On a campus so commonly considered liberal, it is easy to overlook many negative interactions that occur between students at Ohio University, and not difficult to categorize them as isolated incidents by a distinct minority.
Unfortunately, these incidents are more prevalent than most people realize. Case in point: Last fall quarter, an anonymous student was walking down Mill Street, attired in a headscarf and a floor-length dress for a costume party, when she heard another student call out to her, “Go back where you came from!”
Because the former student is white, it was clear that the latter had not received a good look at her. The implication of the words, however, was clear: You are Muslim. You do not belong here. Get out of our country.
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the term “Islamophobia” received new life and new meaning: Americans, who had previously thought little of the religiously diverse people with whom they interacted daily, suddenly became paranoid when it came to dealings with Muslims.
That attitude sometimes manifested itself in outright confrontations but more often in subtler avoidances and sublevel fears, spreading throughout the nation to reach even the most liberal and isolated areas.
Fortunately, on OU’s campus, incidents such as the one described above are rare. Unfortunately, the subtler implications of Islamophobia are rampant, and worse, people often don’t even realize these racist attitudes exist.
By now, most everyone has heard of the controversy centered on the potential building of a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero and the rekindled Islamophobia that is at the heart of the debate.
That attitude and the fear behind the anger and violence that those at the mosque building site experienced can most easily be acquired when we are young, and judging from the incident on OU’s campus, this fear might be closer than we might think.
We are pliable when we are in college, still developing our attitudes toward our country and the world, and words of hatred and mistrust are some of the worst influences we can digest.
People too often think their words mean little and that they will be forgotten tomorrow, but the truth is that our future is built upon our past; a negative word yesterday translates into a mistrustful attitude today and harmful actions tomorrow.
Most of these actions don’t happen in public places and can’t be documented — one of the main reasons that students don’t realize the direness of the situation. Simple awareness, though, is the first step to acceptance of diversity and the repudiation of Islamophobia.
Look around you, past the surface-level interactions between people, and see the threads that run deeper.
Look into yourself and see if even a fraction of a thread resides there.
Look even if you don’t think you’ll find anything because the fears run deeply, and now is the only time you might have to cast them out.
Allison Hight is a sophomore studying English and a columnist for The Post. Have you experienced Islamaphobia? Email Allison at ah138208@ohiou.edu.
