Reflecting on Al-Hazza/Lucking

While reading the Al-Hazza/Lucking article, The Minority of Suspicion: Arab Americans, I came across one quote in particular that stood out to me near the end of the article. "To increase fair treatment of all minorities, teachers and administrators should try to ensure that Middle Easterners are represented fairly in textbooks and other reading material throughout the school curriculum. There must be a vigilant and ongoing evaluation of materials for negative stereotypes." This was an important quote for me for two reasons. First of all, I liked it because it made me reflect on the types of representations of Middle Easterners that were represented to me when I was in elementary school. Honestly, looking back, I cannot really remember any history lessons or even stories with the main character being a Middle Easterner. I think this says some negative things about the amount of multicultural literature that was provided for me and my classmates. It also encourages me to provide more than enough for my future classroom.

Secondly, the quote made me think of the discussion and video we watched last week about Native Americans. Specifically, it reminded me of the part in the movie that directly related derogatory Indian sports team names to other outlandish stereotypes like Sambo. It is really sad that there has not been a "vigilant and ongoing evaluation" of the team names we choose and cheer today.