Last week a friend of mine was telling me about her new years trip to New York. She is middle eastern and told me that at one point while trying to get info from a cop she felt like she was being racially profiled. The cop waved his metal detector around her as she asked questions. It was as if she had done something wrong just for asking directions. It struck a nerve when I heard this. I went to lunch with another friend on Friday and I told her the whole story about what happened to my friend. She told me that New York had been through so much with 9/11 and that they viewed things differently because they were there when it happened. It was almost as though she was saying it was ok to racial profile because of what they had been through. I didn't say much about it after because I disagreed with what she had to say and didn't really want to get into it with her.
Today I was listening to the podcast " This American Life." This weeks episode featured a Muslim Mom talking about how peoples racism after 9/11 had hurt her oldest daughter. Listening to the Mother and daughter talk about how bad it was at school for her made me so sad and so angry. This little girl in fourth grade was treated so badly. Hearing The mother crying as she's telling her story made my vision go blurry, I wanted to hold her and tell her that this was so wrong to have happened. Eventually they had to move because the children at the school made life so horrible for the poor girl and her siblings. Worst was that it all started from what the teacher had said to the children in her class. I wont go into any more about the podcast but if you want to hear it download it its episode #322 Shouting across the divide.
After listening to all this I cant help but realise how much racism is still accepted by so many people. It saddens me to think that because your look different, have a different accent or a different religion people will easily turn their backs on you. Be so hateful so arrogant about how right they are and how wrong someone else is. Some times I just look around and think wow we as humans can be such ass holes.
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Racism is a terrible thing, yet it and it's relative stereotypic discrimination are still widespread... and not just here in the U. S. If you are overweight people form thoughts and actions about you, if you are short, if you are gay, if you are religious, etc, etc, etc. It is sad that we cannot look past the group to see the people, and in particular the person we are dealing with at any given moment.
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