Multimedia-Songs,+Videos,+Images

Songs [|Have We Forgotten] Have We Forgotten, by Darryl Worley is a country song used to express anti-terrorist/pro-war feelings. Worley explains in his lyrics the reasons why the country should be at war fighting against terrorism. He states how the United States had its freedom compromised, how many people passed away during the 9/11 terrorist attacks and finally how we as a nation should not stand for others coming into our country to cause harm. We should fight for what is right and we must not forget that we are fighting for those who have lost their lives. This song was perhaps intended to bring the country together, or raise awareness about the "positive," reasons we were fighting; however, there are many people on both sides and songs of this nature can help to lead to more of a schism within our country. Also Worley's lyrics may cause "Americans," to target a specific group, mainly Muslims, as "Outsiders," not willing and worthy to be considered on the inside.

Videos [|Dark Skinned Male] This video obtained from Huff Post News, contains a segment from CNN where John King was one of the first to describe the Boston Bombing suspects as a "Dark Skinned male." Although he tries his best to be as careful as possible these statements put into the minds of the American public that those responsible for these acts of terror were anything but "White Americans." These suspects could be black, hispanic and or of Middle Eastern decent with the description of the dark skin; however, this sparked even more controversy when the suspects were in fact not dark skinned at all. King's credibility was immediately questioned and many were outraged that this was allowed to happen. The fact that the "blame," was immediately taken off of anyone who was white allows us to see how when these kinds of crimes are committed there is a sense of "the other!"

[|God Don't Let it Be a Muslim] This video was obtained from CNN. It features American International Human Rights Lawyer and commentator Arsalan Iftikhar, who was asked what he felt when he found out those who were responsible for the Boston Bombings were of Muslim ethnicity. In this video he expresses how when any act of terrorism is executed against the United States many American Muslims are all praying for the same thing: "God don't let it be a muslim!" After 9/11 the Muslim ethnicity has been somewhat synonymously linked to any acts of terrorism. This in turn makes it difficult for those who are not extremist and disagree tremendously with terrorism, because they are immediately judged, profiled, and ultimately a target for hate crimes by those who feel as if they are protecting our rights as a country against those who have ill will towards the United States.

Images [|"Afghanistan Terrorist School"] The first political cartoon shows an "Afghani Terrorist School," instructor showing the students waiting in line what to do in "Human Bomb Class." This instructor is in fact a suicide bomber and its has some satirical comments because the instructor is pleading for the students to pay attention because he is only showing them how to do it once pokes fun of extremist groups.

[|"NYPD Spying"] This political cartoon shows a group of Muslims calling the AP Press to complain about the NYPD spying on them. This goes hand in hand with the slogan: "If you see something, Say something." After acts of terror are performed on the US people of middle eastern or Muslim decent are definitely subject to intense scrutiny. The men in this cartoon are donned in turbans, native garb and last but not least bombs and other weapons of mass destruction. This shows how the senses of Americans are heightened to watch Muslims more closely, but also gives a sense of "Muslims are probably up to something," type attitude.

[|"Must be a Turkey"] This article shows an Anti-Terroism Expert and a member of the FBI not being able to correctly identify a "duck," or terrorist. This poses the question: "What does a terrorist look like?" How can we be sure that we are not surrounding ourselves with people who can cause harm to us or our country daily? If we were to ask many Americans what a terrorist was or looked like most would have a specific "Type," or characteristic to describe; however, terrorism should not have a specific look. With the advances of mass media we are able to have terrorism thrown in our faces and most of the time we are seeing the same types of people. This allows many people to form a negative connotation on a specific type of group.

[|"Howdy Brother"] This political cartoon shows what seems to be an "Anti-everything," gun toting white man along with a man who is a part of Al Qaida. This shows that although darker skinned, Muslims, who are usually viewed as more of a threat can have many of the same qualities as many other people in the US as well. This gives the sense that race, origin or ethnicity cannot necessarily be a means for any speculation or ridicule. War and acts of terror can be committed by anyone and no one group should be held more accountable than another.

[|The Other Within] Hard to look at this image from the Boston University website and not think about identity formation as it pertains to cultural assimilation. The background images suggest multiple variations within predominantly white culture with the intimation that each contains some aspect of the “other” as part of an individual’s make-up. Other races are conspicuously absent from the images and the text, however, suggesting a degree of exclusion. Starting with this exclusion of other races and addressing the suggestion of the text that a plethora of images and cultural and ethnic backgrounds may be shared by Caucasians may be used to give rise to a conversation concerning the formation of identity as a construct of a society that accommodates variation within a racial schema, but stops short of accepting a mix of races as part of identity formation.