"That Person Over There Is a Person" - Jermaine Clement

During the period of European imperialism in Africa. Africa was seen as a continent of savagery. A place that was inherently evil. As the Congo is further explored through the eyes of Marlowe, in Heart of Darkness, we learn that the Europeans themselves are the ones who cannot control themselves, and act irrationally in the face of danger. While the Congolese are perfectly in control of themselves in instances of danger and panic. 

The Europeans refused to accept the idea that the Congolese were just the same as they were, because they did not want to be associated with the "savages." Instead they hid behind the idea that they were more civilized than the Congolese, when in reality they simply just had a different culture. 

In modern day, many Americans think of the middle east as a place of turmoil and evil, and what stems from this idea of the middle east is a torrent of American islamophobia. According to a 2010 ABC poll, only 37 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion about Islam and 22 percent said they wouldn't want to have a Muslim as a neighbor. This wide outbreak of fear of Muslims is much like that of the fear of the Congolese. And just like the Europeans, we are so blinded by this widespread fear that we cannot see past the fact that the bombings and attacks that caused this was just a small group of men, not an entire religion. We can't see that these people are just people and not the monsters that 22 percent of Americans don't want to live next door to.