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Young World
Defining danger
NIRUPAMA HEGDE
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A year after 9/11, the memories continue to haunt. Has it changed the face of the land of opportunities?
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Has the American dream been shattered?
The events of September 11 have changed the definition of an American. The image of a terrorist has become synonymous with anyone from a foreign country, whether he is a student, a computer engineer, or a corporate boss. In short, the popular American image of a terrorist has become any South Asian male.
In the international airport in New Jersey, the line of "randomly checked" passengers is full of Middle Easterners and South Asians. The Sikh man with a bright red turban and the Muslim man with a long white beard are subjected to tedious security checks while the white man next to them is ushered through with ease.
A changed skyline...a changed people.
Images of the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and the likes of Al-Qaeda have merged to create this American image of the suicidal terrorist. In India, the perception of someone to watch out for seems to be totally different. At the Chennai airport, the line of passengers undergoing extra security was in stark contrast with the one I witnessed in New Jersey. The passengers on Gulf Air were predominantly Middle Eastern Muslims, men in kurtas and women in burkhas. All the white tourists sporting Hawaiian shirts and Nikon cameras were thoroughly searched, because in India, they are the foreigners.
Of course, as another result of September 11 security checks and fear of the foreigner are not just reserved to airports. In Palika Bazaar in New Delhi, I witnessed a clear display of the Indian perception of danger. Before entering the complex, security guards check certain individuals by making them walk through a metal detector and checking their bags. The guards decided to carefully check my friend and I, two teenage girls in jeans and t-shirts carrying nothing but lipstick and a shopping list; but they allowed two tall Sikh men in deep blue turbans and shining knives strung around their waists to walk through the door, around the metal detector and past the checkpoint. The very same men in America, probably more peaceful and reasonable than anyone else, would have been harassed and feared in any public place.
One year later, September 11 is still a haunting reality that has changed almost everything about American society. Every immigrant has a story to tell about mistreatment. A respectable Indian man was stopped from entering a Broadway play because he had a foreign sounding name, a Sikh wearing a red, white, and blue turban was shot in Arizona, actor Jimmy Shergil was harassed while filming a movie in New York City.
All of them face difficulties because the definition of a threatening individual has changed. It is reasonable to expect a country that has been so suddenly shattered to put up a safeguard and defend itself, but what has happened does create some amount of irony. Since its birth, the United States has been a "melting pot", a land of opportunity. The beauty of the American dream is that it can be achieved by anyone from anywhere. America's diversity has always been one of its greatest assets, and suddenly the nation is fighting with the definition of its own citizens. September 11 gave danger a name and a face, more specifically, a foreign name and a foreign face.
These are the effects of the bombing at the World Trade Center, that all immigrants must now fight with the new perception of peril.
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