Racism, a Fable based on fact

[jbg]

My daughter came home from school today with a question for her dear, old Dad.

“Our PoliSci professors at the U of Lethbridge run a web site called MapleLeaf Web which is a resource for the study of Canadian politics”, she began, “ A few days ago someone posted the following as part of a discussion: "Muslims blow up buildings and buses. " Am i wrong? No because it happens on a daily basis.” A few of us have been discussing the question, “Is he wrong in that statement?”

“Did the group decide on an answer”, I asked.

“ Well” she said, “Most of us think he is right. They do blow up stuff”

“How does that make you feel”, I asked, “to know that Muslims blow things up?”

*snip*

“Do you hate Muslims because they bomb?” I said.

“No”, she said, “I don’t hate them. I just want them gone from my country with their bombs and sharia and theocratic rule. Preferably alive but gone anyway”

“Do you remember that summer job you had two years ago with the publishing company?” I enquired., “ Your boss had an odd name. What was it again?”

“Hamid, something,” she said, “His last name was unpronounceable so I don’t remember it”

“I thought he was Muslim”, I said.

“Oh no,” she replied, “He was a real sweetie, wouldn’t harm a fly, great boss. He was an Arab, I think, from Saudi Arabia. I loved his little girls”

“ Do you think he would bomb anyone?”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” she said.

“But he was Muslim and so was his wife and those lovely children”, I told her.

“He couldn’t have been a Muslim. He was just like you and I”, she protested.

*snip*

(Disclaimer: The above is entirely fictitious and posted only for the purposes of educating and informing) LOL!!

I have expressed my views on ignoring the obvious elsewhere.

My question is: why is it racist to point out this clear and obvious hatred?

I'll flip your post around by saying it isn't. I'll explain the reasoning below.

Let's get something straight here.

I think the Liberals and the left like to hold an antquated view of race.

"Immigrants and their families are all nice peaceful groups of who simply want to settle and make a little life running a corner store or driving a taxi cab. Only white people are capable of hate. There are no immigrants or their families that hate us, our belief systems or what we stand for."

This old fashioned Lib take is accidentally racist in it's tone and makes some pretty generalizations.

Can unassimilated populations of immigrants and their families hate us?

Is it possible that there are vast groups in our society that don't align their beliefs with ours? That would see harm to us? That don't buy into being "Canadian", whatever that is? That actually identify more with societies thousands of miles away than Canada?

Wll the factual answer is "yes". Otherwise, why would a group of Canadian born or British born Muslims plan to blow up innocent people? And why would 10,000 Muslims march down mainstreet in dearborn michigan waving Hezbollah flags? And why would London Muslims march down mainstreet carrying "behead to the enemies of Allah" signs? Why? Because they hate.

My ancestors on my father's side came from what was then loosely defined as Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, somewhere between 1890 and the outbreak of WW I. His mother and father's side arrived at different times. Allegedly, his mother's side left behind a large house, which employed many servants. The ancestors on my mother's father's side came from what's now Poland during the same period; tancestors on my mother's mothers side came from what's now Ukraine during this time. The telephone had been barely invented, and I estimate that a three minute call would have cost well over $200 in today's money, enough, even at current incomes, to make keeping one foot in the "old country" prohibitively expensive. Of course, initially they all barely scraped by. Travel back and forth, in the absence of non-stop and safe air travel was also impractical and expensive. The net result of this was that people who came to the US, Canada or Australia then were severing all ties, with the exception of sending back money for their relatives to join them. Thus, they had no choice but to learn English and assimilate.

CUrrently, people who come over can call home for pennies per minute, "instant message" for free, and even travel back and forth with relative ease. Even a cab driver can afford to, psychologically, "straddle the ocean". Thus, the institutional pressure to assimilate is far lesss.

When governments ease the pressure on immigrants to learn English, in the case of the US or Australia, or English or French, in the case of Canada, this makes assimilation even less likely. Thus, while my ancestors, and other assimilated, white, affluent people don't even know of or care about whatever rivalries or hatreds existed or still exist back in the land of their ancestors. today's immigrants continue to live the daily struggles of those they left behind.

Thus, if the imams in Pakistan are fomenting hatred of the West, that hatred spreads like greased lightning back to Canada. In the case of the US, this happens, but somewhat less, since the US basically lacks a social welfare system.

Thus, "JerrySeinfeld", pointing out these obvious facts is not at all racist.

[kimmy]

I have another little fable or parable or one-act play that I've sort of been working on. It goes a little something like this:

"Daddy! Daddy! I am home from school!"

"That is very good, Susie. What did you talk about today in your social studies class?"

"We were talking about Multi Culturalism. One kid wanted to ask about the long-term effects of allowing another country to fund the growth of a conservative branch of religion in Canada."

"And what did the class think about that, Susie?"

"I don't know. Before we could talk about it, this other kid jumped up on his desk and started yelling and calling everyone racists and saying he was going to file human rights complaints against everybody."

"Oh. What happened then?"

"We all had to watch an educational video called Friends Come In Many Colours. Did you know that even though people have different skin colour and wear different clothes and hats, we all have red blood?"

"Wow, Susie, that is fascinating. It sounds like you sure learned a lot at school today."

-kimmy

[daddyhominum]

Why are you changing the topic from racism to multi-culturalism?

It is such a common part of the dance performed by racists to try to alter a discussion by introducing some other topic. It makes one think of taking a gene from a fish and putting it into a tomato and saying the original tomato is unmodified.

Don't you think a new topic should be introduced in its own thread?

Would the moderator please move this post and the one before it to a new thread unless you think the lack of a statement of fact or opinion in the posts makes useless as a introduction to a discussion.?

[August1991]

Daddy,

Your opening post is faulty in its reasoning. To change the example, you are stating that since not all men are rapists, then the police should suspect both women and men when looking for a rapist.

You have shown well that not all Muslims are terrorists. Then, you go on to make the unrelated claim that "some Muslims do bad things just like people in all cultures and ethnicities."

The fact of the matter is that Western countries do not face a threat of Chinese or African suicide bombers.

Jerry Seinfeld made essentially the same point I'm making. Not all Germans were Nazis but that obvious fact didn't change the way the Allied powers conducted the war.

----

Daddy, I think you have let your politically correct definition of discrimination get the better of you. On another thread, I gave another example (identical logically to your opening post).

If the police have reports that a blonde woman stole a watch, should they stop only blondes? Or, to avoid practicing "discrimination", should they stop both brunettes and blondes?

[Argus]

Why are you changing the topic from racism to multi-culturalism?

It is such a common part of the dance performed by racists to try to alter a discussion by introducing some other topic.

Reported to moderator

[jdobbin]

If the police have reports that a blonde woman stole a watch, should they stop only blondes? Or, to avoid practicing "discrimination", should they stop both brunettes and blondes?

Given that eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable, the cops shouldn't expect automatically that a blonde did it.

White vans anyone? Washington D.C. police chased them around during the sniper scare a few years back. That info proved bogus but anyone driving a white van knew that people automatically suspected them.

[jbg]

Why are you changing the topic from racism to multi-culturalism?

Same as when people of your general beliefs change the topic from September 11 or the latest suicide bombing to the "injustices" done to the "Palestinians".

[daddyhominum]

Why are you changing the topic from racism to multi-culturalism?

Same as when people of your general beliefs change the topic from September 11 or the latest suicide bombing to the "injustices" done to the "Palestinians".

My "beliefs" ?

I've been thinking my beliefs went overboard with my soul on a ferry trip some years back.

I am pleased you have found them and I am anxious to renew my knowledge of them. Did you find my soul, too?

Please identify them for me.

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be·lief Pronunciation (b-lf)

n.

1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in another: My belief in you is as strong as ever.

2. Mental acceptance of and conviction in the truth, actuality, or validity of something: His explanation of what happened defies belief.

3. Something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons.