Recently, a friend's mom (F), who happens to be a psychologist, saw a client who was Muslim (D). F had a lot of uneasy feelings when she saw women who covered their heads since 9/11, and she had a lot of misconceptions about Islam, like the definition of jihad. When they scheduled the appointment over the phone, F noted that D had an accent, but couldn't figure out what it was. Stepping into the waiting room, F saw D wearing her hijab, and was immediately nervous. However, during therapy, F found D to be a beautiful, intelligent person who was actually very nice. When F came home that night, she talked about her experience, but made no effort to discover more about Islam.
D was seeking therapy for anxiety, and there was little talk of anything other than typical psych-evaluation-type stuff. The interaction began stiffly on the part of F, but comfortably for D. As the session continued, F appeared to warm up to D and see her for who she was, not for her own false perceptions. Although F's view changed, I don't believe that the interaction was truly productive. F was able to see that Islam and terrorism are not synonymous, but her more positive view was probably directed only toward D, and not to all Muslims, as demonstrated by her lack of interest in researching.
After reading Wachtel's analysis, I don't see the interaction any differently. F is aware of her prejudiced views and accepts them. Indifference is maybe an applicable word because of the resistance to learning more about something she knows nothing about.
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1 comment:
Interesting story, Elmo. I think there is something to be learned here, though. In the article we read, the author talked about how our problem isn't necessarily racism, but indifference. The problem in the story you give is that F doesn't go home and do any research on Islam after meeting D. F may be racist, but this interaction shows that racist tendencies can be overcome. It's F going home and not changing his/her viewpoint that is indifferent to the preconditioning of F. It's too bad that the media doesn't do anything to try to fix this; even TV shows on Cartoon Network perpetuate this prejudice.
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