While studying abroad in Spain this summer, I was able to pick out my fellow Americans for the sore red-white-and-blue thumbs they were.
Americans were loud and obnoxious in the cathedrals and mosques, while everyone else was subdued. They spoke English louder when the waiters did not understand them. Capitalism exuded from them like a body odor, leaving those in their wake pinching their noses from the stench of travelers’ checks and greenbacks, when peseta was the more widely used currency.
Americans expect the world to adjust to the “American way,” and it takes a rude awakening — like the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 — to rouse us from our continual sleepwalking over other cultures. Why else did the multi-faith service at the National Cathedral hold so much meaning in the days following the attacks?
Yet, in the hazy daze of the mourning light, ignorance still takes hold of the conscious thoughts of some.
America’s greatest defense is the ignorance of her citizens; hate crimes are, indeed, born out of the ignorance of uneducated people. Hate crimes infringe upon the civil liberties of other Americans.
When a brick is thrown through a window of the Taj Mahal, it is a cowardly act which proves nothing. As King Lear would say, “Nothing becomes of nothing.” America made no gains from the broken glass. In fact, She lost something, because one of Her children’s liberties were recklessly taken into disregard.
But ignorance is not limited to hate crimes or those without degrees. It is found everyday on the Ohio State campus—and from sea to shining sea.
Ignorance can be found whenever the term “towel head” is muttered, just as it was when the generation before us incorporated the term “gook” into their vocabulary during the Vietnam War.
Stupidity, evoked from fear, is what prompts people to suggest that all Muslims and Arab-Americans should be held in an area until things get figured out. It is as poor of an idea now as it was when we subjected Japanese- and Asian-Americans to prejudice during World War II.
If our fountain of knowledge only runs to the depth where the term “sand nigger” springs forth, then we are as shallow in our perception of those from the Middle East as our ancestors were in their views of Native Americans as “savages” and “red devils.”
Ignorance is a choice, and bigotry is an evolution. Making the choice to belittle or hate a culture in the name of patriotism is a warped idea and misplaced loyalty.
Making the choice to remain ignorant now, creating further stereotypes and prejudices, sets up the next generation to succeed—for it will mean we failed to change our world, starting with our minds.
Monica Torline is a senior in journalism. You can reach her at [email protected].
