Hi Ramzy.
That sounds like an interesting topic. Not sure you can change human tendency to want to colas with own kind. I can't imagine how you could ever have a discrimination free world. People discriminate for many reasons. Not all of them are bad:
1- To keep bloodlines in a familiar way or to protect a way of life. Any deviation in bloodlines can constitute a pariya outcome. What a community can not assimilate, it will destroy or ostracize. This type of discrimination can be honest and innocent as well outright evil. The differences can be based on appearance, way of dress, religion and political affiliation...etc. Whatever that difference might be, its almost always used by people in power throughout the ages to practice divide and conquer because hate can be blind and is the easiest emotion to manipulate.
2- For fear of what they don't know or what they can't understand. This is part of the reason why the USA setup concentration camps for Japanese (and almost everyone of oriental decent) during WW2 while not touching the German or Italian population. This type of discrimination can best describe the masses reaction to anyone of Arabic or Islamic decent.
3- For fear of losing something or having to share what you already have. The irrational hostility toward people of Mexican decent. They are here to take our jobs. They are here as a burden on the economy......
4- Human's lust or thirst for power. Slavery, multi-caste system in India and other parts of the world, futile ruling systems, and even deity cultures. Its all based on one group having some sort of divine or celestial position while others don't. Human history is full of such systems with the need to create them out of thin air. What is more interesting about this form of discrimination, within a closed systems are accepted and nurtured. It becomes a problem when two closed systems collide (Egypt, Rome, Maya, Aztec,...) with others.
5. Attribute based discrimination. Tall/short, fat/thin, blond/redhead, black/white/yellow/brown, young/old, man/woman.....are few examples. This one is very subtle and complex because it potentially touches all 4 elements of discrimination above.
But discrimination is one of these words that creates a life of its own. The word seems to inspire controversy by itself. As humans, we live our lives every minute by discriminating our actions and decisions. We could not survive life without it. So discrimination is not a bad thing. Prejudice is.
While living in America, have you or anyone you know experienced discrimination or intolerance? If so, how?
Yes and almost every day. I see the subtle type of "he is not from around here" in the way people treat you, to the polite "tiptoe because they don't know what to say as if I came from the moon, all the way through having stuff thrown at me from moving vehicles in the early eighties" I never had a violent situation, but always made sure to avoid being in such position. The problem with discrimination, you don't have to be attacked to feel bad. Its often the unconscious choices by others that makes you feel all alone. Repeated many times it can have a devastating effect on person's paranoia & psyche.
In a lot of ways, he's been an immense help on this project because he's easily reachable to bounce ideas off of, and based on his experience, can give a pretty complete picture of the scope of the issue. Some may think it's a cop-out to just talk to my dad about this stuff, but I've seen him as a constant source of inspiration.
I also spoke with a few other family members, friends, and complete strangers. I was actually very surprised how willing most people were to recommend people for me to speak with. Maria Buszek recommended an alum who performed a social experiment by wearing the hijab for a month, and recording how it changed people's perceptions of her. Her account of this change is chilling in its authenticity, and ability to articulate the problem from both points of view: both as an American, and as a perceived Arab (this student is not of Arabic descent). Also, through polling students and asking them to a) draw a stereotypical arab, and b) draw a map of the middle east and identify Iraq, I was able to gather some good empirical data to support my claim that most Americans know very little about the Arabic world. It's responses like this that make that undeniably true:
Even though I asked them to draw a stereotype of Arabs, the purpose was not to show how unintelligent the participants were, but rather to gather some data on what a common stereotype of Arabs is.
So through these various sources, as well as my own experience, I was able to glean a rich sense of the problem. But to a certain extent, the problem is apparent. The solution is the elusive part.
The train of thought that led me to my proposed solution began with this video that Morgan showed me of Anthony Bourdain going to Saudi Arabia and meeting other Arabs. She said that this video made her realize how similar we are as people, regardless of race or customs. It was this type of thinking that really led me to my conclusions in terms of being able to make tangible connections between disparate cultural groups.
So how can I phrase the immensity of this problem in a concise and coherent way?
And who do I want to affect?
I love the above image for its absolute stereotypical character. I think it underscores the problem with stereotypes as being representative of an entire people. Do you know anyone like this? Is this representative of America? Then how are terrorists representative of the Middle East?
It's quite Utopian to believe that design has the power to reverse this problem, but I firmly believe it at least deserves an attempt. But how can this change be measured?
While living in America, have you or anyone you know experienced discrimination or intolerance? If so, how?
Yes and almost every day. I see the subtle type of "he is not from around here" in the way people treat you, to the polite "tiptoe because they don't know what to say as if I came from the moon, all the way through having stuff thrown at me from moving vehicles in the early eighties" I never had a violent situation, but always made sure to avoid being in such position. The problem with discrimination, you don't have to be attacked to feel bad. Its often the unconscious choices by others that makes you feel all alone. Repeated many times it can have a devastating effect on person's paranoia & psyche.
In a lot of ways, he's been an immense help on this project because he's easily reachable to bounce ideas off of, and based on his experience, can give a pretty complete picture of the scope of the issue. Some may think it's a cop-out to just talk to my dad about this stuff, but I've seen him as a constant source of inspiration.
I also spoke with a few other family members, friends, and complete strangers. I was actually very surprised how willing most people were to recommend people for me to speak with. Maria Buszek recommended an alum who performed a social experiment by wearing the hijab for a month, and recording how it changed people's perceptions of her. Her account of this change is chilling in its authenticity, and ability to articulate the problem from both points of view: both as an American, and as a perceived Arab (this student is not of Arabic descent). Also, through polling students and asking them to a) draw a stereotypical arab, and b) draw a map of the middle east and identify Iraq, I was able to gather some good empirical data to support my claim that most Americans know very little about the Arabic world. It's responses like this that make that undeniably true:
Even though I asked them to draw a stereotype of Arabs, the purpose was not to show how unintelligent the participants were, but rather to gather some data on what a common stereotype of Arabs is.
So through these various sources, as well as my own experience, I was able to glean a rich sense of the problem. But to a certain extent, the problem is apparent. The solution is the elusive part.
The train of thought that led me to my proposed solution began with this video that Morgan showed me of Anthony Bourdain going to Saudi Arabia and meeting other Arabs. She said that this video made her realize how similar we are as people, regardless of race or customs. It was this type of thinking that really led me to my conclusions in terms of being able to make tangible connections between disparate cultural groups.
So how can I phrase the immensity of this problem in a concise and coherent way?
And who do I want to affect?
I love the above image for its absolute stereotypical character. I think it underscores the problem with stereotypes as being representative of an entire people. Do you know anyone like this? Is this representative of America? Then how are terrorists representative of the Middle East?
It's quite Utopian to believe that design has the power to reverse this problem, but I firmly believe it at least deserves an attempt. But how can this change be measured?
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