Here is the thing I have been hyper aware of since I was a little kid and saw the movie Crisis at Central High for the first time: we live in a terribly judgmental, xenophobic, racist, homophobic country and it’s always been that way. “Our Founding Fathers” came to America to escape religious persecution and systematically and cruelly began killing the natives. They needed to build an economy and needed a cheap labor source, so they literally stole people from their own countries and made them slaves. Each time this country has seen an influx of immigrants, we do our best to demoralize, humiliate and destroy their culture. The Irish. The Japanese, the Chinese. People from Latin countries. Jewish immigrants. It’s not just about non-white immigrants, it’s about any new culture trying to put down roots in the United States.
And it’s not just a race or culture issue. We find equal joy in attacking sexuality. Men and women have been tried and convicted of “sodomy”, “lewd acts upon a bed” and other such nonsense since the boat docked. When the virus that causes AIDS was initially thought to be a “gay disease”, the Centers for Disease Control dragged their feet and didn’t even think about finding a cure or vaccine. And today, we discuss ad nauseam whether or not allowing same sex couples to marry will “destroy the sanctity of marriage.” Meanwhile, we never utter the words “destroying the sanctity of marriage” while discussing the fact that 1 in 4 women will be beaten by her partner in her lifetime. Nor do we wonder if the alarmingly high rate of divorce calls “the sanctity of marriage” into question.
And now, mosques. Sweet Baby Jesus, Islamic extremists are attempting to build their places of worship in my backyard. Why are they doing this?! To recruit new terrorists. To preach their evil religion to our innocent Christian babies. To destroy Christianity. To destroy the sanctity of marriage. How dare they, after 9/11, attempt to build their dirty, dirty mosques in our country?
Here we go again.
This isn’t anything new, unfortunately. The day the Federal Building was bombed in Oklahoma City in 1995, people went nuts. Muslim Americans unfortunate enough to be living in Oklahoma City that day were subjected to rocks being thrown at their homes, being verbally and physically attacked by neighbors. A Muslim woman lost her unborn child that day as she crouched in fear as people broke the windows on her home and shouted racist epithets. And then, the real terrorist, a tall lanky white boy from New York, was arrested for the crime, which he proudly admitted to. Didn’t see that coming, did you?
Yes, I think we can all agree that what happened in this country on September 11, 2001 was horrifying, tragic, stunning and numbing. The loss of so much human life was beyond comprehension and every single one of us was deeply affected and it’s something that will stay with us for the rest of our lives and out children’s lives. But after Pearl Harbor, Lt. General John L. DeWitt testified to Congress:
I don't want any of them [persons of Japanese ancestry] here. They are a dangerous element. There is no way to determine their loyalty... It makes no difference whether he is an American citizen, he is still a Japanese. American citizenship does not necessarily determine loyalty... But we must worry about the Japanese all the time until he is wiped off the map.
Japanese Americans were then rounded up (by order of the president) and put into internment camps. Our military called it a wartime necessity. Are we rounding up Islamic Americans and putting them into camps? No but we might as well with the way this community has been treated: being asked to de-board airplanes, accused of plotting terrorist attacks any time there is a group doing anything that might be called “suspicious”; being met with hostility and hatred by communities that don’t want Islamic Americans worshipping, praying, shopping or living amongst them. We are so irrationally afraid of this community and this religion that we are behaving like idiots.
It does no good for me or other likeminded individuals to try and ration with people who truly believe that all Islamic Americans are secretly terrorists. It’s a waste of my breath—and my time—to carefully and easily undo the “logic” of not allowing mosques to be built in this country. I am so sick of having conversations with people who are convinced that allowing same sex couples to marry would result in Armageddon that the next time someone starts in on that, my plan is to kick them square in the nuts and walk away.
You may read this and think to yourself, “Wow, this girl is really snotty. She obviously thinks she’s above everyone and morally superior. I hate her and I don’t even know her.” To that I say, then why the fuck did you read this far? I also say, you’re goddamned right. Do I think I am morally superior to, smarter than and overall much, much cooler than the band of idiots currently dominating Fox News? You’re goddamned right.
