On Prejudice (in light of 9/11)
This was originally written within days of 9/11, but I'm re-posting it as current, because I think it can still apply.
From the time when I entered 2nd Grade until the end of my 7th Grade year, my family lived in the perfect Suburban neighborhood… except for one thing. Almost every night, without fail, several Caucasian men would sit outside and talk and gossip about what had gone on in the neighborhood that day. These guys obviously had nothing better to do than this and they were pretty… errrr, frank about how they felt about minorities moving into their neighborhood.
During this time, my father had to travel and move about the country, trying to find construction contracting work wherever he could. He would be gone for 6 months at a time and my mother was left to raise 3 children, maintain a household, and along with those demands, she also had to combat the things that these ignorant men chose to heap on us as well. Don't get me wrong, my Mother is a strong woman and was never cowed by their behavior, but I can only imagine what it was like for her. We were not the only ones on the block who felt the sting of their taunts and murmured remarks, but we lived right between them and our lawn (which I can still remember my mother mowing) became a walkway for them.
I say all this to say that I have endured, first-hand, the horrid experience that is prejudice. I was pre-judged based on the color of my skin an opinion was formed about what I was before I had even opened my mouth.
And now, in the shadow of the horrendous action perpetrated against our country by a new brand of evil, Arab-Americans everywhere are beginning to feel that same sting. It is that evil gnawing that makes you nervous to be outside your own home for fear of some kind of action that you have done nothing to deserve, except simply being different.
And I am not simply limiting this to matters of ethnicity. I am encompassing gender, denomination and many other classifications as well… things that people cannot change about themselves and/or are the victimization of stereotyping.
Taking a second to give an aside to the followers of Christ reading this, I must say this. Yes, we are all angry. Yes, we all desire retribution. And, yes, the people who perpetrated this crime must be punished for their crimes. And we can be thankful that we have a President who professes Christ (and has the added plus of being a Texan) and is going to do what is necessary to protect and serve his people during this time. However, we must realize our first and foremost responsibility… we are to go to war and fight back, but on our knees.
As for anyone else finding this page, I urge you to not express hostility against all members of one ethnicity/one religion because of the actions of a few. In situations such as those, two wrongs do not make a right. Am I saying that there should not be retribution for this crime? Of course not. Our society has laws and they are in place for a reason. Whenever someone violates those laws, punishment should be doled out to the guilty parties by the authorities and that is that.
However, persecuting people due to a skin color resemblance to those who perpetrated this crime is simply unwise.