Zeitoun: My Response To Social Justice

After reading Zeitoun, my response to social justice is that it does not exist in certain extant. If we are looking at social justice in the big picture, it is a great thing to talk about social justice as if there was some imaginary balancing point at which such equality could be reached. However, in reality social justice does exist. It just being understood to those who it matters the most. For those whose lives are privileged, they would not want to know because they only hope for their own success to last forever. If social justice means everyone deserves equal rights, political, social and economic opportunities we define it, then why the government did not take control and save those in greatest need. They were too worried about judging others like Zeitoun and putt them to jail instead of worrying about their own

social problems.
When we talk about Zeitoun, our mind come across to Post Katrina disaster where hundreds of people lost their lives because the government especially FEMA neglected their duty. Agencies were criticized primarily for ineffectiveness and for slowing down the efforts of other agencies as well as civilian volunteers to help after the hurricane. Therefore, it pressed authorities from other states not to send help to affected areas without an authorization from state and local organizations. This shows the inexperience leadership group FEMA were. They started to break out because no one wants to take full responsibility of the disaster. According to the book Zeitoun, Dave Eggers the author states, “[Zeitoun’s] frustration with some Americans was like that of a disappointed parent. He was so content in this country, so impressed with and loving of its opportunities, but then why, sometimes, did Americans fall short of their best selves? If you got him started on the subject, it was the end of any pleasant meal” (Eggers, 37). Here Zeitoun could not believe why the American were so negligent on themselves. They let themselves down while they could have solved this problem and save lives. When I read this part of the book saying the news helicopter came and photographing floating bodies without stopping to see if those ones were alive or not, I was angry. Instead of sending the helicopter to come help those indeed, they decided to send the news first like it was that serious. This act of careless shows that the government does not apply social justice as they supposed to. This quote also shows that Zeitoun has a reason to be mad against the Americans because of how neglected they were and let the disaster took over the cities without any actions being taken.
Reflecting back to Post Katrina, once can say that race and social factor are part of the reason why the government was not taking action at the very beginning. Since the Louisiana especially the area where Post Katrina hits was predominately poor, the government was acting careless because that those people didn’t have nothing to bring to table. Therefore, they neglected the situation. When frustration and the blaming game come we aim to find excuses of that matter and since Zeitoun happens to be in a place where blaming others was the way to protect their reputations, he was accused because of who he was, a Muslim living in America. Dave Eggers states, “Every time a crime was committed by a Muslim, that person's faith was mentioned, regardless of its relevance. When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion? ... When a crime is committed by a black man, it's mentioned in the first breath: 'An African American man was arrested today...' But what about German Americans? Anglo Americans? A white man robs a convenience store and do we hear he's of Scottish descent? In no other instance is the ancestry mentioned” (Eggers, 41). This quote shows the stereotype that occurs during this time, especially when things needed to be resolved. Judging others for their religious beliefs or the color of their skin colors will only emphasize the differences. The single story here has created a danger in American society because they sentenced the man who was serving social justice to save lives that the government was neglecting. The danger of misunderstanding the value of social justice is; it robs person's dignity as we have seen in Zeitoun. If we keep playing the blaming game to save our own good, the reality is social justice will never be applicable in society.
As a Muslim brother, seeing how Zeitoun discriminated and thrown in prison scares me sometimes to stop sharing my religious beliefs with strangers. They might discriminate me for thinking that I am a terrorist or Taliban just like they have done to Zeitoun. But sometimes I realize that if I stay quiet or not acting like Kathy as Eggers states, “In late September, [Kathy] was in Walgreens when she finally saw a woman in a hijab. She ran to her. ‘Salaam alaikum!’ she said, taking the woman’s hands. The woman, a doctor studying at Tulane, had been feeling the same way, like an exile in her own country, and they laughed at how delirious they were to see each other” (Zeitoun, 46). The reality is they would not know that Muslim is just another religious just like Christian etc... Kathy action motivates me to stay strong and be proud of yourself no matter what happen. It also motivates me to keep reaching out others because in doing so, it will prevent me discriminating others. If Kathy was not brave, she would not have taken that risk to reach out of others to show how proud she was to be a Muslim. This shows how one leadership action can lead to a better result. If one of the leaders in FEMA took leadership action, maybe the people of Louisiana would not suffer as much at that moment.
After seeing how devastated Louisiana and how difficult Zeitoun’s Journey were, I have learned that social justice only exists when we do things for the sake of god.

Seeing Zeitoun; the man who volunteered to help others to survive during post Katrina was sentenced to jail, my life has changed. It changes because seeing such a faithful man who was serving the country that gives him opportunities, but also violate his rights show how brave Zeitoun were. One of the other most important lessons I learned in this book is, never point a finger to someone. The moment you point that finger to that particular person, you are giving that person your power to control you. Zeitoun was brave enough to not point a finger to anyone. He just believes he has to serve therefore; he must react to save others’ lives. If every single person took action at the same time as Zeitoun, more people could have been saved and most importantly no accusation toward the government would have occurred. If we claim to call ourselves “WE THE PEOPLE”, then we should look out for each other and make sure social justice exist. In doing so, we as society will benefit from social

justice.