Fargo, North Dakota

Reflection written by Kara E. Gravley-Stack, Equity & Diversity Center, North Dakota State University.

On Sept. 22, 2008 a small but diverse group of students, faculty, staff and community members gathered in the Memorial Union at North Dakota State University to screen the film Divided We Fall: Americans in the Aftermath.

The discussion that followed provided students the opportunity to express their surprise and outrage at the accounts provided throughout the documentary. Many of the students were quite young when the attacks on 9/11 happened, so their knowledge of the events of that day, and the days immediately following, were primarily focused on the stories produced by mainstream media. They knew of the hijacked airplanes, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the Pennsylvania field – and they knew of the official response from the U.S. government. However, most of them were completely unaware of the prejudice and hate crimes perpetrated against people perceived to be “Muslim terrorists.”

One Muslim student shared his own experiences as a victim of hate crimes after 9/11. Another student shared her story as a Christian-born woman who recently converted to Islam and has chosen to wear a hijab. These stories, and others, probably would not have been shared in any other venue than upon watching this video. The majority of people in attendance were very moved by both the movie and the reflection session. This provided an excellent opportunity to expand our knowledge of different cultures and world religions – more events like this need to be offered!