I love america and American culture and learning about it

not normally political but here goes

I have a lot of thoughts about what’s happening to the Muslim/Arab people in America right now and I just want to say that I understand. Living in a white society, it is so hard being an immigrant, especially if you’re part of a visible minority, and I’m not trying to belittle, devalue, or make light of other minorities that have been oppressed over the years like the LGBTQ+ community, or women in general, but because of what’s going on right now in this context, with this ban, this is about race. They (the Trump administration, Trump supporters, xenophobic/racist people in general) can chalk it up to immigration all they want, but they aren’t fooling anyone. Even though it’s said to be temporary, the fundamentals behind even implementing this as temporary action is highly concerning.

If you look at the events that led to World War II, to the Holocaust, it starts with the idea that certain people were creating problems for the German people, that they were eroding the German identity. The “they” in this situation was mostly Jewish people, along with others deemed undesirable, unfavourable and ill-suited to the German nationalistic identity. It didn’t take long for it to turn into a debate on the definition of who/what is German and who/what is not, and we see a frighteningly similar pattern right here and right now, in the continued and deliberate attack on anything related to Islam or the Middle East as well as comments made pertaining to the Latino community. When people in Europe needed help, when Jewish people needed help, they were turned away because of the semitism and the prejudice of the 1930s and 40s, and countless lives were lost. It was horrific, and the world said “never again, never again will we let this happen”, and slogans started coming up saying “as long as people remember what happened in WWII, it’ll never happen again,” and now I have to ask you what was the point of all of these Holocaust Memorials and genocide teachings when we’ve just managed to land right back here all over again, after 70 years with more genocides? (Fun fact: after the horrific events of WWII, a new term had to be coined to be able to properly describe the mass extinction and eradication of a specific group. A term that would be able to encompass all the horrors and disgusting activities perpetrated. So they came up with ‘genocide’; “geno” from genos, generally pertaining to human, or group (like genome), and “cide”, a suffix used to express more than just death; but also loss (see suicide, homicide, etc). A word that should send shivers down one’s spine with just the realization of what it represents. Mass death; extinction.) But after 70 years, what have we learned? We haven’t learned anything, clearly.

But getting back to the present; life became so inconceivably difficult for people that were visible minorities after 9/11. If your appearance in anyway suggested Middle Eastern descent or origin, you became someone that could be targeted, that could be demonized because of what your culture represented, because of what your religion represented. People who have been categorized as ‘Brown’ know what I’m talking about and the behaviour such a label entails. It means the comments about terrorism and being a terrorist said so offhandedly, it means “go back to where you came from” jokes, it means the glances you would get anytime you’d see or hear something about Al Qaeda or Taliban or Isis, it means getting called aside at airport security for ‘random selection’ time and time again because when you’re the brown person travelling in a group of white people it can look suspicious. It happens a lot in Europe, and I understand their fear, I really do. Horrible things have happened in Europe, but horrible things have also happened elsewhere in the world too, for a longer period of time, and that 'fear’ that they feel is the point of all the attacks. They (the radicals, extremists, terrorists, call them whatever you want, their point is the same) want to create that fear to isolate and weaken. We call it 'terrorism’ because it strikes terror - literally paralyzing, unimaginable, unendurable fear - into the hearts of people of diverse nations. It is meant to divide people, to make people distrust their neighbours because of the way they look or the way they pray or the way they dress. It is meant to create factions amongst people that otherwise have no fight with one another, and to create an environment where people are targeted and demonized and blamed for the actions of others. When we react to violence with violence, fear with fear, terror with terror, we are feeding the beast. We are giving those people that want to create worldwide discord what they want. So let’s not let them do that!

Personally, I’m a 17 year old Canadian-born girl of two Indian immigrants, born in Winnipeg, one of the whitest (demographically), most-racist (anecdotally) cities in Canada, where after three months, we moved to Montréal, spent eight years in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in North America, and then finally moved to Calgary where we are now; and I think it’s fair to say I’ve seen a lot of different aspects of what Canada looks like, of what a fairly healthy and functioning diverse country looks like and the truth is, it’s not always fair and it’s not always equal. It’s not always kind, either, and that’s the harsh truth. The notion that a country that’s as generally accepting as Canada is is without flaws is, well, a flawed ideal. Work still has to be done in Canada, but I think it’s safe to say that more work needs to be done in America. I could talk about my own story and my family’s story and just kind of how we’ve seen the world evolve - but then I remember that “evolve” is not the right word, because we’re not becoming something better, we’re just changing, so instead - how it’s changed in the 15 years since 9/11. But that wouldn’t change anything. That doesn’t help people that are scared right now, that feel isolated and alone right now, and that have had terror struck into their hearts because of what 'their’ president said, because of what 'their’ president has done and how he said he would protect the rights of all people in his country. Well, it’s been a week on the job President Trump, and you’ve already failed.

When 9/11 happened, this Islamophobia started, and no one knew what to call it back then, there wasn’t really a word for it. It was just this concept that the Islamic countries were dangerous, and that their ideas were dangerous, and that you have to watch out for them because there’s something wrong with them, and people never really got over that and it’s still visible in the aftermath and the consequences of wars that western countries had no part of getting involved in; but that’s a conversation for another day. When people started comparing Trump to Hitler, I really hated that trend, because you can’t compare the genocide of 10 million people deemed 'unfavourable’ by a sociopath to the ramblings of a racist, rich, white man. I mean there was really no comparison, and it’s unfair to the Jewish population to say that, but never did I think I’d see the day that Trump’s executive policies would align him closer to Hitler’s iconic (sorry, but true) and infamous ideologies than any other head of state since WWII. The fact that his administration has had the audacity to flat-out lie on national television to the very population it swore to serve on its very first day in power is an ominous sign. And nearly every executive order signed since has just further cemented that Trump is a petulant child who is so stubborn he demands that his views and opinions become the law and basis on which to run the country. Because he seems to have forgotten that the core of democracy is that it is run by the people, for the people. Because he is a hypocrite above all else.

But to go back to what this post was originally about. Race. To the people out there who say race is a human construct: that may be true. But to think that we can live in a post-race world is just naive. Unfortunately, that is not the way our world was built, and so we will have to fix it through the limits and barricades the generations of people before us have set up. That means accepting that race is real, that it won’t just go away, and that there truly is a race problem, not only in America, but in caucasian-centric nations around the world. I mean, the idea of being Middle-Eastern or Arab is so taboo that Christianity insists on depicting Jesus as white. You can argue that it was derived from different times, and that’s it’s just tradition, but if you know it’s wrong now, then why not invoke change? Hello? Jesus was a Jewish man from the Syria-Israel-Palestine-Egypt geographic area. He is 99.99% likely to have been brown, with black hair and a thick beard. To think or demand otherwise is frankly, pure stupidity. But it’s not necessarily those believers’ faults, and I’m not here to stir up religious dissent. It’s simply one of the consequences of a system that demands white-washing everything to be at a purity level acceptable for white people, who have always seen themselves as superior, even if it hasn’t been blatantly obvious. Sorry to white people who do care, I and I’m sure many others appreciate the support, but making a difference starts with realizing that the milennia of white-washing and racial negligence that has occurred to create a “proper” society whose idols fit into a range of “white appropriateness” is a system and a concept that need to be changed. And it means stepping up for Black Lives Matter, for DACA/DAPA, and speaking out against religious intolerance when mosques go up in flames or black churches go through mass shootings. It means giving a damn beyond grumbling at the tv, “this is bullshit.” I’m guilty of this too. But we can help invoke change by speaking, by not staying quiet, by taking the leap and breaking the taboo silence that makes us fear being called an overzealous social justice warrior. Don’t be afraid to speak your mind. I had to work up the courage to type this, let alone post it for the world to see. But I feel lighter now, so I would definitely recommend it. Change begins by showing support and getting the word out, letting people know that someone out there really does care, and is not okay with what’s going on.

I literally can not believe that we (humanity) have been civilized for nearly 10,000 years and are still unable to grapple with the concept that skin colour does not a person make. Does not define worth or ability or reputation. And no, just because I’m brown doesn’t make me biased in this cause. It makes me a victim, it makes me a bystander, it makes me a sympathizer, it makes me a supporter, and most importantly, it makes me human. Because racial discrimination isn’t just un-American. It’s inhumane.

I would be happy to hear any thoughts people wanted to share! I don’t have all the info, nor do I know all the proper tags to spread awareness, but it’s all out there and all over and trending so if shouldn’t be too hard to find! Spread kindness y'all :)