Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Arabs Are The New Niggers
...I need a new nigga for this black cloud to follow,
'cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tommorrow..." - Nas
Recently I have been able to catch cabs in Manhattan at any time of the night. Now, if you?re not a Black man like I am, you probably don?t realize how amazing it is not to be passed over by the yellow cabs in this city. The racial profiling by taxi drivers was so common, my friends and I had accepted it like all other unchangeable truths- rain is wet, the sky is blue, and a Black guy can?t catch a cab in midtown.
But now I can. I don?t know why the change has happened, but it has. And I almost feel afraid to talk about it, as if it can be jinxed and everything will go back to normal.
Now here?s something weird- whenever I?m in a cab with a Middle Eastern driver, and he?s speaking his coded language to another Arab over a radio, I tense up and wonder, ?Are they planning a terrorist attack??? My view of these guys is so bad that sometimes I want to wave off a taxi if I see the guy has a turban on his head, or a long Bin Laden beard.
Yes, I know that?s not right. Be easy with me. I?m confessing here.
I?ve heard comedians and social critics point out that after 9/11 Middle Easterners are the new ?niggers? on the block. Well, with the crazy fears I have based just on how people look, I would agree that?s true.
Posted by SOHH Hashim on April 8, 2005 02:38 AM
Read on: blogs.sohh.com
'cause while it's over me it's too dark to see tommorrow..." - Nas
Recently I have been able to catch cabs in Manhattan at any time of the night. Now, if you?re not a Black man like I am, you probably don?t realize how amazing it is not to be passed over by the yellow cabs in this city. The racial profiling by taxi drivers was so common, my friends and I had accepted it like all other unchangeable truths- rain is wet, the sky is blue, and a Black guy can?t catch a cab in midtown.
But now I can. I don?t know why the change has happened, but it has. And I almost feel afraid to talk about it, as if it can be jinxed and everything will go back to normal.
Now here?s something weird- whenever I?m in a cab with a Middle Eastern driver, and he?s speaking his coded language to another Arab over a radio, I tense up and wonder, ?Are they planning a terrorist attack??? My view of these guys is so bad that sometimes I want to wave off a taxi if I see the guy has a turban on his head, or a long Bin Laden beard.
Yes, I know that?s not right. Be easy with me. I?m confessing here.
I?ve heard comedians and social critics point out that after 9/11 Middle Easterners are the new ?niggers? on the block. Well, with the crazy fears I have based just on how people look, I would agree that?s true.
Posted by SOHH Hashim on April 8, 2005 02:38 AM
Read on: blogs.sohh.com
Comments on this journal
Funny...your observation is so true though because it reminded me EXACTLY of an event that happened with me. After 9/11, I was talking to this black guy about a class assignment in the hall, and this black guy also happens to be a homosexual man (and part of the University's LGBTQ Organization)..so talk about double minority.....and some guy comes up and goes...."well look, TWO niggers...one's a sand nigger and one's a pretty nigger." And I was fumed. But the funny thing about it was I thought my classmate would be more fumed, and he started laughing saying that this was the first time he'd been harassed since 9/11 and that he felt like he'd been harassed LESS than his arab friends had.
Weird...but racism in all its counts is absolutely horrid. I'm very surprised to hear about your story too...but in our days, I guess I shouldn't be.
And as for ur thoughts though, I couldn't agree more. I'm not a racist by all counts, and I'm not saying you are by your confession and thoughts, but sometimes by the way that society shapes us and the viewpoints we get of certain groups, we can't help but sometimes have that little suspicion creep up once in a while on us. Like the whole term in law "NPC"......."nearest person of color" if you don't have a witness, then you go toward the NPC in the crime scene and blame it on them. Lately, I would think, if it was between a black man and an Arab man, the NPC would now be the Arab man.
I think we all have our prejudices that come out sometimes, and even though we ourselves may not be prejudice or racist in any way shape or form, society sometimes can brainwash our thoughts at times. It's a scary world sometimes, and people are getting suspicious of everything. And while we're here confessing, I might as well say, I've just as guilty of the "NPC" judgment before with case studies for classes......
Nice to know that someone can confess something like that though...in this sad world of ours.