americans are largely Christians. They are immigrants who historically experienced discrimination in all aspects of life. They are discriminated in terms of color, labor, religion, and education.
In movies, Arabs are portrayed as terrorists, Muslims who are going on Jihad or holy war that gives justice to the suicide bombers. This portrayal in movies and in other literatures gave the American population a judgment that Arab Muslim terrorists were responsible of bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City. Also, in 1996, the race was again implicated when the TWA Flight 800 exploded in midair off the coast of Long Island. These and many other incidents being thrown to Arabs planted hatred among the Americans that is intensified by misrepresentation in media.
During the 9/11 attack in the World Trade Center, hatred grew stronger causing hate crimes against Arab Americans. Painful statement are spewed like “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?” The discriminatory portrayal was even institutionalized leading all young White Americans to hate with no reason their Arab American classmates or neighbors. In the 21st century, we should not anymore proliferate these inhumane treatments towards our Arab American brothers and sisters. We should be living in a world where every human being thrives no matter what his race is because race is just a social construct that is being use to divide us. It is use to spread the wrong notion of having a stronger or perfect race.