37. When Complexion Kills

[Adapted from my monthly hardcopy newspaper column, For Goodness' Sake, in Front Porch magazine]

Bigots are everywhere. I’m sure we’re all prejudiced to some extent…I’m also sure that most of us underestimate our own prejudice.

Rally Against America

My American friend Bill was in an Arabic Muslim country a few years ago when an especially destructive US attack killed a large number of people. Bill had a great job as a manager with a local company. When following this attack he was told that his position was being eliminated for company “right-sizing”, he was shocked. Later he discovered that he, the only American and only Christian, had also been the only casualty of this corporate right-sizing.

Bill was shouted at by local citizens, angry at him personally for a tragedy over which he had had no control. He was even spit upon, but felt totally helpless to seek support from local authorities.

Bill told me that even non-Americans were assaulted because of this rage. In a few rare cases, they were murdered. A Canadian Jew was beaten to death in his own shop, because rampaging hotheads simply didn’t understand any distinctions between those who had conducted the original military strike and some who looked like them.

My friend Andy, who lives in that same country, tells me the bigotry is so pervasive he’s coined a wry term to describe his position: the Caucasian Christian Cat, or 3-C. He tells me that the 3-C is by far the worst “type” to be these days. He’s guilty until proven innocent and distrusted on sight. It’s a constant, uncomfortable feeling, and there’s nothing he can do about it.

Ironically, Andy is a citizen of that country. He was born there. He just doesn’t “look” right.

If you’re like me, this makes your blood boil. It’s outrageous that decent, law-abiding, good Christian Americans like Bill can be treated so unfairly. He never hurt anyone; he should get the same respect they give each other in that country.

Except….

…Well, I’ve been a little deceptive in this essay.

Bill is not actually an American, or a Christian.

His name isn’t Bill, either.

It’s Bassam.

The “attack” that precipitated all this civic violence was not American, but Islamo-fascist. It was September 11, 2001.

Bassam is a retired Jordanian Army officer, a naturalized citizen of the United States. After 9/11 he was fired by his employer, a major retailer in America. Beforehand, he was praised for his excellent management. After the attacks, the “right size” for that outlet apparently meant one less Arab Muslim.

He was spit upon, but not in some foreign country. He was spit upon by a fellow American because he looks like some of the people who conducted 9/11. He was deeply upset by this; not only because of the extreme degradation, but because he loves his adopted home so very much. He, like thousands of other Arab-Americans, only wanted to mourn with his American family. Instead they were abused as enemies.

The murdered Canadian Jew is also not as I described. He was a humble shopkeeper, but he was an Indian Sikh. He was murdered in America, by Americans. He was of a very different religion and a completely different racial origin; but he was taken from his family because he had brown skin, a thick accent, and wore a turban.

Andy’s actual name is Imran, and he’s a very good friend of mine. He was born American and raised by his American parents, but they share the ethnic features of Pakistan.

Imran didn’t actually coin the term 3-C. It’s really 3-M. The “hardest thing to be in America”, according to Imran and other friends, is a Middle-eastern, Muslim Male.

I’d like to mention one other fine American. His real name is Kami. Originally from Egypt, he is a devout Muslim; at first sight of his bushy grey beard and conservative clothing you might even mistake him for his infamous countryman, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri (spiritual and political mentor to Osama bin Laden).

Kami and I were discussing a US initiative to provide life-saving surgical treatment to a sick boy here in Iraq who would die of organ failure without this spontaneous charity. I’ll never forget his response when I first told him of it.

“Oh, thank God,” he said in English…”God bless America!”

Copyright © 2008 by Jack Oatmon. All rights reserved.

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