America+Middle Eastern=Racism?

[fakeitormakeit]

Hi everyone, not to annoy you but I have something I wanted to talk with you all about.

 

 

 

Well, I started high school this year, and so I come in contact with alot more people then I did when I went to a grammar school with an 8th grade with 42 people. I've made alot of friends, and after you get to know someone, you know, you randomly talk about stuff and sometimes that thing is race/religion. When ever I say I'm Lebanese people always jump to conclusions that I'm a Muslim, a terrorist, or God knows what else. I've gotten alot of insults due to just being Middle Eastern. When I was once telling a story to my old friends from grammar school about how my great great grandpa was a techinal lord of Lebanon (I'm maronite and so was he) and his struggles in his time with the ottomans and muslims someone who was listening goes "who cares, your a bunch of dum rapheads anyway". I have several other arab christian friends who notice arab racism in American, they are Egyptian, Iranian, and Syrian and as soon as you mention your country your asking for an insult.

 

 

 

Edit: Also, when I talk with my Egyptian friend in arabic or try writing something in arabic, people think we're talking evily and they freak out.

 

 

 

Has anyone else noticed this? Is this a mix of ignorance plus fear and hatred of 9/11? Or has this blindness always existed in America, or does it not exist all together?

 

 

 

 

 

Edit2: Off topic, I know, but in my opinion I think America shouldn't be in Iraq, rather they should be funding the Lebanese christians agaisnt the bombardment of "God's Army".

 

Edit3: Omg I also hate if how I'm speaking Arabic with my friend(s) and I say Alah which means God, as in the same God thats in Judasim, Islam and Christianity, they assume I'm muslim and they think I'm being a terrorist, I can say something like Alah Owagbar which means like God is the greatest if something falls into my favor, and someone will think I'm going to attack someone, really sad actually lol.

 

Edit4: Idk if this is just coincidental, but my Spainard friend is always fighting with my Armenian/Iraqie friend.

[BlueLancer]

The kids making those comments are dumb as hell. Ask them to watch 'Kingdom' and see the lenghts honest muslims go to in order to protect people from terrorism. Heck, they might be lured in just by the aspect of explosions and hollywood, and discreetly recieve an injection of anti-racism.

 

 

 

But I'm amazed at the lenghts to which racism towards middle-easterns goes in the US. I don't see that in any other western country, not even Spain which had suffered terrorist bombings by delusional islamic fanatics (not to mention, most terrorist strikes in Spain are carried out by a catholic faction ETA which champions the forming of an independent basque state)

 

 

 

It's weird how primarily English speaking countries, the US and UK, are the most racist towards middle-easterns in general. Those 2 countries also submitted the most soldiers to every operation in the middle and far east.

[Lionheart_0]

Ever since 9/11, it happens. I know up untill 3 years ago, there was a very large amount of racism in my school. After that year, some key people were removed from both sides (Middle eastern and Canadian) and everything has smoothed over for the most part.

 

 

 

It is just the ignorant people in the school who can't see through the propaganda the media is spewing (or at least was, I haven't seen much lately)out about 'how bad people in the middle east are'.

 

 

 

What I suggest, is trying to find a way to make some friends with people who are close to the racists, thust maybe making connections.

 

 

 

I will tell you now that if you stick with other people who are taking the same crap as you, it will only make the problem worse...

[jackalope14]

It actually seems to me like it is turning around more and more. There are more documentaries and shows about muslims and the religion of Islam. I hear more people defending muslims than actually being racist towards them. Maybe its just the area I live in or whatever, but its still a good thing.

[fakeitormakeit]

No offense but thats one of the presumptions I'm talking about, it isn't racism but its generalization, just because I say Middle Eastern, that doesn't mean I'm talking about Islam. Its not always the big things that are the worst, its sometimes those little thing like categorizing all the Middle Eastern people under Islam(I think Lebanon is 6/4 christian/muslim ratio, might have been equalled, Idr).

[Medellin]

Ever since 9/11, it happens. I know up untill 3 years ago, there was a very large amount of racism in my school. After that year, some key people were removed from both sides (Middle eastern and Canadian) and everything has smoothed over for the most part.

 

 

 

It is just the ignorant people in the school who can't see through the propaganda the media is spewing (or at least was, I haven't seen much lately)out about 'how bad people in the middle east are'.

 

 

 

What I suggest, is trying to find a way to make some friends with people who are close to the racists, thust maybe making connections.

 

 

 

I will tell you now that if you stick with other people who are taking the same crap as you, it will only make the problem worse...

 

 

 

Some Muslim girl just got choked to death in Canada by her daddy because she became "Western"

[fakeitormakeit]

Keep on topic, and the point of the thread is racism towards MIDDLE EASTERNERS NOT SOLELY MUSLIMS, I'm Maronite which is Eastern orthodox christian and I still recieve middle eastern racist comments, and frankly Lebanon(christians) are warring agaisnt Syrian and Iranian backed Hezbollah so I really don't feel like hearing something like "All of you are the same", and I also don't want to hear something like "All muslims object "westerns" to drop their ways" because although thats happening in Lebanon, thats not true everywere.

[warri0r45]

The kids making those comments are dumb as hell. Ask them to watch 'Kingdom' and see the lenghts honest muslims go to in order to protect people from terrorism. Heck, they might be lured in just by the aspect of explosions and hollywood, and discreetly recieve an injection of anti-racism.

 

 

 

But I'm amazed at the lenghts to which racism towards middle-easterns goes in the US. I don't see that in any other western country, not even Spain which had suffered terrorist bombings by delusional islamic fanatics (not to mention, most terrorist strikes in Spain are carried out by a catholic faction ETA which champions the forming of an independent basque state)

 

 

 

It's weird how primarily English speaking countries, the US and UK, are the most racist towards middle-easterns in general. Those 2 countries also submitted the most soldiers to every operation in the middle and far east.

 

 

 

Yeah, it happens a bit in Australia too, although probably not as much as in the U.S. or UK. I'd say it's wholly born out by ignorance. You see some instances in the media of ignorant fools thinking that Muslims are shady terrorists or something. I mean, you get some people who say things like 'yes, we just want them to integrate into our culture' yet then they protest whenever a Mosque is proposed for their residential area. Can't have it both ways.

 

 

 

I suppose Muslim-Anglo relations aren't helped by people like Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly, former Sheik of Australian Muslims. The guy was a walking headline - he basically blamed scantily clad women for getting raped becuse it's like showing uncovered meat to dogs and saying Muslims had more rights to be in Australia because the Anglo descendants of this place came here as convicts. Add some Holocaust denial and calling Israel a cancer and yeah... you get the picture. Anyway he's no longer Sheik so I suppose that's a plus.

[fakeitormakeit]

Can we please discuss more Middle Eastern, less specifically muslim, because I'm christian but I still get just as bad comments.

[warri0r45]

Can we please discuss more Middle Eastern, less specifically muslim, because I'm christian but I still get just as bad comments.

 

 

 

I realise how middle eastern does not mean Muslim and yeah, guilty as charged by quoting BlueLancer talking about middle easterners and then going on to talk about Muslims myself but I thought it might have been of some relevance. I just think that people who assume you are Muslim and treat you how they percieve Muslims based on your appearance (which is pretty much how it happens in Aus and how it seems you've been treated) is the epitome of ignorance, full stop. I don't really know how else you could look at the issue.

 

 

 

It's not your fault that they don't know that you're not a Muslim and it's not your fault that they may very well misrepresent a Muslim with their perceptions of Muslims in general. It's their problem and they run the risk of being wrong by not getting to know the person behind the appearance or the person behind the faith, if you know what I mean.

[BlueLancer]

Can we please discuss more Middle Eastern, less specifically muslim, because I'm christian but I still get just as bad comments.

 

 

 

Yeah, especially in Lebanon there is a significant christian minority who gets to live in peace. Before the recent conflicts, Lebanon was viewed just as Turkey, a mostly free country where you can dress as you wish, eat and drink as you wish, etc.

 

 

 

When those people insult you again, tell them you're actually a christian. To incompetent fools who don't know much about the surrounding world, it can be baffling to realize people might have genetic heritage from many countries, or an asian person can be muslim/christian/hindu/buddhist, a white person can be a buddhist, a middle-eastern person can be christian etc.

 

 

 

It doesn't work for everyone, but a lot of people can realize how stupid their racist opinions are, if you explain them why they're wrong.

[Intriguing]

I'm not American, so I can't talk from that perspecitve, but I was pretty shocked by how racist Australians are about it. I mean God, we haven't even had a terrorist attack.

 

I go to a fairly small school (only like 50 people in my grade 12 yeargroup), and, although I'm not a Christian myself, it's a Christian school. The other day, my PCG (Pastoral Care Group--basically half an hour of being preached to) teacher was talking about how "they're" trying to take Christ out of Christmas. Basically, I didn't care, because I think that anyone that thinks that Christmas has anything to do with Christianity, aside from the name, is ignorant.

 

But yeah, it basically ended up being a [bleep]-fest about Muslims. "What? they're trying to build a Muslim school in this country!? Next thing you know we'll all be wearing towels on our heads!" And everyone laughed.. That really made me hate the people in my year.

[justin_m23]

Generalizations is apart of society. Its something you will have to get used to.

 

 

 

I'm willing to bet half of the general American population will think 'Steve Irwin' when i say Australia. :P

[Lady_Shahdie]

I unfortunately relate to this too well. I was born here, so I am considerably your typical American girl. However, I am very proud of my Persian (Iranian) roots and I do not dodge the fact that I am part Middle Eastern when asked (my looks also give it away, though I have been often mislabeled as Latino, Italian, Greek, and Russian). My example of what you call the little things that indicate racism in America is as follows:

 

 

 

I had moved to a new community back in 10th grade and I was interested in getting involved in the clubs the local high school had. I went to the clubs and events coordinator and described the various things I enjoyed. I told her how I loved literature and poetry and would be interested in joining something like a Dead Poet Society. She looks straight in my eyes and pauses for a second. She breaks the silence and says: "I know the perfect club for you sweety, Middle Eastern club!" Now granted that I am not at all shy about my heritage...I never once mentioned to her what ethnicity I am. I once again repeated to her what kind of club I desired to join and she responded: "I don't think we have that dear." She immediately oddly follows with: "We are very proud of the diversity we have in this school district." I leave her office somewhat dissappointed but the final blow comes when I research on my own and find out the school has four literature and poetry clubs. Though it was a little thing...it hurt me more deeply than the most blatant signs of racism I have seen before.

[BlueLancer]

Generalizations is apart of society. Its something you will have to get used to.

 

 

 

I'm willing to bet half of the general American population will think 'Steve Irwin' when i say Australia. :P

 

 

 

Yeah, and people will think "England" when they hear 'Queen Elizabeth'. That's a neutral "generalization" which is true.

 

 

 

Calling all 1.4 billion muslims in the world (or anyone who isn't muslim, but happens to look middle-eastern) a terrorist just because a few hundred fanatics blow up facilities, is a racist generalization which needs to get rid of.

 

 

 

Terrorism happens in all troubled places. Why isn't the protestant christian IRA of Ireland almost never mentioned? They have even in recent years murdered innocent civilians, detonated car bombs & conducted suicide attacks, etc...

 

 

 

The catholic basque ETA separatists in Spain have killed thousands of people in suicide bombings and remote detonations, etc... The German RAF terrorist organisation's structure was stunningly similar to that of an Al-Qaeda cell, or the Taleban (which also originally consisted of students)

 

 

 

There are also american christian extremists (or terrorists as they're now called), such as Army of God, Phineas Priesthood etc... The point is not to get into a listing war of religious terrorist groups; The point is every religion has extremists.

 

 

 

It's easy to blame someone else for all your troubles & problems when they're "different", and ignore the wrongdoes who are similar to you.

[Althalus]

I can relate as well. I'm also Lebanese so I was pleasantly surprised to read this post. I've lived in Canada for 15 years but I still speak Arabic with my family members (mostly my mom and dad) and a majority of my family (my grandparents, almost all my uncles, aunts and cousins) live in Lebanon.

 

 

 

People can't tell that I'm not Canadian and are usually really surprised when I tell them that I was born in Lebanon. I've also noticed an increase in racism towards middle eastern groups. We've all been categorized as terrorists and it's getting out of hand Up until 9/11 I never felt targeted by racism but we seem to be the premise behind a lot of jokes now.

 

 

 

It's pretty ridiculous to assume that anyone born in the middle east is of Islamic faith. Both my parents were born into Christian households :roll: .

[Ambassadar]

The way our schools teach History in the US is absolutely garbage. Those people are clueless as to what the Christians in Lebanon have been through and they are just being too stupid and ignorant to find out.

 

 

 

I have a big chip on my shoulder against people being racist. Racism is the stupidest thing ever. If people were intelligent they would dislike cultures based on that culture's merits vs disliking someone for their skin color. That would solve so many problems of the wrong people being disliked. It would help people differentiate between a Moronite from Lebanon and a hard core extreme Wahhabi from Saudi Arabia that wants to destroy everyone's rights to living in a non Sharia state. It would also force people to get off their butt and learn something about the world and the different cultures people come from so they would be more willing to give someone a chance before just blindly disliking them for a stupid reason.

 

 

 

As a side note I wouldn't talk Arabic at school. I think it is kinda rude to speak another language around people if you have the choice to speak in their language. I find it very distracting.

[Ginger_Warrior]

Terrorism happens in all troubled places. Why isn't the protestant christian IRA of Ireland almost never mentioned? They have even in recent years murdered innocent civilians, detonated car bombs & conducted suicide attacks, etc...

 

Well there's two points there actually. Although I still agree we as a white-dominated western world have a tendancy to forget our history of terrorism, which in my opinion, came in the form of Imperialism when we went over and stole all their wealth and enslaved their children.

 

 

 

Firstly, there is absoultely no way the IRA are Protestant. The Unionists in Ulster tended to be Protestant since their allegiance is to the Church of England, headed by the Crown; whilst Catholics in the South had their allegiance pointed towards Rome and therefore had little religious issues when it came to demanding for the Act of Union to be reversed. The IRA are a Catholic-dominated force, although the main branch had disbanded now anyway after Sinn Fein demanded it.

 

 

 

The second is that the IRA were different to modern day forms of Terrorism. The idea today is to kill indiscriminately as many people as possible; not even important targets at that, but ordinary civilians in order to create a sense of panic and chaos which gives leverage for them to make demands. The IRA's main target were railway lines, and anything else which might grind the N. Irish economy to a stop and generally cause disturbance and aggitation. Their targets tended to be aimed at politicians, such as the plot on Thatcher.

[WookieeMania12]

I don't believe that this whole war in Iraq is due to racism. Some people forget we are going after evil Muslims that want us dead (not all Muslims want us dead, folks). However, some radicals might think that if you are a Middle-Eastern, then you are a member of al-Quada. Thats just wrong. Now, to the OP. Part of the reason why we are in Iraq is because the troops are preventing terrorism from spreading. Lets say that you left a fire burning in a forest, it will spread if you don't put it out.

[darkmage099]

My problem is similar. See, I am Muslim, and when people find that out they think "oh, he's not a terrorist. He's an exception to the rule". While the dont think I'm a terrorist, they think my Muslim brothers are! None of the Muslims that I know even look like the stereotypical terrorist.

 

 

 

 

 

Funny story: This conservative catholic friend of mine almost freaked out when she learned my middle name is Hussein...as in I was named after Saddam Hussein. :roll:

[usahellyes]

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[Barihawk]

The children calling you names for being of another race are complete idiots. From my observations as a teacher, I've noticed that it's become popular in the 8th and 9th grades (US, when a student goes from Primary to Secondary school) that racism is becoming a "cool" trend, but really only against Hispanics and Middle Eastern students. Most of the Hispanic kids take it in stride, because they have a well-established community here and are very proud of their culture.

 

 

 

But what I have noticed of Middle Eastern students is that they wish to fit in, and are scared of being labeled such things as "terrorists" and the like. Therefore, when someone jokingly calls them that, they freak. And because they are giving in to the teasing, more teasing follows.

 

 

 

The war in Iraq is not about racism. I support the war fully, and I have numerous friends of Middle Eastern origin, most of which are Islamic. I fully support their customs, am not offended when they pray, etc. When 9/11 hit, we baked our Islamic neighbor some food (yes, it adhered to the food laws) because he had mentioned that he was afraid to go to the store.

 

 

 

The problem is that some idiots out there are firmly attached to xenophobia.

 

 

 

And to some replies:

 

 

 

-WookieeMania: The word you are looking for is Containment. It was our policy to deal with Communism and it's what we are using now against Terrorism.

 

 

 

-Darkmage: By subscribing to the "stereotypical terrorist" are you not yourself being biased? I've seen many men with turbans and beards and didn't really worry about it.

 

 

 

Ginger and BlueLancer: The IRA is indeed Catholic, with the PIRA and the ULA being the major Protestant groups. This subject is a little bitter to me, as a Catholic friend of mine in Ireland was killed by an IRA carbomb (in essence, a Catholic killed by Catholics). It really saddens me to see my home Island in such strife.

 

 

 

Ambassador: Being a history teacher, would you mind explaining why my teaching is garbage? Teachers are forced to teach a curriculum (even before No Child Left...). Sometimes we have to skip a lot of things. Treatment of Christians in Rome is a little more important to history than it is in Lebanon.

 

 

 

Althalus: It's pretty ridiculous to do a lot of things. Like I stated earlier, kids like to be racist for some reason. Of course, kids at that age will do absolutely anything for a laugh. After all, if Dave Chappell or that Mencia guy can be purely racist and get laughs, why can't they?

 

 

 

BlueLancer: Every religion (and anti-religion) has it's extremists. And about the IRA vs PIRA: because news companies get more revenue talking about white people being killed by non-white people than they do white people killing white people. Watch your evening news. Most murders according to the news happen between mixed races, right? Even though you know white people can and do kill eachother? Same principle.

 

 

 

And I am too lazy to continue. But yeah, the kids making fun of you are dolts, etc.

[warren211]

I'm Indian/ Pakistani and I get that a lot. I don't get offended, in fact I laugh with it and make jokes about myself. There are a lot of asian kids in my class, and we have "just-for-fun racism". Its total jokes and we never push it too far where everyone gets offended. There are a lot of stereotypes about us liking curry, bombs, Allah, and cows, but OI just go with the flow because I'm fine with those jokes. Then I stereotype against them about rice, the great wall of china (even though most of them are Filipino), and lead poisoned toys. We just have fun and never say anything like that so seriously.

[Flame_guy3]

to be honest this is whats the problem with the world. The minority make the majority look bad. See in India and Pakistan they say Hindu-Muslim wars escalate to huge amounts of violence and the two sides literally hate each other yet, when we go to Pakistan (im indian btw) we see no problems there everyone in fact treats us like a normal person. And in India the general population doesn't have a problem with Muslims.

 

 

 

In fact it is the minority which seperated Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. The minority that still make the east and middle-east look like the most violent hell holes ever. And the minority which appears to make the majority evil as well even though they have no involvement in anything.

 

 

 

Whats even sadder is religion even though it unites people it divides people more than it unites them. Religion is in fact a cause for many wars, many major wars as well.

 

 

 

My mother is Hindu and my Father is christian. So I've not chosen a religion as of yet. But the way i see it, most muslims have no problem at all. Heck most asians have no problems or extremist views. In fact they say all the Taliban, Hezbollah... They all misinterpret Jihad to their own liking.

 

 

 

I went to Kashmir where there was a LOT of feuding over from India and Pakistan. When my mom asked a Kashmiri Muslim what his views on the terrorism were he said:

 

(Translated roughly of course)

 

 

 

"These people are not true muslims. They misinterpret the Qu'ran to their own liking, give the wrong impression of the Qu'ran to the world and then make out that they are defending their religion. They are not defending their religion they are only bringing blasphemy upon it and are a shame to what Islam truly stands for."

[Ambassadar]

Ambassador: Being a history teacher, would you mind explaining why my teaching is garbage? Teachers are forced to teach a curriculum (even before No Child Left...). Sometimes we have to skip a lot of things. Treatment of Christians in Rome is a little more important to history than it is in Lebanon.

 

 

 

Your teaching may not be, I don't know because I haven't heard it. The general trend in teaching history is garbage though... Too much time is spent on names and dates without giving things like the context, why it is important, how it fits into everything else, how we are impacted today from that past event, etc etc.

 

 

 

I have always loved history. I hated history as taught in school when I was growing up. It seemed like most of it was schools just going through the motions out of obligation to the subject. History taught the right way is the most incredible subject out there because it encompasses every other subject as well as gets the whole dynamics of human love, hate, brilliance and stupidity thrown in with it. I went to a top 30 in the nation high school and most of my teachers did a poor job of teaching history.

 

 

 

Another thing that drove me nuts is there is something wrong when you spend 2 days on the Civil War and a month on reconstruction after the Civil War. War isn't even talked about in history aside from just saying it happened and a couple of main facts about it. War is the biggest catalyst of human technological innovation as well as an incredible lesson on human nature and the way different people and cultures respond to different events.

 

 

 

I could go on and on but hopefully that is enough for you to understand where I am coming from. I would be interested on your take and also your feelings on the curriculum they make you teach. If you want to keep talking about it maybe we can start another thread so we don't hijack this one.