Category Archives: racism

Humans of New York

“I came from Malaysia as part of a work-study program where I worked as an au pair. The company assigns you to an American family, and you take care of the children and do ‘light housework’ in exchange for a place to live and $195 per week. My first year was with a family in Connecticut. They were very nice to me. But when they moved away I was assigned to a family outside of Boston. It was a very difficult year for me. I had no car, no friends, and no activities. I was supposed to have free time while the kids were at school, but the mother would always cut it short so I could do laundry or start cooking meals. She criticized everything I did. One time she asked me to wash winter coats during my free time, and then got mad when I didn’t do it right away—even though it was during the summer. She treated me like an employee, but then gave me extra chores because I was ‘part of the family.’ I even had to take care of the pets. I felt trapped because the company made it extremely difficult to get reassigned. My only other choice was to go back home. But I was lucky, I guess. A lot of my friends in the program had it worse.”

Source: Humans of New York

The Refugees of Roanoke – The New York Times

More than a decade later, none of that has come to pass. Today, Roanoke’s biggest festival is a celebration of diversity called Local Colors. Pearl Fu, the Chinese immigrant who spearheaded its creation, is known for greeting every foreign-born stranger she sees at the grocery store with, “Hi, where you from?” Roanoke is now a place where you can hear a dozen languages spoken at the bus stop at the end of my street.You can also hear a lot of sad stories. Most of the Somalis spent years in camps awaiting U.S.R.P. approval. A Somali Bantu eighth grader I met in 2005 spent the first 12 years of his life in one of those camps, in Kenya. His mother was a widow; his father had been killed when the civil war came to his village in 1992. “Some day a soldier came and said, ‘Give me your money,’ and he did not have no money. So they killed him,” he told me. Here in the United States, he got in a fight at school after an African-American teen chided him for being “too black.” Because he spoke English, he did all his family’s grocery shopping and was responsible for writing their rent and utility checks.

Source: The Refugees of Roanoke – The New York Times

“Death to Arabs” sprayed on Palestinian houses by israeli settlers. | PNN

Overnight this last Thursday, Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian village of al-Mazraa al-Qabalia northwest of Ramallah area and vandalized two Palestinian houses.The israeli settlers sprayed racist graffiti saying “Death to Arabs”in Hebrew on the houses walls and broke several windows, according to the israeli news website The Times of Israel. Israeli police have said that they are investigating the attack.According to the israeli media, “the vandalism may have been part of a series of so-called price tag hate-crime attacks, usually arson and graffiti, which are used by Jewish extremists to target non-Jews — including homes, churches and mosques — as revenge for actions by Israeli officials and for Palestinian terror attacks”.

Source: “Death to Arabs” sprayed on Palestinian houses by israeli settlers. | PNN

‘There is a massive paranoia’: UK Muslims on life after Paris | World news | The Guardian

Omar Raza was walking near his home in Glasgow’s south side when he was confronted by three men hurling racist abuse, calling him a “fucking Paki” and accusing him of funding Islamic State.“It was three against one, so I tried to defuse the situation and walk past them. But I was suddenly attacked from behind and put in a head lock.” Raza was kicked to the ground and the bag he was carrying upturned and its contents strewn across the pavement, before his attackers ran off.“It all happened so quickly,” he told the Guardian on Thursday ahead of Friday prayers at Glasgow Central mosque. “Of course I’ve been the victim of hate speech before, but never a physical assault. You hear a lot of stories from down south but the south side of Glasgow is supposed to be a diverse community. It’s obvious that what’s going on [in Paris] is seeping into society and a lot of people are acting on half-truths.”

Source: ‘There is a massive paranoia’: UK Muslims on life after Paris | World news | The Guardian

Opinion: Silly season on Syrian refugees – LA Times

Sen. Ted Cruz would winnow the field of acceptable refugees down to only Christian Syrians, similar to what Jeb Bush proposes. In Congress, House Republicans voted to block Syrian and Iraqi refugees from coming to the U.S. A majority of U.S. governors want to refuse refugees resettlement in their states.The Times editorial board has a message for them: Stop the fear mongering. It writes:The United States doesn’t have the same challenge as Europe, whose relative proximity to the Middle Eastern war zone has left it inundated with millions of refugees. And the source isn’t just Syria and Iraq; refugees — both political and economic — from Africa have landed in Europe as well. There are few good options for stopping that tide without first stabilizing the regions from which it arises; a political solution to the Syrian civil war is a crucial first step to achieving that stability.We haven’t faced this exodus simply because it is so much harder for Syrian refugees to arrive at the border and seek asylum. President Obama affirmed in Turkey on Tuesday that “America has to step up and do its part” in providing for war refugees, which presumably includes moving ahead with his plan to accept up to 10,000 Syrian refugees this fiscal year, up from fewer than 2,000. This page has argued that the U.S. should take significantly more because there are too many for Europe to absorb and because of our history as a safe haven. Nothing in the Paris attacks changes that.That’s not to suggest that the U.S. should accept any and all comers. What the Republican candidates ignore, though, is that there is already a system in place to vet the refugees. To gain entry to the U.S., a Syrian refugee first must pass rigorous screening by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which verifies personal backgrounds and details before recommending individuals for resettlement to the United States. Then the Department of Homeland Security does its own screening before a refugee is granted entry and protection.» Click here to read more.Refusing entry to Syrians is not only unnecessary, it’s also un-American. Editorial writer Scott Martelle says this reflexive heartlessness goes against our national character: “For a nation built by immigrants and their offspring, including waves of refugees over the years, to say, ‘wait a minute, not THOSE people,’ is to reject our very roots. Not to mention hamstring future economic growth, since immigrants help fuel the economy.” Readers largely agree — a few draw comparisons to the homegrown mass shooters of late and wonder who it is Americans should really fear.

Source: Opinion: Silly season on Syrian refugees – LA Times

Raad Rahman: Will I Die a Muslim? – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

I wonder how I will die, because none of this is my Islam. I’ve spent the better part of the years since 9/11 instinctively apologizing for the acts of extremist Muslims who have absolutely nothing to do with me, and everything to do with a brand of Islam that is despicable to all Muslims. I am exorbitantly angry with these extremists for continuing to try to tie my identity with their damnable actions.One look at my mini-skirts, tube-tops, and swimsuits, and if you’re even the most conservative of Americans, you end up asking me, “But you look so ‘normal.’ What causes you guys to take the step to go over the other side?” This actually happened with a well-meaning white woman from the Midwest on a flight to Chicago, who was shocked to hear there is no other side for us moderates and liberals. Such ignorant Islamophobia is pervasive to many of the encounters I have had over the last decade.

Source: Raad Rahman: Will I Die a Muslim? – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Netanyahu: Muslims are “dangerous animals” | PNN

During the international conference in Occupied Jerusalem with the French Ambassador, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu described Muslims as “animals”  who need to be defeated. According to Israel Hayom daily, Netanyahu made this statement during the foreign diplomats conference, tackling last week’s attacks on France.Referring to Muslims as “dangerous animals,” Netanyahu also said that there were a lot of them in [Israel], adding that the world needs to understand the seriousness of the problem, indicating the need to “defeat these animals.”“The beasts increasingly have a name — it is radical Islam. That is what is doing the killing, the murder, the rape, the burning, the beheading.A day before, the Israeli minister of Education, MK Naftali Bennett said that “[Israel] should have killed more [Arabs] because anyone who lifts a hand against Israel must die.”

Source: Netanyahu: Muslims are “dangerous animals” | PNN

As a Judge Sentences Miller to Death, He Still Spews Hate | Southern Poverty Law Center

Even as he formally was sentenced to death this week for three murders, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. continued spewing hate.“I thrive on hate,” the 74-year-old former Ku Klux Klan leader said in a Johnson County courtroom in Olathe, Kan. “If I didn’t thrive on hate, I would go crazy.”It was his hatred of Jews and a fervent idolization of Adolf Hitler, Miller told a jury this past summer, that drove him to kill three people in April 2014 outside two Jewish facilities in the Kansas community. The jury convicted him of three capital murders charges and took an 90 additional minutes to decide he should get the death penalty.

Source: As a Judge Sentences Miller to Death, He Still Spews Hate | Southern Poverty Law Center

House passes bill to tighten flow of Syrian refugees over Obama’s objections – The Washington Post {The vote – 289 anti-American cowards to 137.

The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation aimed at tightening controls on refugees from Syria and Iraq, in what Republican leaders say is a swift and strong response to last week’s terror attacks in Paris.The vote was 289 to 137.

Source: House passes bill to tighten flow of Syrian refugees over Obama’s objections – The Washington Post

Video: Israeli soldiers arrest young child | The Electronic Intifada

“If you get one step closer to me I’ll detain you,” a soldier shouts at Amirah in Hebrew, and yanks the boy backwards. The soldiers then attack Amirah while continuing to detain the child.Ajarma said that the boy’s mother, father and grandfather came to the scene.The soldiers ordered the mother and father to go and tell local youths to stop throwing stones if they wanted their son to be released, Ajarma said.They arrested Amirah and let the boy go after holding him for several hours.Ajarma said that he visited the family on Wednesday morning and that Abdallah was traumatized by the experience.Ajarma said that the Israeli soldiers looked little older than teenagers.“You’re young, but you must have a family. What you’re doing to a young child isn’t right,” Ajarma recalled telling one of the gunmen holding the child.“I feel that if this soldier was a father, he wouldn’t be able to carry on this way,” Ajarma told The Electronic Intifada.“The one thing that made the army act in a slightly less violent way is that I was filming everything,” Ajarma said.

Source: Video: Israeli soldiers arrest young child | The Electronic Intifada