This isn’t fair, I worked too hard on this paper. I spent countless nights studying this dumbass topic. Who the hell cares about the fall of the Roman Empire? It fell! It’s 2018, this doesn’t benefit my generation at all. You gave Sandy a 90 and she barely met the requirements, you said we had to type a 2,000 word essay, double spaced, 12-point font, and in mla format. She didn’t even make it to half of the word requirements and her layout was a mess. I started this the day it was assigned and continued to do research along the way. She even told me she started Saturday when you gave us 3 weeks to do this. You even put the “no exceptions, all late work will receive a zero” in bold red letters at the top of the paper where we had to sign our names. She turned it yesterday, it was due Saturday!

This isn’t the first time you handed out A’s to those who don’t deserve it and you still, somehow, find it okay to give low grades to students who do exceptional work and exceed many of your expectations, which, might I add, are very low expectations. What do you think, we’re dumb? Anyways, you did the same thing with Bobby when he wrote his essay on the importance of religion. You did the same thing with Sameera when she wrote about the justice system and how the name itself contradicts itself when it comes to a certain race *cough* african americans. You did the same thing with James when he had to make a report about global warming. And funny thing is, they all happen to be of darker toned skin.

Look, all I’m saying is Sandy is a very light person with very wealthy parents who somehow got her into Harvard who you happen to be very close with. I mean, why else would she invite you to dinner on the holidays? I however, got a full ride here based on my hard work and nearly flawless assignments. All of them, beautifully written in its own existence. So, professor Bower, I am asking you to consider changing my grade. I’m tired of asking for extra credit, I’m tired of staying up late when you clearly seem to think it doesn’t benefit my work at all, I’m tired of raising my hand in class only to be ignored and shunned by your ignorance, I’m tired of you letting Sandy think she’s on my level, and I am sick and tired of your race preference. We’re all students here at Harvard. White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, you’re going to have to deal with your stereotypes of these brilliant students being shattered by reality. Education does not belong to one race, and your racism does not belong here.

You and I both know I didn’t deserve this 90, the least I should’ve gotten was a 98, nothing less. Sandy continues to think she’s up to par with me and you let her believe it. She even asked once if I could study with her, I don’t even think she could grasp any of my studying strategies.

You are a weak minded man and you’re cheating the educational system with your favoritism and your prejudice against us black people. You continue to ignore our intelligence and look to the whites for someone to thank when we do something exceptional. As I once had to, learn to equally love each race as their own and learn to make an attempt to put aside the stereotypes and give credit when it’s due. Now can you please change my grade, you’re ruining my record.

The teacher begins to teach her lesson on propaganda and its influence in society. She shows us 3 videos on how the different aspects of it trigger different ideas. Of course, the first one triggered emotional ideas and it had to be a film on the poverty in Africa. I felt several pairs of eyes burning into the side of my face. Here we go.

How the media portrays the living situations and lifestyles of Africans is a very inaccurate, yet vivid image. They painted us as the lowliest and the loneliest. We’re seen as anorexic, dirty, needy, and uncared for people in a neglectful society. When you think of Africa, your mind redirects to wild animals roaming around the village and little kids in minimal clothing. Or a medical station with cots all pushed together while the cameraman zooms into the little boy, his bones defining his body and his sweat matching his mother’s tears. Or better yet, a short documentary of a little African girl walking 5 miles to her only source of water, with healing feet that get the same recurring cuts everyday due to lack of shoes.

“With only a dollar a day dramatic pause, zooms in on stomach of hungry child, sad music gets louder we can help feed all the starving children in Africa.” I hate this, why do we have to listen to this bullshit bs? Can a dollar a day help educate this woman? Sheesh. Why is it that this is so easy to believe? But God forbid it be true that kids can grow up stable, have an amazing childhood and never fear for food not being on their dinner table. That education is provided, that clean water exists, and that they walk from place to place in shoes, and still are raised in Africa.

I hear someone across the room make a smart remark, “Do they even have clean water?” I take it upon myself to raise my voice and say “Yes,” head turning as fast as my soundwaves reach the ear of the imbecile. Turning back around slowly, sharing a glare and an eye roll with them and their peer. Mainstream media and their lies leave a permanent mark in the heads of the close minded. There are many places all over the world that lack proper distribution of food and resources. Why is it that they choose to bash Africa? Even if it were true, that Africans have very limited resources, why do people make fun of it? Poverty must be funny right? Where does the term African booty scratcher even come from? When you surround yourself with lies, you end up sounding just as foolish as the person behind them. Yes, some parts of Africa suffer from severe poverty, but so do many other places around the globe. Didn’t we learn that many countries in Africa were raided by invaders because of their resources and goods? Or did that history lesson jump over your head and all you got from it was enslavement?

To be African has several different definitions. Either you embrace the fact that your ancestors were slaves or indulge in the greatness that you and/or your parents are African immigrants. My parents with their Ivorian and Malian blood makes me genetically apart of two countries in West Africa. As a family, we’re all gracefully allowed to take pride in being bilingual, or so in my parents case, multilingual. Growing up African was never something to take pride in. To continuously be ridiculed by a bunch of uneducated nuisances, for being different and an outsider had a lot of cons to it, barely any pros. I wasn’t known as Hawa, I was known as an African booty scratcher who isn’t familiar with clean water and buildings as if I built huts in my free time. I didn’t consider this as bullying and I still don’t. This was a time in my life where I was forced to find the beauty in where I come from, because I am who I am and no matter the negative and biased opinions that come with it, the pride I take in my African blood is far greater than the irrelevant and ignorant comments deriving from a sad soul.

My topic for my you and the world project is Islamophobia and I touched on what it was and how it affects the community we live in for my previous two slate posts. For my agent of change, I had a hard time deciding on what to do because I can’t easily and magically make this issue disappear regardless of how bad I want it to. Islamophobia is a very popular topic and very serious issue that continues to spread rapidly. For me to decide on what to do, I had to think about what the main cause of Islamophobia is. Through my research, I found out that big anti-islam corporations/organizations pay and bribe other big organizations with money to provide falsified accusations of Muslims to people through mainstream media. But how would I expose these organizations and get this information out with evidence supporting it? Since my first slate post, I stumbled upon an anti-islamophobic organization called The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is an organization on the rise, trying to put an end to Islamophobia. What better organization to partner up with? My best shot at making a change and trying to put a stop to Islamophobia is to partner up with an organization like CAIR, and since I’m already in contact with a member there, I chose this one in particular. How can I make a difference? I decided that since I love writing so much, I would write an article for their articles page, exposing these organizations and proposing ways to better our world from being Islamophobic while educating some on the topic as well. Their website brings many eyes and if I can get a message out, I would be able to successfully inform people on the real reason behind Islamophobia.

photo photo

Although I have reached out to CAIR, they are a very busy organization so for them to review it and the process of putting my article on their website could not happen on time especially considering the debate they’re probably having about a freshman writing for their website. The link to my article is also here if you want to give it a look.

Photo:  http://www.missionislam.com/discover/basic.htm

Growing up as a Muslim, I get to experience the bias towards my people and our religion first hand. One time, I was at the Mosque (a place where Muslims go to worship god) and I was located in the women’s area while my brother, cousin, and dad were in the men’s area. After everyone in the Mosque prayed, we were all about to go home when a non Muslim man came into the building screaming at all of us telling us that we are brainwashed terrorists. He said that he doesn’t blame us for being that way, he blamed god. Now I’m not sure if he was an atheist or just believed that Muslims worshipped a different god from everyone else, but what he said made me realize how people actually viewed me based off of the piece of cloth I wear on my head. My parents spent their parenthood making sure my siblings and I were proud of who were and to always believe deeply in our religion no matter what society had to say about it. I chose to write about this topic specifically because I need to know more about islamophobia. I need to know what made people hate me and fear me because of my religion. I know my religion, I know that it’s based on peace, mercy, and humbleness. The media and society want to believe that Muslims are such bad people destined on earth to destroy everyone’s lives. My question is, why?

This picture represents society blaming the Muslim girl.

photo: https://missmuslim.nyc/islamophobia-not-medical-condition/

Another photo representing the little Muslim girl as the “blame”

photo: http://eltecolote.org/content/en/features/surviving-the-new-terrorism-islamophobia/

One of the main reasons why islamophobia is on the rise is because of Donald Trump. Aside from calling for a ban on Muslims entering the the United States, Trump has said that “Islam hates us,” and accused American Muslims of protecting terrorists. Trump is president, and a lot of citizens actually listen to and take in his arrogant remarks, reporters find that hate crimes towards Muslims increase as Trump shades them publicly and feeds false information into the brains of his supporters. In America alone, 48% of incidents are Muslim bias incidents, the highest percentage out of any other type of incident. From July 1 to September 30 of 2017, The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 753 reports of potential anti-Muslim bias incidents. The top five trigger factors of a Muslim is their ethnicity/national origin, headscarf/hijab, if they are perceived as a Muslim, place of worship, and other Muslim activity such as praying. In return for simply being a Muslim, we receive abuse such as hate crimes, harassment, employment issues, CBP harassment at airports, and sometimes FBI harassment. All we do is worship god and have different beliefs than other religions. By different beliefs, I don’t mean how islamophobic people see us or how Trump sees us, I mean that we believe in our prophets and the words of Allah.

Society wants to believe so hard that Muslims are the blame for every terrorist act. People are individual, they do what they want and it just has to reflect on their people and what they stand for. One dark toned person could rob a store and all black people are cheap and dangerous thugs who god forbid cross paths with an old lady, they might mug her. One lightly toned person could shoot a bunch of innocents and every white person is a sensitive school shooter who god forbid ever gets upset with anyone, they might kill them. One person with a headscarf or kufi could bomb a building and all Muslims are terrorists who god forbid ever cross paths with non Muslims, they might kill their entire family. Biases are everywhere, but it is an individual’s job to believe what they want, but it’s my job to portray the image of my people, the real image.

The statue of liberty is holding this Muslim girl showing her that she is welcomed and is not how society portrays her.

photo:

http://affinitymagazine.us/2017/03/04/my-experience-with-islamophobia-as-an-american-muslim/

Check out the link to my annotated bibliography..

     The criticism I got from my classmates for my slide didn’t impact me as much as the criticism Ms. Hull gave me. I didn’t want to continue on with the theme I had but I did it anyways. My slide was a very spread out collage that I had no confidence in presenting in front of the class. Ms. Hull told me that if I wanted to make a collage then go for it. I had to get rid of the white spaces and “make people look at everything at once”. Those are exactly the changes I made.

     I stuck to the composition video on youtube that explained how pictures should intersect at the four intersecting points and the slide tutorial video that explained how important pictures are in a presentation as my sources. There is a numerous amount of different pictures explaining different things that all tie to one main topic.

     My slide may or may not have improved but this time I have a little bit more confidence in myself. I learned that slide making takes time and effort and the smallest things are actually a big deal. From the videos and websites I gained much knowledge on how to make my slide better in the future. I thank these videos and the people behind the voice overs, but most importantly, Ms.Hull.

My slide is all about my religion, Islam. Islam is a monotheistic religion where Muslims believe that there is no god but Allah and Muhammed is his messenger. We mostly practice peace but all of Allah’s teachings and beliefs are written down in the Holy Quran (scripture of Islam) in Arabic and translated to english in some Qurans. Muslims believe that there are 5 things that can get you into heaven, the five pillars of Islam. Shahada, believing that there is no God but Allah and Muhammed is his messenger. Salat, performing the 5 daily prayers every single day. Zakat, which is basically giving money to charity or providing needs for the less fortunate as a whole. Sawm, fasting in the month of Ramadan. The last one is Hajj, making pilgrimage to Mecca, the best place to go repent for your sins.

     Muslims are only supposed to celebrate one holiday and one holiday only, Eid. Eid is celebrated twice a year, right after Ramadan is over, and almost a month or 2 after that. Ramadan consists of fasting for 30 days for the purpose of the homeless. We sacrifice food during this month and it’s the holiest month for Muslims and a lot of minor sins are forgiven during this time.