Models Of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective, By George Fredrickson

After 9/11 the perceptions of Muslims in America were forever changed. Seeing the violent images of the Twin Towers on the news deeply frightened people in Western society. As result, fear and anger were directed towards innocent Muslims. In a growing society where many are no longer afraid to speak their beliefs, prejudice occurs in almost every aspect of life. Prejudice is defined as “an unjustified or incorrect attitude towards an individual based solely on the individual’s membership of a social group” (McLeod). In the United States, people of the Muslim faith frequently experience prejudice and racial inequality. Vincent Parrillo outlines negative sociological understanding and how the effects of our culture influence the way we perceive
different races. The demands for Muslims to assimilate into American culture is expressed by George Fredrickson. Cheryl Harris and Devon Carbado write about the theory of racial frames, which causes disadvantages for Muslims opportunities in their daily lives. The negative attitudes towards Muslims and their Islamic culture have made them a target for injustices and abuse in a very misunderstood America.
Racial discrimination is a regular cause for prejudiced actions. In Vincent Parrillo’s “Causes of Prejudice” the creation of racial discrimination is examined. The psychological approach of prejudice focuses on how behavior is linked to the state of mind of an individual. This approach takes into account whether or not personality or the more cognitive side of the brain drives racial behavior. Oppositely, the sociological approach focuses on the effects of an individual’s social group rather than the individual themselves. The socialization process suggests that “Individuals acquire values, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of their culture or subculture including religion, nationality and social class” (Parrillo 513). For example, the prejudices of someone’s parents and surroundings influence their attitudes towards particular groups of people. The explanation for prejudice attitudes and the resulting discriminatory behavior is complex as both psychological and sociological theories are found to be important factors.
Sociological thoughts which are created through social environments and beliefs of society come from the media such as the news, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. Both the news and social media outlets have proven to be committed to promote the extremist Muslims and induce fear in society. Society is easily influenced by the media despite its common reporting of false information. For example, if a news media outlet reports coverage of a hate crime involving a Muslim, many people would believe it to be the truth regardless of lack of proof. The media fails to report that Islamic practices are open and accepting of change and adapt to all forms of outside religion as long as it does not go against the teachings of “Allah.” Media has an everlasting effect on society’s thoughts and increases attitude towards social groups simply by portraying groups in a negative light.
While social environments may induce negative sociological understandings, society has poor understandings of who and what Muslims stand for. Pew Research Center states that Islam is currently the second- largest religion in the world. Many people are unaware and uniformed of the fundamentals and beliefs of the Islamic religion and are misconstrued by the idea that the religion is violent and extreme in nature (Lipka). The misconception and stereotyping against American Muslims has been proven to have existed in the United States long before the attacks on 9/11. American Muslims face the confusion of why few and small extremist groups represent the entire religion at its core. The lack of understanding of Islam in the United States has given the religion a threatening reputation, although the roots of the religion are opposite of promoting violence.
In George Fredrickson’s essay “Models of American Ethnic Relations: A Historical Perspective,” Fredrickson examines four models of ethnic relations.
The four models are ethnic hierarchy, pluralism, separatism and one-way assimilation and each define how groups should interact with one another. Ethnic hierarchy is when one group of people assert dominance over the others and withdrawal rights and privileges from the other “outsider” groups. Ethnic hierarchy is the reason that Muslims are feared and considered foreign to the American culture as Christianity is considered the dominant religion. Ideally, in a perfect world cultural pluralism a concept that individual ethnic groups have a right to exist on their own terms within the larger society while retaining their unique cultural heritages (Haas). This concept would most benefit all races, religions, and cultures. Group separatism forms when a group detaches themselves as much as possible the other groups creating isolation. One-way assimilation assumes that one single culture is the most stable and ideal for a productive society. The main goal of one-way assimilation is to promote equality, however in order to achieve equal opportunity all around the groups must conform to the dominant group. Muslims trying to conform and comply to American society and culture is an example of one-way
assimilation.
One-way assimilation and the Muslim community go hand in hand. President Donald Trump gave a speech in which he stated that he believes that Muslims are not assimilating into the American culture, because they failed to report the San Bernardino terrorist attack back on December 2, 2015. Despite President Trump’s allegation, the Muslim people are in fact the most co-opt religion and have mostly assimilated and adopted American ways. Muslim immigrants are the very cooperative and have proven to shadow other beliefs by adapt to United States’ culture. Society also fails to realize the importance inter-faith marriages, “mixed marriages” within the Muslim culture. Muslims were surveyed around the United States and asked about marrying outside their follows. “About 62% of the US Muslims agreed and were in acceptance of a non-Muslim spouse” (Lipka). Muslim women are also losing cultural expressions from their own countries in order to integrate into society by not wearing of the hijab “scarf,” which signifies a women’s modesty. The adaptiveness Muslims express in America show how well they have assimilated in society.
Constantly crucified, Muslims experience disadvantages in their day to day lives. Media has become obtrusive in comparing Muslims to terrorist. We have reached a point in society in which we believe what is portrayed in media. Blaming becomes easier than finding the truth. In Harris’ and Carbado’s “Color-Blind” Frame, it is believed that race is not an important factor on perception of the world. While “The Media shapes public opinion and covers realities by their censorship” (Mesic). The “Color-Blind” Frame imports thoughts into situations of unknowns, forcing an individual to assume based on race. Media portrays minority races such as Muslim to be terrorist. Harris and Carbado argue that prejudice thoughts are the most dominant frame in which we judge people. We can overcome racial framing by educating citizens and truths rather than pointing fingers.
American Muslims in both the past and present have faced racial discrimination and stereotyping based on prejudice thoughts stemming from misconceptions by the media and lack of education on Islam. American society needs to be knowledgeable about the Islamic religion and Muslim culture to better combat the prejudice and discrimination. Because of the negative sociological understandings, doubts on how Muslims assimilate in society, and the disadvantages they face due to racial frames, Muslims frequently experience prejudice and racial inequality in the U.S. today. Anti-Muslim prejudice not only is hurting the Muslim culture, but it is hindering the United States as a nation for failure to accept outsiders.