Tuesday, September 4, 2012

idiot wind blowing every time you move your teeth. you're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe

just a warning, the following is a rant because i am annoyed. i also just got out of a three hour class and am hungry and slightly tired and probably not fully in control of my word forming abilities.

moving on.

i am so sick of the racist crap that i have to deal with on a daily basis. i am not talking about the big racist things, because those are few and far between and i can just chalk it up to an individual's stupidity. but all of the small things, the things that are considered to be part of the norm... yeah i've had it up to here with those. in the beginning, i didn't mind them much. i was able to laugh them off with a mini rant and move on with my life. but it just happens so much. the ignorance is so widespread and i encounter it on an almost daily basis, and i'm really, really sick of it. people automatically thinking that i can't speak (or write) english because i wear a scarf on my head: sick of it. people automatically looking at me whenever terrorism is mentioned in class: sick of it. people giving me uncomfortable, apologetic looks when we discuss terrorists, as if they are talking about my father and feel guilty doing it in front of me: sick of it. people automatically looking at me when the professor mentions poor writing skills: sick of it. i am just so incredibly tired of people jumping to the conclusion that i'm ignorant and somehow related to terrorists just because i'm muslim.

what was the straw that finally broke the camel's back? today in class, the professor asked what every single terrorist has on his/her computer. a girl's answer? the quran. the correct answer? a resume. the professor told her that not every terrorist is a muslim, but it didn't look like she was convinced and i still got a few oh-no-you're-caught looks. what. the. hell. i'm just really, really annoyed right now.

and i wish i could stay that the ignorance is limited to a few stupid people. but it's not. guys and girls. students and professors. everyone. i get it from everyone. and it doesn't help that terrorism comes up so often in all of my classes. gah. i'm not sure how much longer i can just smile and ignore it. it's only a matter of time until i become the weird student that goes off on an angry rant in the middle of class about "something stupid" that people will whisper about for the rest of my academic career.

*Idiot Wind - Bob Dylan

5 comments:

  1. anonymous hippopotamusSeptember 6, 2012 at 12:52 AM

    *sigh* that is annoying...but they aren't worth your angry rant.

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  2. I was gonna respond to this yesterday, but in a sense, I agree with the anonymous person up there ^ (hello, how are the little ones? ^_^ )

    In all honesty, the "holy terror" discrimination that comes with the territory of looking Muslim nowadays provides me with endless fun and entertainment. It must be much harder walking around wearing a scarf, but the beard is a giveaway for me, and black people in the city are more likely to respect you for being Muslim than harass you. But seriously, who cares? Live your life. Have fun with it. You don't need to act defensively, or even feel defensive about who you are. That's how those big Muslim groups have it wrong nowadays, a.k.a. CAIR apologizing for every self-proclaimed Muslim nutjob across the world who does something terrible. Do white people have to apologize every day for the KKK? Exactly.

    What other people do and say about this blanket faulty understanding of Islam and Muslims should not affect and bother you at all. People who know me, just know me. Anyone who doesn't is bound to get all sorts of IT guy and terror jokes flung right in their face. Take any heckler or any odd action such as your teacher's stare in stride. Respond back with a clever one-liner of your own. It'll take the sting out of these types of situations.

    (This reminds me of this one time where I was listening to a Friday khutbah, and it was about dudes treating their wives right. The imam kept repeating "THOSE WHO BEAT THEIR WIFE" really loud, and every time he did so, one dude turned and looked at his friend and gave him this annoying smile. Hahahaha)

    But I digress. Don't worry too hard about this, and think about it differently if you can! Sorry for the rant.

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  3. it used to be entertaining for me, but it's just getting old now. i think the fact that i was pretty stressed that day added to my intolerance. and i don't take it personally or anything, because most of these people are ignorant. (one person went a year ranting about muslims and then was shocked to find that i was a muslim. i thought the scarf made it pretty obvious. the situation just showed that she knew nothing at all about the religion and was just regurgitating whatever she heard about the religion blindly.) i also agree with the not acting defensively and apologizing for every thing any muslim ever does. that's just stupid and counterproductive. i dunno, it's just annoying.

    and i love long rants.

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  4. I mean, it's annoying, but it's long since stopped getting on my nerves. People are just stupid, and that's their problem!

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