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teleen_fictionYeah, yeah, I know, it's kind of funny that such a rabid atheist is saying the first part, but here's the thing:
"Muslim Terrorist" on Air Malta Plane Turns Out To Be Carribean Christian
When you say that one group is somehow scarier than another just because of the god they pray to (or what they look like or how they act), mistakes like this will happen, especially if you have the racist viewpoint that anyone who looks a certain way belongs to that faith.
This guy was a Christian who was chanting "Our Father" because he (like many of us, including me) is scared of flying. Or because he felt like saying a prayer. Either one.
People are supposed to be allowed to do comforting things that don't hurt anyone else, like praying when they're scared, but this guy got denied that fundamental right, essentially because he looked the wrong way and the passengers flipped out.
This is why the asshats who are against Park 51 should still be ashamed of themselves. When you single out any single group and say that their religion is bad, that their places of worship are terrorist breeding grounds and that it's okay to profile people based upon what color they are or what they're wearing, you set up people who happen to look like them to get shit on as this Christian man was.
Racism, Islamaphobia and homophobia don't just hurt the members of those groups - they hurt anyone who is seen to share characteristics of members of a certain groups, whether they belong to that group or not. A customer I was speaking to from India the other day goes through hell when he flies and had to give up trying for his pilot's license because of how he looked. It made me sick.
Look at how many young men are called the 'f' word because they haven't hit a growth spurt or are seen as too 'sensitive' or 'effeminate'. They don't have to actually be gay for homophobia to hurt them, just as a woman who likes to wear comfortable shoes and watch football and doesn't care to wear makeup isn't always a lesbian. People need to get over the idea that "real men and women" act like "x".
This isn't rocket science. It's shit that all of us have been told at one point or another and yet we keep spreading that same fear of anyone who isn't heteronormative, white and Christian.
People suck.
"Muslim Terrorist" on Air Malta Plane Turns Out To Be Carribean Christian
When you say that one group is somehow scarier than another just because of the god they pray to (or what they look like or how they act), mistakes like this will happen, especially if you have the racist viewpoint that anyone who looks a certain way belongs to that faith.
This guy was a Christian who was chanting "Our Father" because he (like many of us, including me) is scared of flying. Or because he felt like saying a prayer. Either one.
People are supposed to be allowed to do comforting things that don't hurt anyone else, like praying when they're scared, but this guy got denied that fundamental right, essentially because he looked the wrong way and the passengers flipped out.
This is why the asshats who are against Park 51 should still be ashamed of themselves. When you single out any single group and say that their religion is bad, that their places of worship are terrorist breeding grounds and that it's okay to profile people based upon what color they are or what they're wearing, you set up people who happen to look like them to get shit on as this Christian man was.
Racism, Islamaphobia and homophobia don't just hurt the members of those groups - they hurt anyone who is seen to share characteristics of members of a certain groups, whether they belong to that group or not. A customer I was speaking to from India the other day goes through hell when he flies and had to give up trying for his pilot's license because of how he looked. It made me sick.
Look at how many young men are called the 'f' word because they haven't hit a growth spurt or are seen as too 'sensitive' or 'effeminate'. They don't have to actually be gay for homophobia to hurt them, just as a woman who likes to wear comfortable shoes and watch football and doesn't care to wear makeup isn't always a lesbian. People need to get over the idea that "real men and women" act like "x".
This isn't rocket science. It's shit that all of us have been told at one point or another and yet we keep spreading that same fear of anyone who isn't heteronormative, white and Christian.
People suck.
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Date: 2010-12-28 12:40 am (UTC)I don't how many "knowing" looks I've gotten from men who thought they hit the gold mine of info that I was a lesbian because I wasn't completely dainty and effeminate, and hanging out with- get this- my daugher who is taller than me. It makes me sick, and it makes me sick to think of what this says about how actual LGBTQP are viewed.
This whole thing about Muslims. I don't know how many times I've been over it, it's just the extremists who are like abortion bombing Christians, not the entire population who hate terrorism as much as we do. Some of the kindest people I've known are Muslim who devoutly practice their beliefs. So sad for the fellow from India.