Make America Welcoming Again
“Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
New Colossus sonnet, Emma Lazarus
On November 8th, 2016, I went to bed late after I had been following the news all night to find out who was going to be the next president of the United States. By the time I went to bed, it had almost been confirmed that Donald Trump was going to be the president. At that time, I was teaching at a private Muslim school. The morning after the election day was such an unusual day at school. Students were very scared of the election results and the consequences that might follow. Teachers were not able to have normal classroom instruction as our students kept expressing their fears all day. While the field of education speaks of inclusivity and equity, it is rare to hear from teachers working with youth of marginalized faith traditions. Thus, this piece adds my reflections as a Muslim teacher working with Muslim youth in the time of Trump. This is significant to deepen our conversations beyond ephemeral calls for social justice which are still centered within a monocultural lens.
To get a feel for students’ concerns, thoughts, and feelings, I will share a few examples from the days immediately after the election. One of my fifth grade students was afraid that Trump would deport her and her family, even though she was born in the United States. Some students were worried about their parents’ safety, especially students whose mothers cover their hair because they could be easily identified as Muslims. One student told me that she felt disappointed because of the election results. I tried to encourage her by telling everyone in the classroom that, one day, they can run for president and change things for the better. Many of them were discouraged and said that no one would vote for them because they were Muslims. It was sad to see our young learners feeling rejected because of their faith.
Many of them mentioned that their parents were seriously thinking about moving to Canada or other countries. The majority of the students were born and raised in the United States. Many of their parents were also born and raised in the United States. They are Americans by all means. However, they were afraid of their new president because they thought he hated Muslims. They were afraid because of all the hate speech people heard from the president during his campaign. He called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Muslims are not a group of people from the same ethnicity, race, color, or country. Muslims are people from all over the world with different cultures, ethnicities and colors. Islam is a faith, not a race. You cannot ban a faith from entering the United States. People can practice any religion they want or no religion at all. Soon after he became the president, Trump banned people from some Muslim countries from entering the United States.
Unfortunately, this approach of making Muslims appear like they are not part of America has a dangerous impact not only on Muslim adults but also on children and youth in schools. A lot of Muslim students experience prejudice and discrimination in schools because of their religion (Goforth et al., 2017). In April 2019, a Muslim female student was attacked in a high school in New Jersey. The mayor of the city called it a “bias incident” but not to the level of a hate crime (Horton, 2019). The Muslim student was beaten and spit on in the school cafeteria. It was video taped and posted on Snapchat, allegedly by the perpetuator. Despite all that, both students were punished even though the Muslim student was the one who was attacked. This is one of many examples of discrimination coming from classmates. Unfortunately, sometimes teachers are also involved.
In Arizona, an 11-year-old Muslim student was repeatedly discriminated against by his teacher who told him, "I can't wait until Trump is elected. He's going to deport all you Muslims" (NPR, 2017). It is shocking to know that an educator could say that to their students. A teacher is supposed to make their students feel welcomed, not hated. Teachers are the ones who should help their students and defend them when they face discrimination. They should not be the source of prejudice against their own students. When teachers have certain biases, they should not bring them to the classroom. They ought to treat their students fairly, regardless of what their own biases are.
These incidents have real consequences for Muslim youth and our communities. During the year I taught at a Muslim school, I met many parents and talked to them about their children’s academics. Many of them expressed fears about sending their children to public schools. They were afraid of what the children might face in public schools because of their religion. Eighth grade was the highest grade level at the school I was working in, and a few parents made the decision to homeschool their children for ninth grade because they were worried about sending them to a public high school. Their fear is coming from the frequent incidents of discrimination or violence against Muslim students they hear about on the media or from their social network. Sending students to Muslim schools might temporarily provide a shield from discrimination, but it will not protect Muslim students when they are interacting with people outside of the Muslim community. We need to find a more permanent solution.
One way to help decrease these types of incidents in our public schools is by teaching our educators about other cultures. Abu El-Haj (2006) states, “Educators are encouraged to learn about the cultural traditions, values, customs, and norms of the communities from which their students come to be able to interact with students and families in culturally appropriate ways (p. 23).” This way, educators could have a better understanding of their students’ cultures and where they came from. It would help teachers relate to their students more and come closer to them. School districts can also be proactive and help make educational opportunities frequently available for their teachers. In addition, schools could provide materials in their curricula that culturally represent Arabs, the Middle East, and Muslims (Saleem & Thomas, 2011; Schwartz, 2002). This way, students would feel included and welcomed in their schools. They would be able to see themselves in the curricular materials.
Introducing any group of people as foreign because of their color, race, ethnicity, and religion is a dangerous approach. It is a recipe for hatred and division in any society. Introducing certain groups as foreign allows the dominant group to make them look like enemies that they should protect their own people from. Once people see them as “the other,” it becomes easy to justify ways of keeping them away from the society. People might be more accepting of procedures against other groups since they would be seen as different and dangerous. We have seen it before with Japanese Americans during WWII. We still see it with different groups in America. We, the people, should not allow it. We should stand united against those who want to divide us and promote hatred among us, especially in our schools.
References
Abu El-Haj, T. R. (2006). Race, politics and Arab American youth: Shifting frameworks for conceptualizing educational equality. Educational Policy, 20(1), 13–34.
Goforth, A. N., Nichols, L. M., Stanick, C. F., Shindorf, Z. R., & Holter, O. (2017). School-based considerations for supporting arab american youths' mental health. Contemporary School Psychology, 21(3), 191-200. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40688-016-0117-7
Horton, A. (2019, April 12). A student attacked a Muslim classmate in ‘bias incident,’ mayor says. Both girls were punished. Washington post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com
Ochieng, A. (2017, March 29). Muslim schoolchildren bullied by fellow students and teachers. NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org
Saleem, M. M., & Thomas, M. K. (2011). The reporting of the September 11th terrorist attacks in American Social Studies textbooks: A Muslim perspective. The High School Journal, 95(1), 15–33. https://doi.org/10.1353/hsj.2011.0015
Schwartz, W. (2002). Arab American students in public schools, from http://www.adc.org/2002/04/arab-american-students-in-publicschools/
Sky News (2015, December 8). Trump calls for ban on Muslims entering the US [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLgTF8FrYlU
Biography
Ahmed Ahmed is a PhD student at Georgia State University. He studies Language and Literacy at the College of Education. He teaches English as a second language. He was a Fulbright Teacher of Arabic at Georgia State University. His areas of interest are intercultural communication, bilingualism, and working with Middle Eastern students in schools.