In the play, Back of
the Throat, the central theme is don’t judge a book by its cover. During the time after 9/11, it was easy
for people to be consumes with prejudices against Arab-Americans because people
felt unsafe. People feared Arab-Americans because they assumed they would all
be linked to 9/11. This play exemplifies the judgments people made against this
certain group during a time of great vulnerability in the United States. It is
easy for people to judge those who you cannot understand and have a very
different culture from the norm. But in this play, these judgments and
prejudices harm another person and went against the law. Khaled was a citizen
of the United States and should be treated equally as any other person.
The
author wanted to highlight that not every Arab-American was apart of the
horrible events of 9/11. The play showed how easy it is to make people look
guilty and come to assumptions based on no real evidence. The police were not
going to accept the fact that Khaled was innocent. They treated him unfairly
based on there own prejudice against immigrants. Khaled was a writer and his
research on topics made the police jump to conclusions. If Khaled were not
Arab-American, would the police jump to those same conclusions?
I do not know if the police would have jumped to the same conclusion. AS a viewer, we are not aware if there has been a pre investigation before the play started. Not much background information is given about the two policemen. The police were out of line though; the play never mentioned them presenting a warrant to search his apartment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Allison. Even today it can be hard to look at someone and not assume the worst. Hopefully there will be a day soon where we will think the opposite and assume that everyone is "good".
ReplyDeleteI like how you stated the central theme of Back of the Throat; “don’t judge a book by its cover”—that’s really what it boils down to. I think The author did a fantastic job in making the reader aware that not all Arab-Americans were involved in the event on 9/11 and we should not make judgments by peoples beliefs/background. Back of the Throat made me realize how groups of people jump to conclusions about others just because they are “different” than us.
ReplyDeleteI love the picture you chose to attach to this post. I think it applies perfectly with your central theme of if the character was not Arab, would he be treated the same way? I think the author did a good job saying that every Arab is not related to the attacks on America and exaggerated it enough as well. Great post!
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