Iranian- American’s Experiences

CHAPTER 4. DISCUSSION

4.1 Iranian- American’s Experiences

Racial discrimination was felt by many Iranians who lived in the United States and one of them was Mohsen Mobasher who had written his experiences through a book entitled Iranian in Texas: Migration, Politics, and Ethnic Identity. Racism really leads people to feel inferior and this phenomenon had happened to him as Mobasher in Ulack, 2013 says: “Although I have spent two-thirds of my life in this country, developed strong friendship ties with many Americans, and gained a deep appreciation for American culture, I still feel like a foreigner, an outsider on the margins of American society.” Racism that happened to Iranian living in America was caused by the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981. The American’s hatred began to grow since that moment happened. This explanation shows the moment: “The feeling of marginalization, he says, is shared by many Iranian immigrants. He argues that it is largely caused by the contentious political relationship between the U.S. and Iran, distorted media images and stereotypes of Iranians and, more generally, people from the Middle East and the profiling and discriminatory policies that were put into effect first during the Iran hostage crisis from 1979 to 1981 and later, after the september 11, 2001, attacks on the United States Ulack, 2013.” This shows how actions that were done by some people could give big effects to many others. Since the hostage crisis happened, the relationship between Iran and the United States was broken. The consequence was that Iranians living in the United States got the impact of the crisis. Bad images and stereotypes of Iranians which people thought that Iranians living abroad and Iranians who had taken American hostages in Tehran were just the same leaded the Iranian who lived in the United States to the inferority complex. They didn’t want to be recognized as Iranian, their racial identity, even they were frightened to be Iranian. The result of this discrimination is their pretending not to be the Iranian as Ulack states: “many Iranian immigrants were and continue to be forced to manage the stigma of being Iranian – and some go to great lenghts to do so. Drawing on interviews with Iranian immigrants in Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Mobasher provides examples of how Iranians deal with this stigma, such as avoiding speaking Persian in public places, keeping hidden the fact that they are from Iran or by simply calling themselves Persian rather that Iranian 2013.” The hostage crisis really made big impact to Iranian who lived in the United States. Discrimination during the hostage crisis got increasing as Ulack 2013 says: “ he draws largely on two important events that shaped the migration and integration experiences of many first and second generation Iranians in America: the hostage crisis and 911. After each of these events, he argues discriminatory and exclusionary policies and practices were put in to place that exacerbated the feelings of marginalization of many Irani ans in country.” Moreover, it still continued although the hostage crisis was over, “and such difficulties continued even after the end of the hostage crisis Ulack, 2013.” The other experiences that lead Iranian people to feel inferior are moments related to anti-Semitic mentality and Prospero Complex. Anti-Semitic mentality is defined as a passion of authorizing other people’s wealth and Prospero complex is a feeling that one and his group are the only respectable people. Both complexes have the same tr eatment to get the goals. That is making other people inferior. That’s why these backgrounds really have roles to make people dependent and inferior. Moments represent anti-Semitic mentality and Prospero Complex in the life on Iranian is when British Petroleum tried to authorize the oil of Iran. That moment shows that the British wanted to have Iran’s wealth. Kinzer 2010 tells: “The history of the company we now call BP has over the last 100 years, traced the arc of transnational capitalism. Its roots lie in the early years of the twentieth century when a wealthy bon vivant named William Knox D’Arcy decided with encouragement from the British government to begin looking for oil in Iran. He struck a concession agreement with the absolute Iranian monarchy, using the proven expedient of bribing the three Iranians negotiating with him.” The phrase “encouragement from the British government” really shows the superiority of the white that the British were the only respectable people. The British’s greed also shows that they were the only people who had to be respected and they could do everything they wanted. “Under the contract, which he assigned, D’Arcy was to own whatever oil he found in Iran and he made – never allowing any Iranian to review his accounting. After his first strike in 1908, he lies beneath Iran’s oil. No one else was allowed to drill for, refine, extract, or sell “Iranian” oil Kinzer,2010.” The British’s Prospero Complex was followed by their passion to get Iranian’s wealth. From this moment, it could be clearly seen that the anti-Semitic mentality of the British was very strong. Then they started to make the Iranian inferior when Iranian government declared their oil natinalization. Iranian oil nationalization was done to prove that t he Iranian didn’t want to be dependent anymore. This attempt is shown in this story: “In Iran, nationalism meant one thing: we’ve got to take back our oil. Driven by this passion, parliament voted on April 28, 1951, to choose. Its most passionate champion of oil nationalization, Mohammad Mosadegh as prime minister. Days later, it unanimously approved his bill nationalizing the oil company. Mosadegh promised that, henceforth, oil profits would be used to develop Iran, not enrich Britain Kinzer, 2010.” Unfortunately, the British still had their Prospero Complex so they showed their power to make the Iranian inferior. They underestimated the decision and made rules without any agreement from the Iranian. “To the British, nationalization seemed, at first, like some kind of immense joke, a step so absurdly contrary to the unwritten rules of the world that it could hardly be real. Early in this confrontation, the directors of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and their partners in Britain’s government settled on their strategy: no meditation, no compromise, no acceptance of nationalization in any form Kinzer, 2010.” To make the Iranian inferior, as the treatment of the Prospero Complex, the British began boycotting them Kinzer 2010 tells: “They withdrew their technicians from Abadan, blockaded the port, cut off exports of vital goods to Iran, froze the country’s hard currency accounts in British banks, and tried to win anti-Iran resolutions from the U.N. and the World Court. This campaign only intensified Iranian determination. Finally, the British turned to Washington and asked for a favor: please overthrow this madman for us so we can have our oil company back.” Finally, the British succeeded making the Iranian inferior. British Petroleum reauthorized Iranian oil, the Iranian became dependent again to the British. “The oil company re-branded itself as British Petroleum, BP Amoco, and then, in 2000, BP. During its decades in Iran, it had operated as it pleased, with little regard for the interests of local people. This corporate tradition has evidently remained strong Kinzer, 2010.”

4.2 Dumas’s Stories Reflecting Iranian-American’s Experiences