YouTube Analysis: The Muslim On The Airplane

Name: Institution: Course Code: Date: The Muslim on the airplane Amal Kassir delivers a riveting talk on stereotyping of Muslim community in the United States in her TED talk titled ‘The Muslim on the Airplane.’ She addresses the American community on how they have generalized Muslims and alienated them while in fact, they are American. Through describing the harrowing experiences some Muslims are subjected to by fellow Americans, she raises awareness on how the community has trained itself to see and perceive others who have a different faith from our own and the dangers that come with it. She repeatedly and rhetorically asks the audience ‘how would anyone know this without asking?’ She shares her story about her traveling tips and how she takes mints on a long flight to avoid bad breath. Inflight, when she shares her mints with her fellow passengers, they seem to see her in a new light unconsciously and not a potential threat to their safety. She jokes that her strategy is ‘successful’ when her neighbor turns to asks her, her name. She pegs her talk on the importance of asking people their name and possibly having a conversation because it will uncover more information about them and possibly challenge your misconceptions about them. This argues that the society has continuously branded and alienated one of their own and assigned attributes to them undeservedly. She points out that we do not ask people for their name but rather assign it to them based on our judgment about them. We place them where we think they belong and we do not care to ask them who they are or take time to know them. She narrates the pain of living with a label that despite her best efforts to be a good citizen, has been part of her life. She believes she is more than what people assign her as a Muslim woman wearing a hijab. Her name changes depending on the location, at the airport, ‘random search,’ on the streets, ‘terrorist,’ on the news, ‘ISIS, Jihadi, Hijabist,’ and her mother is often told ‘go back to your country’ while she indeed hails from Iowa. These ugly labels cannot be further from the true character and nature of the person and the alienate Americans like herself in her country. The very people who years ago left their countries to settle in a foreign land had the same status of most asylum seekers today who have flooded many western countries running from wars in their countries. The motives of departure might have been pull factors, and they do not have the moral authority to demonize those fleeing their countries due to push factors. She puts up a picture of the seemingly happy white family to demonstrate that the very people who are blocking new asylum seekers are also foreigners. She uses some pictures to demonstrate how herself and those of her ethnic origin and religion have been subjected to unwarranted discrimination. She narrates a story of how a young couple’s dream was cut short by a person who walked into their home and shot them shortly after they had wedded. She asserts that the killer, Craig Hicks, assigned a name to his three victims and judged that they were a potential threat to himself and his community. He cut three lives short because of his unfounded fears and misc...