'Casual Racism And Arefa Hassani's Story'

8B

2015

Ms Angel

Discrimination and Racism: A Comparative Essay

Anna Kitchen

Unfortunately, racial, ethnical, linguistic and religious discrimination is a major issue in today's society. When a refugee or asylum seeker finally escapes from their 'home', the least they expect when they arrive in their new country is to face discrimination. In hiMe's memoir Casual Racism, the author narrates snippets of her life since migrating to Australia in 1984. Her memoir focuses on racism inside a local community as a Vietnamese woman. Arefa Hassani's story, A Sense of Purpose, on the other hand, concentrates on isolation due to linguistic and religious differences as a young, Afghan, Muslim girl who immigrated to Australia 22 years later, in 2006. Through the use of language features, such as metaphors, repetition and emotive language, both authors convey their

experiences as refugees starting a new life in Australia and the obstacles they face.

Hassani and hiMe both include language features, such as metaphors, in their writing, expressing their feelings of alienation. hiMe writes in her memoir Casual Racism that she has learnt that her presence is not welcome in Australia. She conveys this in multiple quotes, for example, the metaphor: "for I am the face of the Vietnamese War" (hiMe, 2015) and "I could feel the heat was on around me as people continued to talk about Australian anti-war protests in the past." (hiMe, 2015). These language features show that no matter what she does, people always discriminate against her because she is Vietnamese and that she will never be forgiven because of this. On the other hand, in A Sense of Purpose by Hassani, the main metaphor used is: "My life is and always has been a constant roller coaster of emotions, sloping up and down the track..." (Hassani, 2011). This figurative language explains how the author's life has been a sequence of events, one after the other. Another metaphor Hassani includes is: "...take what I learned here back to those innocent eyes crying out for help..." (Hassani, 2011). This quote describes how she wishes that she could take her knowledge and go back to her home to share it with others there. Through the utilisation of these language hiMe and Hassani convey their feelings and thoughts on racism and discrimination in Australia.

Through the use of emotive language and repetition, hiMe and Hassani convey their emotions pertaining to the discrimination they face because of their identity. hiMe uses words such as "frosty" and "cold" to describe how the Australians acted towards her. She also repeats the word "Asian" throughout her memoir, stating that it is a "dirty word here [in Australia]." (hiMe, 2015). An example of emotive language used is: "Freedom comes with hatred of my existence!" (hiMe, 2015). This quote is used as the last line in the memoir, part of the Ghazal-style poem hiMe has written on the topic of racism. The meaning of this is quite clear, it is that she feels as though she will never be accepted in Australia - a place that was supposed to promise her safety and freedom. Hassani also utilises repetition and emotive language in her memoir A Sense of Belonging. "Illegal", "legal" and "alien" are three words repetitively used in this text, all of which describe her and her family and their emigration from Afghanistan. An example of emotive language Hassani uses is: "Put simply, my life hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows not even as a child." (Hassani, 2011). This evokes a sense of sympathy in the reader, because for most, the heartbreak and fear a refugee fleeing from war experiences, is not a familiar feeling. Though this quote has positive words such as "sunshine" and "rainbows", when read in context the meaning of this line becomes clear. Hassani implies that as a Muslim, Afghan girl her life has not been a particularly happy one, rather one plagued by fear and violence. It can also be inferred that she hopes that, despite her ethnic, religious and racial differences, she will overcome the language barrier and live a better life in Australia. Overall, the effective use of emotive language and repetition work together in these two memoirs to convey the authors' thoughts and experiences on racism and discrimination.

In conclusion, hiMe and Arefa Hassani both use descriptive language features in their personal memoirs to effectively convey their thoughts and feelings on the discrimination they both faced as refugees in Australia.

Although both authors experienced discrimination, in the end they ended up in different situations. hiMe, who bore a child and married her husband in Australia was, unfortunately, continually discriminated against for being a Vietnamese woman. Hassani, however, being at a younger age was eventually accepted into her school community which provided her with the education she needed. She finishes off her memoir with: "It has been a long journey indeed, and one that has shaped me into the individual that I am today, and formed some indelible memories, that will shine through no matter where I go or who I become." (Hassani, 2011). Overall, hiMe and Arefa Hassani use language features, such as metaphors, emotive language and repetition, in their personal memories Casual Racism and A Sense of Belonging, respectively, to summarise their thoughts and feelings on the topic of racism and

discrimination.