Well, the visit of the niece and nephew was punctuated by some War Fallout.
Arhan-fay and Arzaana-fay were walking with us in the mall, and a family walked past us in the other direction, led by a pot-bellied man. As he passed, I saw my niece’s head whip around and her jaw dropped open, and my nephew snorted and shook his head. I heard nothing, probably since the man’s comment of :
“F*cking raghead”
… was directed at my nephew. I was pretty surprised Arhan-fay didn’t go after the guy. Since 9/11 he’s gotten used to people yelling “Go back to where you came from,” which of course is North Saint Louis County. After I heard, my hackles got all raised and I stared down anyone that even glanced at the kids for the rest of the night.
What I also find remarkable is that we are re-living the December 1941 issue of Life Magazine, the one with “How to tell Japs From the Chinese.” My nephew and niece’s father is from Pakistan (our ally), which they explain is in South Asia, not the Middle East. I confess, if I hadn’t spent a day at their Muslim school in which they pointed out students by nationality (“She’s from Egypt…He’s Saudi…She’s Iranian”) I wouldn’t have been able to tell much difference. Now it seems obvious, though.
That distinction didn’t do Arhan-fay much good when he was waiting at the train station to head back to Kansas City. A woman buying a ticket didn’t have the requisite driver’s license, and the volunteer behind the desk was stupid enough to say, “Oh, you don’t need that. We only ask for that if you look like an Iraqi terrorist.”
I wasn’t there. Aunt Karen was there. She reported loud and repetitive use of the f-bomb by our nephew. She was so Shocked and Awed she had to wait in the car. I really wanted to get details, but she refuses to discuss it further.
6 responses to “South Asian Non-Terrorist”
That shit makes me sick. It sounds like your nephew knows how to pick his battles, but I wish he weren’t faced with these situations at all.
Yeah, me too. And you’d think the rest of the family would be more compassionate, having been German immigrants during WWII.
Wow. Your niece and nephew were the picture of grace re: that incident at the mall. That guy was very rude.
Appalling, simply appalling. I’m amazed at how stupid people can be. Your niece and nephew’s conduct is to be admired.
I was almost run off the freeway twice by flag-toting giant SUVs post-9/11. And this was in the Bay Area, so-called bastion of liberalism. Go figure. I’ve never been called a “raghead” to my face, but I’ve heard “get out of my way you Paki!” a few times when I was visiting cousins in England back when I was 13. I empathize for your neice and nephew.People’s ignorance will never cease to amaze me. That said, many Pakistanis are no less prone to being ignorant and to illogical stereotyping than anyone else, unfortunately.
O – As you say, ignorance abounds everywhere. I suppose the idea that a religion / skin tone should be blamed for the actions of a few fanatics is a natural extension of the policy that a nation should be punished for the actions of its unelected leaders. Dead between the anniversarys of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I’m leaning toward assasination as an alternative.