Do you ever realize that you have been unfortunately preoccupied worrying about something that in retrospect wasn’t quite as pressing a matter as other considerations? For instance, in the agony of a paper cut, would you really fail to notice that your hair was on fire? Probably not. However, while this manner of shortsightedness is rare individually, on a societal level, I get the feeling that proper arrangement of the deck chairs is more important than the Titanic itself sinking into the ocean. Such is the situation in today’s America, where talk of the problems facing minorities falls upon deaf ears because we consider other things to be more important.
Perhaps by now you’ve heard of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. A 17-year-old black teenager who was visiting his father in Sanford, Fla, Martin was gunned down by a man named George Zimmerman doing a neighborhood watch patrol. Zimmerman claimed self-defense — whether from the Skittles Martin was holding or the can of iced tea, nobody knows. Zimmerman, after stalking this kid down and shooting him, was not arrested despite the fact that when he called the police to report this “suspicious character,” they told him not to follow him.
Martin was guilty of no crime other than being black in a nice neighborhood. I won’t even begrudge Zimmerman his racist stereotypes and assumptions of guilt. Prejudice is not a stranger to America. What makes this case so absolutely enraging is that this man’s bigotry lead to the death of an innocent.
However, black people, despite their apparent inability to walk on the sidewalk in peace, appear to have it pretty good in comparison to Muslims. Ever since 9/11, the dominating cultural message to Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin is “you can stay, but we’ve got our eyes on you.” Consider the outrage of certain people to the television show “All-American Muslim” that depicted a Muslim family as being normal Americans, as opposed to the fundamentalist jihadists some people would like to think they all are.
But this is naught but a tear in a rainstorm compared to the murder of Shaima Alawadi. She was an Iraqi-American trying to find respite in America from the chaos in her own nation (caused by us in case you’ve forgotten). Last Wednesday, someone broke into her El Cajon, Calif., home and beat her repeatedly in the head with a tire iron, leaving a note that read, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” She died on Saturday, leaving behind her husband and their five children.
Once again, given the omnipresent false narrative that “All Muslims are terrorists,” I’m not surprised there was some imbecile who got angry about the Arabs in the neighborhood. But again the shock is that this failure of a human being took the initiative to break into someone’s home, and kill them simply because they were different. Then, to have the astounding nerve to accuse this peaceful mother of being a terrorist, when this coward, by his or her own actions committed an act of despicable terrorism.
I hate to use such a cliche, but wake up, America! Our culture is complacent in breeding people that turn their fear and hatred into deathly acts. These people are not just nut jobs to be written off — they have entire mental constructs based on how they understand the messages they receive from the world around them about who these “other” people are and how best to deal with them. I’m sure whatever else out there can wait when the most vulnerable in our society are at risk. We must have zero tolerance for these kind of actions, and we must figure out how to end this culture of bigotry now, lest the land of the free and the home of the brave becomes something disgustingly unrecognizable.
