Rhetorical Essay to Analyze

The essay that I have selected to analyze for my essay is My Suspicious Last Name by Diana Abu-Jaber, on pg. 1079. The reason that I have selected this essay to analyze is because I am very concerned with the issue of people judging one another since 9/11, and what I consider to be the new wave of racism and bigotry in the United States.

I am very much touched by Miss Abu-Jaber's essay. After reading her initial narrative portion of the essay in which she was detained and threatened for having the misfortune of a certain last name, my immediate response while reading is that she should just changer her name and avoid the hassle. However, after thinking of the idea, Miss Abu-Jaber immediately confronted the idea in her essay, stating that a name is a persons personal and professional identity. I also really enjoyed the way that she decided to end her essay, stating that real safety comes from learning how to live together not pushing one another out.

Ever since 9/11 I have noticed a resurgence in the defining of what a real American is. This American seems to some to be white, christian, middle class, who apparently is eager for war and is in no shape or form about to compromise or back down. And they hate the French, for no real reason, other than that they are complete and total wimps, based on what happened in World War II. This American is fighting for what America stands for, which sums up to their own personal ideals, and if you do not like these ideals then you can leave the country.

People seem to forget how they got to this country in the first place. It's possible that these same Americans were the ones having rocks hurled at them as they got off the boats at Ellis Island from Ireland, and told to go back home. Anyone living here who is not part Native American has no real claim to land. My father, grandmother and uncle all came here from Germany sometime in the 60's, which may be the reason my attachment to this country is not so concrete (We cheer for Germany in the Olympics and World Cup of Soccer).

Tolerance and diversity is what I base my image of America on. I consider it a melting pot, and we should be proud to have as many different cultures, religions, and outlooks as possible, which is why I decided to to select Miss Abu-Jaber's essay to analyze, which she provides evidence for by citing two different accounts of being racially profiled, despite her reputation as a professor and an author.