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Tag(s): Anti-semitic; Facism Islamic; Hate-Racism-Bigotry; Islam Muslim; Islamism; Islamophobia; Jena Six; Jena Six 6; People; Race; (more...) Race African American Black Negro; Race-Racism; Religion; Terrorism Islamic (less...)
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November 9, 2007 at 14:12:44

Noose? Oh No! Swastika? Ho Hum!

by Arshi Saeed Page 1 of 2 page(s)

www.opednews.com

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I sat in the Teachers College cafeteria with two friends - Titilayo, an African-American girl, and Rachael, a Jewish girl – talking about the bias related incidents on campus:

"Oprah's the most powerful entertainer. Obama's running for President. And people are still concerned about the color of your skin? Deplorable!" Titilayo exclaimed.

"It's the post-Seinfeld, post-Lieberman era and these people go around painting swastikas? Shocking!" Rachael added angrily.

I racked my brain. "Apu's on Simpsons!" I shouted.

Oh, wait, he was Hindu.

I thought some more. "Oh Raja!" I squealed. "Raja, the Muslim guy is on Aliens in America..." But the conversation had moved on.

"Whatever happened, I'm glad with how TC reacted." Titilayo said. "We came together as a community and really showed the person who did it that there's no place for racism here."

"No place for racism – yeah! But what about An-ti-Se-mi-ti-sm?" Rachael pronounced each syllable slowly. "TC didn't really react to the Anti-Semitic incidents. They let those pass till they felt outside pressure to react. It's only then they issued a statement."

"Did you guys know there was an Anti-Muslim incident too?" I asked. Two uncomprehending faces momentarily started at me before turning away.

"Did you go to the Socratic discussion, 'Nooses: What do we Think, Feel, Need to do?' What about the Lynching movie, did you watch that?" Titilayo was talking excitedly now, "Oh you should! And the forum 'What's All the Fuss About?' discussing lynching. All this stuff, it really educates you on the history of slavery and abuse against African Americans. Hey, I'm Black and I learned a lot!"

"I would've gone for forums AND movies AND Socratic discussions if there was anything about anti-Semiticism. But no, not a single one, not a single Schindlers List or a Life is Beautiful. Just an email informing us about what happened and that too, when it was too late. In fact, Professor Midlarsky received anti-Semitic stuff three times before the swastika" Rachael started counting off on her fingers. "An offensive cartoon, an anti-Semitic letter, some book denying the Holocaust. It took all of this for TC to react. In fact, had it not been for such a visible swastika spray painted on her door I question whether TC would have responded at all!"

"Yeah!" I made an attempt to infuse anger into my statement. "Nothing from Columbia about the Muslim stuff either!" This time I made a tiny punch in the air for added effect but Titilayo and Rachael seemed engrossed in their own conversation.

"Well, it IS race. It's a BIG issue!"

"What about religion? Just 'cuz it's changeable unlike race doesn't mean we can treat crimes against it lightly?"

And what if that religion is Islam, I thought but didn't even bother voicing this time.

Titilayo proudly said, "Race crimes are down. It's only when you stand up to these people it shows them that this sort of stuff is intolerable"

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Arshi Saeed is a Masters student at Teachers College, Columbia University. She currently resides in New York City.

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1 comments

Armed with word, song, and sequencer, Mars delivers social analysis, dreams and blueprints for change. She survived the 1999 National Poetry Slam, has performed all over Chicago, and has been a featured speaker at many political rallies. Born in New England in the radical 60's, Mars is a veteran political activist, performance artist/musician, chocoholic, early childhood educator, photographer, sky-watcher, single mom of a rebel in training, and proud African-american bowl of gumbo.
Mars CaultonArmed with word, song, and sequencer, Mars delivers social analysis, dreams and blueprints for change. She survived the 1999 National Poetry Slam, has performed all over Chicago, and has been a featured speaker at many political rallies. Born in New England in the radical 60's, Mars is a veteran political activist, performance artist/musician, chocoholic, early childhood educator, photographer, sky-watcher, single mom of a rebel in training, and proud African-american bowl of gumbo.

Let's dig a little deeper, okay?

I feel for you, sitting there as the ignorance and avoidance bounced back and forth across your face. But the tone of this article, and its point, and especially its title, seem to be that it's wrong/insensitive/self-centered for there to be a serious leap in many people's consciousness suddenly of racism towards Blacks in America. By highlighting a conversation like this, the effect is to create conflict between various groups of oppressed people rather than find the commonality and forge unity based on any serious analysis.

The significance of the newly recharged struggle against national oppression towards Black Americans is twofold.

One, the quiet creeping backwards of not just prejudice and bias against Blacks but an entrenched sentiment desiring violence and/or the elimination of Black people has been called out into the open instead of hidden in the comments section of YouTube.

And two, that the generations of Black youth who gave up on the dreams of our ancestors (who made sometimes incomprehensible sacrifices towards our still elusive liberation,) now these youths turned from Just Gimme Mine to Justice Without Compromise. Remember, this racial group has been in America (or under the BOOT of America) for centuries, and has been singled out by this SYSTEM, not just individual white folks, to be held back and kept in a certain place as much as possible. This has NOT been the system's overall plan for either the Jewish community or the SE Asian communities, both of whom continue tto suffer from a VERY DIFFERENT kind of racism than Black Americans.

I'm sorry that you don't see it this way, and thus feel unheard and powerless. That's a sad place to be, and I do feel for you. But it's important for us all to stop this crabs-in-a-barrel crap. We stand up, and instead of climbing and standing up too, others who also wish to get out first take aim at OUR legs to pull us back down. Ask yourself who exactly is best served by this. Certainly none of the people conversing at that table in the article.

Black people stood up in a historic moment, not against the N-word but against a physical threat of violence. A noose is not just a symbol. It is a REAL OBJECT -- PREVIOUSLY USED TO KILL US for being Black and not a good obediant little slave etc. For white students to actually hang several nooses in that Jena tree wasn't like somebody "slipping up" and saying n***er out loud. Nooses hung from a tree in response to Blacks sitting there is an actual threat. THAT's what nooses have always been about in America -- that you are either being warned that you're messing with KKK country, or that it's already too late and you're next.

How the HELL can anyone feel the response around Jena and subsequent nooses around the country is overreacting??

by Mars Caulton (1 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 82 comments) on Thursday, November 15, 2007 at 1:06:15 AM