伊朗裔美国人使用科学技术展示成功故事

 

Pirooz Parvarandeh has been an executive¹ in the technology industry for many years. He is also an Iranian American. But Paravarandeh believes Iranian Americans are subject to many negative stereotypes³.

A stereotype² is a widely held but often wrong or oversimplified idea about a group of people.

One reason is that even Iranian Americans themselves do not know about the many success stories of their group, he said.

So Parvarandeh helped set up what he calls the “Iranian Americans’ Contribution Project.” It collected 200,000 Iranian last names and 70,000 first names. It uses the internet to search jobs held by people with these Iranian names.

So far, the project has found more than 9,000 doctors and 3,000 dentists.

It also found that Iranian Americans have received at least 40,000 patents. Patents are given to people who invent new products or processes.

Parvarandeh hopes the information will cause people to reject negative images of Iranian Americans.

“What images come up with “Iranian?” A terrorist⁴? A hostage-taker? Or a contributing member of society,” he asked during a recent talk at the University of California, Berkeley.

“If we don’t know the contributions of Iranian Americans, how can we expect the American public to know? If the public is not with us, why would policymakers want to stick up for us?”

About one million Iranians now live in the United States, mostly in California.

The Iranian Americans’ Contributions Project started last year. But it grew more interest this year after Iran was listed among countries included in the first and second travel bans called for by the Trump⁵ administration. Both orders have been blocked temporarily by federal judges.

Parvarandeh hopes his new project will show Americans the many contributions being made by Iranian Americans.

Immigrant groups in America have long considered how best to both “assimilate,” or fit in,” and remain proud of their culture.

For Iranian Americans, this has been made more difficult by continuing tensions between the United States and Iran. Those tensions date back to the seizing and holding of 52 American hostages⁶ at the U.S. embassy⁷ in Tehran from November 1979 to January 1981.

The internet effort to identify important jobs done by Iranian Americans is not always successful. The second generation of Iranian Americans and people marrying non-Iranian Americans means more have taken on American sounding names.

But Parvarandeh hopes that Iranian Americans will reach out to his project. It uses both information collected on the internet, and interviews with Iranian Americans.

Abe Kasbo is founder⁸ and chief executive officer of Verasoni Worldwide. It is a marketing⁹ and public relations company with offices in New Jersey¹⁰ and Texas. Kasbo decided¹¹ too many Americans do not know about the contributions of Arab Americans.

That led him to produce the 2016 film, “A Thousand and One Journeys.” It includes interviews with successful Arab Americans. He hopes the movie will show people the important contributions made by Arab-Americans.

Among those interviewed for the movie were former Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell, actor Jamie Farr, political activist¹² Ralph Nader and the late journalist, Helen Thomas.

Kasbo said people who watch the movie will learn about just some of the noteworthy contributions” by Arab Americans.

Words in This Story

negative - adj. thinking about the bad qualities of someone or something

contributing - adj. to help to cause something to happen

society - n. people living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values

interview - n. to ask someone questions

noteworthy - adj. significant or important

1 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

2 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

3 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 terrorist   

n.恐怖主义者，恐怖分子

参考例句：

• Without the gun,I'm a sitting duck for any terrorist.没有这支枪，我就成了恐怖分子下手的目标了。
• The district was put on red alert during a terrorist's bomb scare.这个地区在得到恐怖分子炸弹恐吓后作了应急准备。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 hostages   

人质( hostage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
• Fear was the hostages' constant companion. 人质一直都感到恐惧不安。

7 embassy   

n.大使馆，大使及其随员

参考例句：

• Large crowd demonstrated outside the British Embassy.很多群众在英国大使馆外面示威。
• He's a U.S. diplomat assigned to the embassy in London.他是美国驻伦敦大使馆的一名外交官。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

10 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。