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Leida Noriega
Professor Batty
English 113A
12 December 2014
The Terrorist
An explosion, a gunshot, a hijacking, or a scream is what someone speculates when
someone hears the word terrorism. Terrorism: the use of violence and intimidation usually
used for a political purpose. Many use stereotypes of a certain ethnic group to categorize and
label a whole group as terrorists, although people do not only use words alone but also use
political cartoons, such as Muslims and Japanese-Americans. Political cartoons are for numerous
reason and most of the time are created to influence the public to view that racism is wrong.
People make generalizations of someone or a group of people without gathering the
necessary information needed to make a fair assessment. As Ronald Takaki a professor of ethnic
studies at the University of Berkley said, The model minority image homogenizes Asian
Americans and hides their differences (155). Takaki is right, because people do go on to judge
without knowing the differences or that groups struggle. The relates to my argument because
many just judge someone by what is affiliated with their culture, or by what they can see.
Another example of this is how the media hides what it does not want the people to know, and
this point relates to the quote, because Takaki talks about Asian Americans being set as the model
minority but they fail to see what theyve had to do and give up. This also relates to the struggle
of Japanese-Americans because all of them were accused of being loyal to their homeland, even
though most had been born in America and had no ties to Japan.

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The activity of terrorism that occurs globally is usually linked to the Muslim community.
Wherever it is that it occurs the media looks to list the Muslim community, as the mastermind or
the terrorist attack. According to Ronald Takaki, Most Asian Americans know their success is
largely a myth (156). In the quote, the Asian Americans know that the whole idea of them being
the model minority is not true. In a like manner, Muslims know that they are not terrorists
although that is what everyone else assumes they are. As shown in the cartoon illustrated by
Signe Wilkinson, Muslims are most of the time more likely to be stopped at airports and made to
go through customs, but most Caucasians are not.
On the cartoon illustrated by Signe Wilkinson, the camera view is relatively close,
and the camera view is from the side, able to show all the subjects within the cartoon. The major
color used in the image is a light sky blue, which usually means calm and something nonthreating, yet thats not what the image displays, because one of the subjects is being seen as a
threat, while the other one walks away like nothing. The subjects in the image are getting off a
plane and going into the airport, but the only one stopped is wearing a Keffiyeh, which is
something Muslim men of all ages wear around their head, and often turn them into a turban.
This shows that the Caucasians in the cartoon are the ones with the power, which goes to mean
the underlying message of the comic is that male Caucasians will be allowed to go by without
being inspected at the terror unit, while the male Muslim is stopped in order to be thoroughly
inspected. Being that Muslims have been labeled terrorist they have to endure the struggle of
having the finger pointed at them for most of the terrorism activity throughout the years. This
artist is not being racist towards Muslims, but rather showing how they are always searched by
the terror unit, while people like Caucasians do not, get they are the ones that might be the
dangerous ones.

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The history of discrimination against Japanese-Americans existed well before World War II but
contributed to the assessments of terrorism. As Dr. Seuss illustrates in his comic during World
War II, Japanese-Americans were out to destroy the United States. The assumption was that
every single Japanese-American was involved. The words in the comic are Waiting for the
signal from home these words lead the underlying message of the cartoon to be that during
the time it was created Japanese-Americans were considered to be terrorists, because they
supposedly were creating some sort of sabotage. They were suspected of continuing to be loyal
to their ancestral land because a few Japanese-Americans would act as spies or saboteurs for the
Japanese government. Although, the fact that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor did not help the
situation. Due to Japanese-Americans being seen as security risks they had them put in
concentration camps to keep them contained. Other words that are in the comic are Honorable
5th Column, which means a group of people who undermine a larger group, such as a nation or
city from within. The subjects in the image are walking by a newsstand and are getting TNT
instead of newspapers, there are multiple subjects doing so. There is one that is higher than the
rest and he is holding a telescope looking for the signal from home. The one that is set higher is
the one with the power. The subjects in the image are Japanese-American and their role is to
gather explosives to prepare to destroy America, although this was not the case because not all of
the Japanese-Americans were out to destroy the United States. This artist was racist towards the
Japanese-Americans; after all it was published in 1942 during World War II.

Stereotypes can negatively label or categorize a person or group of people. We should not
put a label on someone or a group for the doing that one single person did because that is unfair
judgment. There are many ways to show racism today, because even the media tries to censor

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certain information. There will always be an artist illustrating what he thinks on the matter, in a
way promoting his ideas, and he may not intend the information to be literal but still intend it to
possess a meaningful message when it is analyzed.

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Works Cited
Martin, Adam. "Battle Decoration-The 50 Most Racist Political Cartoons."
Complex. N.p., 6 Nov. 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2012/11/50-most-racist-political-cartoons/battledecoration>.
Takaki, Ronald. The Harmful Myth of Asian Superority. 75 Thematic Readings an Anthology.
Lisa Moore. Ney Work: McGraw Hill, 2003. 155-156. Print.
Wilkinson, Signe. "Signe Wilkinson's Editorial Cartoons." CartoonistGroup.
N.p., 25 Sept. 2014. Web. 16 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=116949>.

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