I had a conversation on the street with a 5 year old. She asked me if I knew about Americans. I said, “Tell me about it.”
Her eyes opened bigger than normal as she said, ‘in America they want little kids to be sexualized, and they will make you want alcohol and drugs and to go do gang stuff.’
First I informed her that I am an American. She began to look worried but then I pointed at several of her close friends and I said, ‘they are Americans too.’
Then I told her that she is an American. A confused look began to spread over her face.
I asked her if she knew where she was standing and her confidence came back. “Sure,” she said. “I am standing outside my school.” I asked her, where she had heard about America and Americans and she told me, from the Sheik in the school. I told her that her Sheik is an American, his children are Americans and the school is an American school and that where she lives is America. I assured her that the Americans she knows and loves in America, and the Americans I know about, would be nice to her and protect her from the things she had been told about, and that this is what all Americans are ‘supposed to do’.
I proceeded to confront adults about this issue. Of course, I am not ignorant I know about American culture, it is my culture. I, however, do not sexualize little kids. I do not personally know little kids who’ve been sexualized. I don’t experience the situation painted by that Sheik but I know about it.
The extremist Sheik had portrayed our culture in a context that is a complete contradiction to the reality most of us experience; including, and in contrast, he portrays Islamic life style as a peaceful and beneficent experience. The people within his community are living a decent and relatively peaceful Islamic lifestyle while they are effected by his portrayal of ‘the other’.
OK well what do you say to people like this? You could say, ‘You can listen to the Sheik and be frightened, until he motivates you to act … or you could get your heads out of your asses and look around you! What do you see, what do you experience, what does common sense tell you about life in America and the people in you circumstance. Have you taken the time to get to know any people outside of your sheltered community?’
That Sheik is no longer able to face me and avoids all opportunities to engage in discussion with me. He knows about evil in America and he has many ways to prove his point. He can simply report the facts, as you do. He is happy to lecture me on it, but there is no discussion. Not similar, not close, not sort of like, but exactly like the heinous and corrupt extremism of your agenda and just as fraudulently full of selective portrayals, over generalizations, misrepresentations, half truths, hate and bigotry.
Best regards,
Gem |
