i don't want to spend my life on trial for something that i did not do

okay world, listen up. enough is enough already. you have all had an entire decade (well, just about) to enjoy your idea that arabs/muslims= evil terrorists, and to be honest, i think that we have shouldered the whole thing pretty well for the most part. but i think it's time to move on. really. ten years is more than enough time for a fad to fade, and this is just what this whole thing was. and frankly, i'm sick of it. sick to death.

in my sophomore year of high school, my social studies teacher was german. i remember her telling us all to prepare ourselves for years and years of being the bad guy. after world war two, she said, evil became synonymous with german, and it lasted until the tragedy at the world trade center. that was almost sixty years! people are more open minded now, i thought. there's no way they could not see that what a minority did does not reflect the views of the entire race/religion. but she was right. just shy of ten years later, and we are still being blamed for what a small faction are believed to have done. the idea is ingrained in our very society. listen to the bad guys in the movies you watch, even the ones that aren't arab have an arab accent. even animated villains sound like they could come right off the streets of saudi arabia. (pre-9/11 days they generally had german accents.)

so when someone mentions terrorists, spare me the pointed looks. (yes i'm talking to you, girl in the front row of my accounting class.) when you see an arab going on a plane, stop your knees from shaking with fear. chances are, we're more concerned about what movies will be showing than how to turn the plane around. when you want a villain for your movie, get a little creative. arab terrorist? so overdone. how about a nice cookie-baking grandmother for a change? maybe even with a nice, nonthreatening english accent. (no. this is not my way of saying that the english should be the next bad guys.)

it only takes a kitten about a week to open its eyes, and yet we, the self-proclaimed higher species, have kept ours shut tight for almost a decade. the very fact that i'm standing here for you to stereotype kind of means that i did not crash a plane into a building. you know, logic and whatnot. so if that's true, why am i still being blamed? the six year old in me has had enough of the twenty something's patience and just wants to say, "but i didn't do it!"

okay, well, i'm going to go shove my soap box back into the back of the closet, check to see if my professor emailed me back yet, and get ready to go to school. carry on with your lives.

*Infatuation - Maroon 5