Overcoming Stereotyping
My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist.
When we see Muslims, what's the first thing that comes to our mind? Tell me that I'm wrong when I say that most people would say they're a bunch of terrorist, war-loving people. In the Philippines alone, people would say that Muslims are war-freak, given the situation in Mindanao, which most of the population is made up of Muslims.
This was what the movie My Name is Khan is all about. It shows us how they were treated after the famous 9/11 bombing attack of the Twin Towers. It tells us how they had been affected because of stereotyping. It tells us basically of racial discrimination. The movie is about Rizvan Khan, a muslim who have an asperger's syndrome, a kind of autism. The movie revolves on his journey to meet the president and tell him that "My name is Khan and I'm not a terrorist" which he sort of promised to do. It was right after his wife's breakdown when their son, Sameer died because he was taken to be Muslim by those American kids because his last name was Khan. The movie's setting was part in India but most is in US. Along his journey, he touched many lives and when he got imprisoned, he became more popular and inspired a lot of people, particularly the Muslims to fight for themselves.
The movie was nice. You get to think deeply of what's really happening in the society. You get to ponder on a lot of things. It will make you think that if an autistic person can think that way and go the extramile, why not we?
"There are only two kinds of people: the good ones and the bad ones. There is no other difference." This is what Khan's mother taught him. I guess she's right. Generally, that should have been the distinction. But society had different views. It divided people into race, religion, culture and whatever difference we could think of. Regardless of their color, religion, language, community, what really matters is that we know what is good and evil. Which means to say, that we should be open to communicating, interacting and accepting other people, all sorts of people.
Another issue that caught my attention is stereotyping. When I say I'm from UP, people would think of me as an activist and an atheist, which is not true. Iskolars ng Bayan are stereotyped to be boastful and love rallies, which does not apply to all. For Muslims, the first impression is they are terrorist, and they should be ignored. This stereotyping isn't really nice. Each person is different from one another. They got their own set of personality,attitude, hobbies, likes and dislikes, and beliefs, even if they are from the same religion, sex, race, culture and country. That means to say that we should get to know the person first before judging them.
There were some parts of the movies which are dumb and funny, but perhaps it was like that to make it more dramatic or something. I was hoping that the movie would have ended in a different note. Anyways, all in all, the movie is really something to watch and worth the time.
