A lot of times Ive experienced that a friendly approach does change attitudes. (Not always, I know.)

Anyway, keep up the great work.

My daughter is 10 and I’ve always told her to look at how someone acts not how they look. The outside really doesn’t tell you much.

I had an experience when my daughter was 3 and it still angers me when this topic comes up. When we went to a mall,I used to attach a child restraint to her wrist and mine so that she couldn’t run off and get lost.

We were in Wal-Mart one day and there was a mom pushing her baby in a carriage while her 2 older children walked next to her probably around 4 and 6 years old. One child asked,”Why is that little girl on a leash?” Before her mother could answer the other child asked,”Would you ever do that to us?”

The mother looked at us as if she wanted to spit on us and in a loud voice said,”NO! I would never do that to YOU…I actually LOVE you!”

I was stunned. Without missing a beat my confused daughter asked,”You don’t love me Mommy?”

I think steam was coming out of my ears. What a thing for a mother to say!!!

Prejudice comes in all forms and they’re all wrong.

I mean, obviously, the origins are ultimately different, but as I understand it, these two languages share some things – both in terms of script and in terms of words.

Eckchully, no.

Urdu is an Indo-Iranian language, and Arabic is a Semitic language.

Arabic is more closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic (Semitic languages both) than it is to Urdu.

Likewise, Arabs should hold Arabs to a high standard, and so on.

Racism is a universal temptation, and everyone has to watch out for the times when we succumb to it. Ultimately, almost everyone thinks that people who look like their own family are “normal” and everyone else is at least a bit weird.

Privilege:

1. White Skin Privilege: Shop without store security bird dogging you for the duration of your store visit.

2. Male Privilege: Walk the streets on hot day with your shirt off.

3.Het Privilege: Walk the streets holding your sweetie’s hand without fearing assault therefor.

While no one says we have to abandon the above privileges, it is meet and proper to:

1)be grateful

2)fight to share them

Second, I disagree with point 5 from Taz. “But sometimes, the only way to communicate with a bully is to use his tactics.” I personally think the bully is using these tactics because he is already unaware of the stupidity, ignorance, or hateful in them. Plus, I feel like the one of the story’s point was exactly this: do not stoop to their level.

Finally, I would like to bring up that you “hold white people up to a higher standard”. While I wholeheartedly agree that racism by whites (in the US, because thats all I really know much about) is more powerful and has greater weight in society compared to racism between minorities or against whites, I do not think white people should be held to a different standard. Racism is racism, no matter who commits the offense. The trouble is (as I recently found out in a discussion at a bar) that many white people do not want to recognize that they have the power through no fault of their own. And that their racism, ignorance, and intolerance, in today’s society, affects minorities (and the thoughts of other whites for that matter) much more than a minorities bigotry against whites or other minorities.

So while I agree that racism by whites is different, I cannot agree that white people’s standards must be different.

But stay vocal, I commend you for speaking up. And keep doing it because it is the only way we can be heard.

And to echo your last line which i love…”Do yourself a favor and be your own saviour.” – Daniel Johnston.

1) I like this post. I like your personal stories better then essays, and I like personal counternarratives on race even more.
2) I think it’s GREAT that you spoke up. Don’t ever not speak up. It’s the not speaking and not interacting that leads to the perpetuation of bigotry.
3) Sure one perspective the kids might have are, ‘damn that brown man talked bad about our dad’ – BUT maybe you saved some brown kids from getting teased osama comments on the playground. At least, the hope is, the kids remember that our brown voices arn’t silenced. Sure, your life may not have increased in value, but the life of others in th future may have.
4) Brown on brown words is never a good thing, especially when both sides perpetuates the dominant white badness. You shouldn’t have said what you did. You’re smarter, you could have done it better.
5) But sometimes, the only way to communicate with a bully is to use his tactics.