Be Proud of Who You Are

Read the essay here

 

My Pride, Their Prejudice is an essay that is written by Samantha. Samantha is a Palestinian Muslim who was raised in America; her parents had fled their homeland due to war with hope of having a better future in America. This reminded of the recent mosque attacks in New Zealand where one of the victims fled Afghanistan hoping that he and his family would be safer in New Zealand. Ironically, the country where he thought he was safe in, turned out that a terrorist killed him after the he welcomed him to their place of worship. This essay intrigued me because it is so universal, and I can connect to many of her experiences. I really like how she included repetition in her writing to emphasize her points.

“After the attacks, Arabs and Muslims were shown in a negative light by the media, and several negative stereotypes surrounded us. People began to question our beliefs, our intentions, our lifestyles; it began to feel as if we were constantly under society’s microscope.” A country, a religion, a race should never be labelled negatively because a small group of uneducated individuals can never represent everyone from that group. These stereotypes have caused hatred in people’s hearts and blindness in their eyes. We need to understand that we shouldn’t believe the negativity and the stereotypes that people spread. People shouldn’t have to be ashamed of their religion, background or skin colour to be accepted by others.

“I now hold a firm belief that if you lose contact with your heritage, you lose contact with yourself. Your culture is something to be proud of, not ashamed of. It should be held in esteem, not hidden in shame.” One should be proud and embrace who they are, and others need to learn to respect that. This teaches us to never give up our roots and not let the stereotypes define who we are.

 

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