Think of a mother. Her name is Mary. She’s beautiful, brave, and she just had her second child; a little girl to be the younger sister to her one-year-old daughter. She names the older May, and her newest baby Suzy. Her husband Shawky had just been drafted into the army to fight for his country. What are your immediate thoughts? Oh, one more detail. They’re Chaldean. It was Saddam Hussein’s army against their will, and they’ve decided to flee from their home in Iraq to be safe from a dictator’s rule. What are your thoughts now?
It was 1976, Suzy was just a newborn when the Marogis decided to flee. Shawky had talked to Mary before then about what needs to happen and when. Shawky fled first, and had to wait about a month before he sent a friend for his wife and daughters. Why didn’t they flee at the same time? The answer is simple: the Iraqi government would realize that they’re fleeing and would execute all of them, even the babies. It’s not any normal execution, either; they would be beheaded, in fact, their heads would be sawed off.
Mary was petrified. Keep in mind, in Iraq, teenagers were having children at a very young age and were married at even younger. Mary was 14 when she was married off to Shawky who was about 22, and she was 17 when she had decided to flee. Imagine: being 17, married, a mother of two and you’re faced with the options to flee your home with the probability of sudden death or to stay under a dictatorship and die anyway because of the cultural and religious conflicts. The Marogis were Catholic.
Mary had both children in each of her arms and boarded a bus that was leaving the country and headed to Bulgaria. One of Saddam’s soldiers also boarded the same bus and started analyzing every passenger to make sure none of them were trying to flee. If caught, the whole family would have been killed instantly. Mary’s heart was racing, her entire body shaking vigorously. “I had to turn my head and look down because I was so scared,” Mary told Suzy when describing her escape, “At times, I thought he could hear my heartbeat.”
When Mary got to the airport in Bulgaria, the agents working there embarrassed her. “Where’s your husband? Are you a whore?” They would ask her. They took Mary’s luggage and dumped the belongings all over the floor of the airport terminal, making her pick up all the clothes and place it back in her suitcase. Shawky’s escort had to explain to the agents that her husband is in Greece waiting for her, only then did they allow Mary to board the plane with two babies. There, she finally met her freedom in Greece.
After living two years in Greece, the Greek Red Cross sponsored the Marogis as refugees to come to the United States in 1978. They lived in New York for a little bit before moving to Detroit when Suzy was about two. When Suzy was around nine years old, the Marogis moved to the suburbs in Michigan. However, nobody knew about Chaldeans unless if they were Bible readers. Then, the racism began.
Suzy recalled how she was called a “camel jockey,” a “towel head,” and was often told, “Arab go back to your country!” There was another name she was called quite frequently, too, “Sand Nigger.”
“[Mary’s] English was so broken, she was made fun of a lot,” Suzy said, “But, it wasn’t too bad in Detroit until we moved to the suburbs.”
In the ‘80s, the whole Iran-Contra affair happened. The films started to portray Middle Easterners as terrorists, and then the Gulf War took place, and shortly after, 9/11. The Marogis, who had four more children (Loraine, Alen, Alvin and Shawky Jr.) in America, had to deal with much more racism during this time. The “terrorist” card was thrown at them so frequently at this point. Shortly before 9/11, Suzy had a daughter of her own. I am that daughter.
I remember in preschool, which was about a year or so after 9/11, multiple kids would ask me, “My Mommy/Daddy told me your family are terrorists. Are you a terrorist, too?” It got worse for me as I grew up, the kids started saying similar comments like they said to my mother and Nana, and I was born here! When I hopped on my bus wrapped up with a black scarf and in my black coat during a bitter winter, one girl gestured to me and said to her friend, “I don’t want to stay on this bus anymore. That girl looks like a terrorist.” I realized right then it’s because the other kids were ignorant and afraid.
My mother noticed this too. After 9/11, she was shopping with my Grammy (named Linda), her mother-in-law, at Best Buy and Meijer. Suddenly, an employee told her to leave the store because of the shade of skin. Linda was furious having witnessed it, but Suzy didn’t let it bother her anymore.
“We didn’t let racism get to us too badly because we knew people were scared of things they knew nothing about,” Suzy said. “It’s ignorance.”
The comments began to lighten up in recent days, but now they’re starting to resurface due to the presidential campaign – specifically, Donald Trump’s blatant racism against other races and religions, especially muslims.
Islamophobia is a real problem I’ve noticed due to ignorance. If anybody did any actual research into the Muslims and their religion, it’d be clear that they’re not terrorists. For God’s sake, one of their main requirements is charity!
Honestly, I fear for my life and my family's life if Donald Trump were to become president. I'm honestly petrified: what's he going to do to me and my family? I don't want to find out.
I’ve heard multiple students and even teachers mention how we Americans should go to war with the Middle East or that we should, better yet, “just kill them all.” Now, tell me something. If you plan to kill thousands of innocents just because of a few extremists, wouldn’t that make you no different from a terrorist?
