the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past...or I could run.
In the end, I ran...He was just a Hazara, wasn't he?"
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| "I had one last chance to make a decions...I could step into that alley, stand up for Hasaan-- the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past...or I could run. In the end, I ran...He was just a Hazara, wasn't he?" |
| Racism in The Kite Runner |
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 In The Kite Runner, the lives of the characters
were deeply affected by the strong sense of racism in Racism is defined as "
The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and
that a particular race is superior to others." The primary conflict of racism
in the novel is against the Hazara, who practice Shi'a Islam. The dominant group is
the Pashtuns who practice Sunni Islam. Some characters call Amir's childhood friend
Hassan a "mice-eating, flat-nosed,
load-carrying donkey." The Hazara are immediately identifiable, as they
are thought to have stereotypically Mongoloid physical traits. Amir thinks of
Hassan as just a Hazara more than once, even though Hassan is the only real
friend he has in the story. Baba has a similar relationship with Ali,
Hassan's father. Amir's grandfather adopted Ali as his own son, and Baba's brother,
but his role is always as a servant. Amir and his father use the division between Pashtun
and Hazara to oppress them in the most insidious of ways, as they pretend to be close to
Hassan and Ali, while keeping them at an arms distance as servants. When Amir and his
wife adopt Hasaan's son Sohrab, his father-in-law protests, "I have to deal with
the community's perception of our family. People will ask. They will want to know
why there's a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What do I tell them?"
In some sense, the persecution is a prevalent theme all the way through the book because,
according to the author Hosseni, the disenfranchised, displaced Afghanis find the need
to hold on to some remnant of power, specifically by discriminating against the Hazara. |
| Racism in Society |
|---|
 Racism is present whether you see it or you don't. Racial jokes, slurs, and stereotypes are part of everyday life, and are all forms of racism. Most people don't even realize they are promoting racism. Some people just say, "I was only kidding," or "I didn't mean it!" But why say these things if they are hurtful? There are many hate crimes associated with race. Some of the more recent hate crimes have been against people of middle-easter desecent, after the 9/11 attack. Society has trained us to have certain opinions about different races, and because of those opinions, everyone has grown to judge and treat each other differently based on ideas that aren’t even true. We internalize these opinions which then reflect on our very own behavior. Some people are told that they are “bad people” because of some racial reason, so they grow up believing it and being it, because they were never taught anything else. Racism becomes a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped. All races have differences but having differences doesn't mean they have to lead to conflict. |
Video Showing Victims of Racism |
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Understanding Race is a website that goes more in depth into the history and reasons for racism. |