| Title | : | A Vision Of Hope:Addressing Prejudice And Stereotyping In The Wake Of 911, Reflections On Turning Ignorance Into Understanding |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0971717621 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 89 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
A Vision Of Hope:Addressing Prejudice And Stereotyping In The Wake Of 911, Reflections On Turning Ignorance Into Understanding Reviews
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This book is good, verging on great, but it has some flaws that I can't dismiss. It works best when the authors of each little story are relating how the War on Terror affected them in their own unique way, from a carjacking in Nigeria by those condemning the US response, a security checkpoint where Indians (from India) are set aside for a more thorough examination because their skin is dark enough, to a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan who inherits "unwanted diplomatic responsibilities" explaining to the local populace who are deathly afraid of being associated with terrorists. There are more stories like this, from people of different ethnicities, both in the US and abroad, of at least 4 different faiths.
On the other hand, some of the stories detract from the experience. The security checkpoint story, for example, goes on to talk about how the author used the experience to educate youngsters about the need for dialog. It's when she says that they "internalized" the problem and were "fully empowered" by them that the story sounds less like the meritorious story that it is and more like a gimmicky essay written for an admission or scholarship committee.
Episodes like those pale to others who include almost no anecdotes themselves, instead opting to lecture and expound on the supposed simple causes of a conflict that has raged for millennia. These essays, of which there are at least two bookending the work, wander around aimlessly, choosing to editorialize and scatter ubiquitous quotations ("I have a dream," "Be the change you wish to see"). Every home run of a story in the book is dragged down by these off-key notes.
Interestingly enough, there are no stories from a Muslim perspective, only a fictional exchange of letters between two people.
