On Monday November 11th, a Muslim student at Rollins had an event where she talked to women about why Muslim women wear head scarves and what it means. During the meeting, she gave out head scarves and asked the women to wear them on the following day to see the different responses they would get from people. At the end of the day the women shared their experiences and how people reacted to them. One of the experiences that one of the women had was very disappointing. She explained that many people were hostile and rude to her just because of her head scarf. She explained how many people who normally talk to her would not even look her way. She said how sad she felt, and how at many times she just wanted to take the head scarf off.
This experience was on the same day that our class discussed different groups of people and different stereotypes and therefore I connected the two together. It saddens me how much discrimination there is towards different cultures and religions that are considered subordinate in a society. This discrimination is normally because of different stereotypes which are usually caused by ignorance and lack of understanding. One of the things I believe is challenging about having a more diverse and tolerant society is eliminating ignorance from among its people. Many people say that education is the solution to that. However, that is not necessarily true because of education and ignorance are two different things. At many times people who are very well educated are still extremely ignorant. There must be something else done, like a change in the role of media and how it portrays specific cultures and religions for instance. I do not know how that could be done or if it is even possible but I know that something must be done.
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