Middle Eastern Americans: America's New Nigger

Does that phrase offend you. Does the fact the word "Nigger" is right there in front of you seem offensive? Good! I hope that all of my white brothers and sisters find offense in that term. But that is how we are treating the Middle Eastern people in this country, oh sure we have great terminology like, "Camel Jockey," and "Raghead." All of it used to to degrade a whole community. Middle Easterners have become our new niggers in America, the group that we get to blame now for our troubles. Oh sure we still have plenty to say about the state of the African American community, but Middle Eastern people are the hot new scapegoat.

So why is that. Well some people point to 9/11 as a reason. After that day all of the Middle Eastern people in this country were viewed with suspicion. OK, well why didn't we view all white people with suspicion after Timothy Mcveigh leveled the building in Oklahoma, or Ted Kazenski the Unabomber, or any number of abortion clinic bombings perpetrated by whites in this country. I'll bet the first thought going through your head was, "Oh, well that was different." Why? Probably because you believe it was the act of one or two crazy white people. AHA!!!!! And there it is, the Oklahoma City bombing and the rest was all an act of an individual, while apparently the 9/11 tragedy was a whole community.

In order to understand this obvious contradiction in ideals, you have to look again at white privilege. See, as white people we have the distinct advantage of seeing ourselves as individuals, not as part of a member of a larger group. No one would stop a white man in the street and ask him to speak for the whole white community. However, watch any local news program where they are asking a black person for their opinion and inevitably that person is speaking for the black community as a whole. How absurd is that? How can one individual speak for a whole community. He or she can't, but as white people we classify others into categories so they can fit neatly into our vision of the world and how it works. It helps to verify our "One bad apple spoils the whole bunch" ideology

So back to the Middle Eastern people and our new hatred. Well 9/11 scared white people, not that it didn't affect other people in our country, but white people really felt vulnerable. A black commentator that was on a show with Tim Wise said to a white woman in the audience that he was sorry that all of the white people were running on 9/11, but that black people had been running for 400 years. She got upset and told him, "How dare you compare the black experience to 9/11." He replied quite politely, "How dare you compare 9/11 to the black experience." See, as white people we were the ones most affected by 9/11. Our lives got more complicated, we had someone to be afraid of. Black people have had reason not to trust the white man in this country for centuries. It was a new thing for us, not the kind of irrational fear we have of black people that they will steal our purses or assault us. Not the ridiculous notions that we have of so many other minorities in this country, but real honest to god fear that there were people who really wanted to kill us. Well, ask any black person in this country that is at least partially versed in black history and he or she will tell you that they have lived with that fear since we forcibly abducted their ancestors and forced them into slavery.

Until we start viewing the acts of terrorism as what they are, which is acts by a minority of people, than we are going to continue to make the lives of Middle Easterners miserable. I know far too many families in this country that are Middle Eastern that just want to live in peace. They sure as hell didn't want their lives made worse by the acts of a few radicals, but that's what they got. Now despite having nothing at all to do with any of the acts of 9/11 they still get to be treated as if they were personally involved just by the fact that they share an ancestry or common background as those who did it.

Next time you catch yourself thinking this way. Thinking that the actions of a few justifies hatred of a whole race of people, I encourage you to take a good look at the proud history of white people. Can I blame you for slavery, the holocaust, and the huge number of other atrocities that white people have been responsible for. You probably wouldn't like that much at all. So stop doing it to everyone else, that person that is unlike you is every bit as much an individual with individual feelings as you are.

Later on I will post some info on how we as white people today, despite not being directly responsible for slavery, or a host of other lovely things we did to minorities in this country, are still reaping the benefits years later.