I was born in May 2004, two years and seven months after the events of 9/11. I feel invalidated to talk about this day and its meaning. I don’t remember when traveling through airport security wasn’t a huge ordeal; I’m always anxiously making sure the liquids in my carry-on didn’t exceed 3.4 ounces or if I left my portable charger in my checked bag. I’ve been too young to experience the world-changing events that have always been taught to me as history.

A majority of current undergraduates relate to this experience, with the class of 2024 typically being, at most, two years old during the event.

A poll conducted by More in Common last September found that younger generations struggle finding equivalent statements to the common 9/11 phrase “Never Forget,” often being more inclined to respond “I don’t know” or have less responses to questions about the terror attack.
Gen Z is the first generation with the opportunity to decide how to respectfully honor this event by approaching it with tact as a means of learning from missteps in how previous generations dealt with directly witnessing the trauma of 9/11.

In the same More in Common poll, results found that Gen Z and Millennials were less likely than Americans from older generations to describe the post-9/11 nation as “patriotic” and “united.” Despite the political topic, the difference in how we view patriotism is generational. Only 24% of Gen Z Americans feel that Americans today should embody the uber-patriotic values that sprouted after the 9/11 attacks — in contrast to 48% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats who shared this sentiment.

We stand at the crossroads of history, where we have the opportunity to challenge the narratives that have perpetuated fear and division. Yes, to some, America’s patriotism and unity has only decreased after the event, but we cannot claim that there was true unity with the rampant discrimination and violence towards Muslim Americans and those who even remotely looked like they were from the Middle East — populations who became targets after the attacks.

The stereotypical portrayal of Muslims and those of Middle Eastern descent in the media is still greatly affected by the feelings associated with the 9/11 attacks. For the post-9/11 generation, change not only involves increasing representation but creating accurate depictions.

The shift in the Muslim media portrayal before and after 9/11 and its contribution to the nation’s high, still-existing Islamophobia, was investigated by Hajar Yazdiha, an assistant professor of sociology, in her 2020 publication, “All the Muslims Fit to Print: Racial Frames as Mechanisms of Muslim Ethnoracial Formation in The New York Times from 1992 to 2010.”

By analyzing media collected from The New York Times, Yazdiha was able to model a neutral-to-accusatory tone change post-9/11, resulting in the vilification of a falsely generalized Muslim community and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes. Terms like “terrorism” and “violence” became more synonymous with the Muslim American community, scapegoating social problems onto the group rather than addressing the root of institutional issues.

According to the USC Annenberg Inclusive Initiative, which analyzed Muslim characters in 200 popular episodic series, only one percent of 8,885 speaking characters on TV are Muslim, disproportionate to their contribution to the global population of 25%. From the series of shows analyzed from 2018 to 2019, seven out of the 12 series regulars were perpetrators or targets of physical violence.

And, despite being the most racially and ethnically diverse religious group in the world, 52% of Muslim characters are depicted to be from Middle-Eastern descent. The inaccurate and inflammatory perception of these minority groups perpetuates the idea of the “perpetual foreigner,” making it challenging for these communities to be accepted, causing their further oppression and ostracization in society.

By acknowledging the consequences of post-9/11 policies and the racial profiling that emerged, we can be catalysts for change. Our generation can redefine patriotism as a commitment to justice, equality and unity — not rooted in fear but in empathy and understanding.