Similarities between the experiences of Japanese American and Muslim/Arab/Middle Easterners
This essay is to be at least four typed, double-spaced pages. It is worth 20% of your total grade.
It is a comparison paper. I want you to find multiple similarities in the experiences of Japanese
American and Muslim/Arab/Middle Easterners.
The major time periods I want you to compare are: (concerning Japanese Americans) from their
arrival on the US mainland in the 1890s up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7,
1941; and (concerning Arab and Muslim Americans) from the arrival of Lebanese and Syrians in
the late-19th century up to the attack of 9/11. (Don’t consider these time periods set in stone.
Some of the readings I’ve listed below extend past the actual dates of the attacks. That’s okay.)
To illustrate the points of similarity you are making in your paper you are to draw on the Angelo
Ancheta excerpt we discussed in class on Tuesday, and, in addition, for Japanese Americans at
least three of the following four: Takezawa, excerpt (60-75) from his chapter entitled “Nisei
Experience;” Otsuka, “Children” from Buddha in the Attic; Rizzuto, excerpt (28-31) from Why
She Left Us; and Daniels, “Background for a Roundup”
The readings on Arab and Muslim Americans that I want you to draw on for supporting details
are at least two of the four sections in Bakalian, Backlash 9/11: “Immigration Patterns” (70-77),
“Contested Classifications” (77-83), “Stereotypes and Scapegoating” (39-40), and “LA 8” and
“Secret Evidence” (42-46); and both Rinku Sen, “Us and Them” and Jack Shaheen, “Reel Bad
Arabs.”
BAKALIAN BACKLASH LINK FULL TEXT:
https://books.google.com/books?id=bsrAEyEbZBkC&pg=PA219&lpg=PA219&dq=bakalian
+backlash+9/11+full+text+free
+online&source=bl&ots=SIh1peWm6j&sig=ArnRq1GWMBJte4KrvPKXBl59hmI&hl=en&sa=
X#v=onepage&q=bakalian%20backlash%209%2F11%20full%20text%20free
%20online&f=false
REEL BAD ARABS LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKD3CnPJNOE
Som Tawisook
Criteria for evaluation:
Basics: Do you have at least four typed, double-spaced pages? Have you stayed on the
topic?
Thesis and argument: Do you have a thesis (some sort of summary of the similarities
you’ve found)? Is your paper organized as a comparison paper? In other words, is it
focused on making the thematic comparisons of Japanese American and Muslim/Arab/
Middle Eastern that you’ve summarized in your thesis? (Each paragraph or pair of
paragraphs, for example, should deal with one similarity, not one reading. Nor do you
want to deal with each group and time period separately, except in paired paragraphs, for
example.) Finally, have you edited out of your paper details that don’t illustrate your
themes?
Evidence: Have you drawn from all the required sources? Is your paper full of numerous
short quotes and precise details (Please indicate inside parentheses the page number of
the article or book you found the supporting detail in.)? How effective is your evidence in
illustrating the similarities you are asserting?
Understanding: To what extent have you succeeded in seeing the forests (the similarities
across space and time) for the trees (the welter of historical details on each period and
group)? What level of understanding have you demonstrated of the similarities you’ve
focused on? What level of sophistication have you demonstrated in your choice of
similarities
Solution Preview
In the terms of social justice, racial discriminations and injustices as well as the overall experience, there are perhaps endless similarities in the way the Asian Americans and Muslims have experienced. To conclusively take into account these similarities…
(1213 Words)