Not Racist: "Oh you look like you're wearing a hijab with your scarf like that!"
Racist: "HA! You look like a terrorist with your scarf like that!"
The racist version of this was said to me the other day and then followed by a long string of "terrorist jokes" which made me extremely uncomfortable.
I'm happy that I'm in a place mentally where I don't immediately associate muslim culture with terrorism but when I remember that other people still do it really makes me feel like no progress has been made in a long time.
Just a thought.
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ReplyDeleteI just posted a blog that sort of relates to this, about how Muslim culture is stereotyped so much nowadays, and talked about in such a negative manner. I agree with you in that it feels like little progress has been made. It is so sad that people find it easy to be so closed minded and judgmental, and are able to tarnish everyone with the same brush. You would have thought we were past this in the 21st century. Obviously it is still acceptable to some people to treat racism as one big joke, when it really isn't a funny issue at all.
ReplyDeleteI think the harsh judgements of the muslim religion/ culture is based on how uneducated we are about the religion. At schools and society in general we are taught aspects of the Christian religion and as we are exposed to more discussions about that religion we are able to accept what is taught in them.
ReplyDeleteWe then are more likely to consider these as norms. Whilst we haven't been taught much or exposed to the teachings of muslim religion and so we are more likely to make uninformed judgements and stereotype by the small amount we are exposed to which is usually the associations made between muslims and terrorism in media.
I believe that its important that we educate ourselves in other areas such as other religions so we don't make uninformed judgements that can also be racist.