Cars ARE racist!

Since cars were invented in 1894, it developed in an astonishing way that it serves human where ever they go. As I have seen in my homeland Syria, Qatar and the United States of America, certain people from a certain social class and race tend to buy and drive a specific brand of a car. In Syria, people are most likely to buy cheap cars no matter what was the brand because of the high taxes, but some people tend to buy the Syrian or Persian made cars because it serves them better and they can easily sell it later. Of course a person who is in the high middle class would buy an expensive car such as Audi, Land Rover or BMW. If you have the money you can buy any car you want no matter how much were the taxes. As for government officials who do not pay taxes like others, a rise of racism in terms of social classes and positions creates hatred between the people of the society. However, people still continuing to live normally.

As in Qatar, it is different. They are no taxes on cars and it doesn't really matter, but a lot of people tend to have a taste of what car they purchase. Qataris prefers Toyota especially Land cruisers. On the other hand for residence, they have a different taste. Syrians likes Mercedes, Sudanese likes Toyota Corolla, Desi residences like Nissan Sunny and the list continues. It depends on what is your nationality or race to ride a car. With the different of social classes, there are still people who want to move up to the second level by taking a loan from the bank and buying their favorite car
. 

In sociology, race and ethnicity reproduces social classes and it is not fair sometimes. If we would go back when the USA was racist to an unacceptable level. If a cop sees a black person driving an expensive car, this black dude will be most likely pulled over and questioned about where he got that car. The perspective that was taken about this race’s behaviors throws a lot of questions. Back to Qatar, where the majority residences of Qatar are Desi, It would be shocking to see an Indian driving a Ferrari (with respect to all nationalities). People who live in Qatar are not used to it. It is normal to see an American man or European driving a fancy car because the expectations are that this race gets paid more than others. Racism is everywhere, and it creates different perspectives about others.

Films Invade our Minds

Today, I’m going to be talking about how the Cinema and Society course really made me to believe in the fact that films and the media do actually play a huge factor in shaping our way of thinking and behaving. It’s so true that movies are a powerful agent of socialization. Movies definitely have an influence on our minds. The reason for making this statement is because after reading the Race and Ethnicity chapter, I realized why I made a certain decision in the past that was pretty much influenced by the movies I used to watch as I was growing up. In 2002, my father and my older sister made the decision of pursuing their education in the United States, so the whole family went together with them to make their dream come true. I was 13 years old at that time. I went to Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado. The first day of school was a terrifying experience. When entering the school I realized how much it looked like the American movies I had once watched. Boys were twice as big as me, and I wasn’t used to the co-educational system. There were a lot of students from different ethic and national groups. Students were from various countries in Asia, Africa and Europe. Another thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of African American students in the school. My older brother attended the same school, and we used to walk back to the house together. It was also another horrific moment for me because a lot of boys would walk together in groups and if their eyes were pointed at me, I used to get scared and walk faster. I thought they would just decide to attack or shoot me. I used to get scared of black and Mexican boys, the most. Thinking about it now, these misconceptions that I had were formalized based on the negative portrayal of black and Mexican people in movies. Usually the black and Mexican people were depicted as violent using guns to shoot others or knives to stab people and even using their hands for punching. The Cinematic Sociology book explains, “the origins of contemporary black screen violence are located in Hollywood’s blaxploitation period, which consists of about 60 cheaply made black-focused action-adventure flicks released between 1969 and 1974.” These negative portrayals stayed in my unconscious mind, and when I went to an American high school, my fear of people from different ethnicities that I inherited from the movies were reflected on my reaction. I also decided to go back to Doha because I couldn’t handle being scared of going to school. But, I managed to go back after a year to the same school and got over my fear. In addition, I got my high school diploma from Overland High School (OHS), which is something I’m very proud of.

Thinking about it now, people were staring at me probably because I was wearing the hijab. There were also Arab students at OHS and only a few Muslim girls wore the hijab. To end this blog, I’d like you to listen and watch the video below as it gives some moral messages to kids and young adults to not get influenced by things around them.