Examples Of A Glimpse Into My Life

A Glimpse into My Life: Through The Sociological Perspective My family and I moved from Nairobi, Kenya to America when I was nine years old. Along with having to quell with the sudden culture shock, I had to immediately grow accustomed to my surroundings. I was faced with a series of difficult challenges including but not limited to learning the language and appropriating to a new culture. The friendly, unpretentious, and humble environment that I had become acclimated to were replaced by the polar opposite here in America. I quickly grew to realize that the people in America were constantly on the move, that seeing someone who didn’t have a perpetual frown etched on their face was seemingly impossible, and that having face to face conversations …show more content…
We defined ethnocentrism in class as being the “tendency to judge other cultures by the standards of your own culture” (Notes Chapter 3) and I believe that is one of the many reasons behind the boys unpleasant behavior towards me. I believe the boy had took the limited knowledge he had of my ethnicity and determined that rather than accepting the differences that lie between us, he felt threatened and unnaturally obligated to constantly remind me of his unwavering opinion. It is almost as if he was dehumanizing me as a means of making his actions …show more content…
219). Discrimination may very well be the primary reasoning for a young white boy, who grew up in the suburbs of Westerville to immediately single out one of the only African American muslim girls that attended the school. Such discrimination did not just simply arise from our differences, but from the social change that has been rapidly occurring in society. Social change that has altered the manner in which the world views muslims and allowed for the sentiment Islamophobia to flourish. The term Islamophobia existed long before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, however only after that horrific incident did the whole world take notice of it. The terrorist attacks unified the whole country in a time of panic and brought back a sense of patriotism. While on the other hand, fear and distrust of all muslims was being instilled in the masses by those in power who believed Islam should be held responsible for the heinous acts done by a few extremists. Thus, leading to the exclusion and discrimination of all muslims in a macro-level, which lead to the naive little boy to have such a vulgar reaction towards my