Funny In Farsi Cultural Analysis

As stated by James A. Forbes Jr., the senior Minister Emeritus of the Riverside church, “When people rely on surface appearance and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised.” Racial profiling is a huge issue in America. The inability of American-born citizens to look past the surface of immigrants aids this problem. In the memoir Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, “Executive order 9066” by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “A tale of two Americas and the mini mart where they collided” by Anand Giridharads, and “Breaking Down the Complexities of U.S. Migration Law” by Michel Martin and Karen Tumlin, the way that immigrants
In the book Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas, the main character Firoozeh, is a hold when she immigrates to the U.S. Being a child in America, it was expected of her to attend school. Her mother, being raised in Iran, was not expected to go to school. She was raised to be a mother. On Firoozeh’s first day of school, her mother went with her. Neither of them spoke English besides a few short phrases. On that first day, Firoozeh’s mother was instructed to show on a map where she and Firoozeh were from. The problem was that she did not know where Iran was on the map. Consequently, she just stood there with her face turning red and made Firioozeh embarrassed. “Now all the students stared at us, not just because I had come to school with my mother, not because we couldn’t speak their language, but because we were stupid” (Dumas 6). This humiliating experience was caused by the lack of the understanding of culture. Firoozeh’s mom was humiliated because she was not able to find Iran on the map. This was not her fault, in her country it was not expected of her to be well educated. Although this was just an over-exaggerated misconception, it could have been avoided if the teacher knew her issue. Throughout the story, Firoozeh explains more tales of humiliation and being different than others. Another example was when Firoozeh got lost at Disney Land. “Just to get rid of her, I walked up to the boy,
Arguably, the amount of violence against immigrants in the U.S. is way too much. In a TED talk titled “A Tale of Two Americas and the Mini-Mart Where They Collided,” Anand Giridharadas discloses a story of violence against a man named Raisuddin Bhuiyan. This man was a Bangladeshi immigrant working at a mini-mart in Dallas. He was shot by a man looking for a scapegoat after September eleventh. “‘Where are you from,’ he asks. ‘Excuse me?’ Raisuddin answers. His accent betrays him. The tattooed man, a self-styled, true American vigilante, shoots Raisuddin.” Furthermore, because Raisuddin looks different and has an accent he is shot with a shotgun. Raisuddin survives, and ultimately offers his forgiveness to the tattooed man. In America, some citizens are really like this. They try to take lives of minorities that they deem to be the face of the terrorists and in some cases, the victims are not as lucky. Another example of violence against immigrants can be found in the book Funny in Farsi. Firoozeh’s family was invited to go to Washington D.C. to welcome the Shah. Her father happily accepted. Upon arrival to their hotel, they found a note threatening them but they chose to ignore it. The next day, when the family went to go see the Shah, they were greeted by protesters. Shortly there after, the protesters started running to the Iranian people with sticks with nails driven into them and started beating them. Firoozeh