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I want to take a second to talk about this kind of shit (below), and why as an Arab American, the white terrorist mob that commited treason/sedition/insurrection on 1/6 hits a little different. 1
At 15 I got my 1st job at a haircut chain. I swept hair/cleaned/manned the phone. I walked to/from work, & after 9/11, my boss, a very hard (and sometimes mean) woman, tearfully told me that she worried about me walking home by myself. 2
I realized she would give free haircuts to certain regulars in exchange for giving me a lift home, or she'd have me stay late, so that she could take me after she closed up. At the time I thought she was overreacting, but then I met her POS husband who was a right-wing Sheriff. 3
Once, I helped her paint the interior of her house. After, they took me to dinner, & at one point her husband excused himself. He came back a minute later, I figured he'd gone to the bathroom. But he went to get his gun b/c there were some young Mexican guys at the next table. 4
Afterward he said he "figured if there was a time to be armed, it was then". After, he spouted conspiracy theories at us on the drive home. Looking back, I realize that she was afraid I'd fall victim to someone like her own husband, because of my ethnicity. 5
I'm 35, and for my nearly entire life, there has been some kind of conflict, usually the biggest draw of US forces, in the Middle East w/ US boots on the ground. From Desert Storm, to the US invasion of Iraq, to Afghanistan, Libya, etc. 6
The camo we saw in movies/TV used to be jungle green (post Vietnam). For the roughly 30 years now that's changed to desert camo. The chuds who play soldier buy it. Even shit like this *tactical dad kit?*. This is the level of mainstream the US occupation of the M.E. has become. 7
Essentially, if someone was born in the last 4 decades in the US, they've been desensitized on some level to the idea of killing Arabs. Because Arabs are "the threat". Countless movies, video games, and now *goddamn diaper bags* FFS, corroborate this. 8
With that mainstreamification comes the constant demonization of MENA (Middle Eastern/North African) people. But it's not just us. Because the average American doesn't know the difference between Arab, Persian, Indian, Pakistani, etc. 9
The average American doesn't know the difference between Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Bahai... They see a brown person from that general area of the world, and they go "terrorist". 10
Meanwhile, the occupation and terrorization of MENA and South Asian countries *by "white" countries* is so status quo, that you can BUY A FUCKING DIAPER BAG AND BABY SLING that doubles as gear to go kill you some AY-RABS.
Think about how psychologically taxing that is for us. 11
Think about how psychologically taxing that is for us. 11
The US has spent unimaginable amounts of time, $$$ & breath to make sure that we here in the states know just how scared we should be of the M.E.
Destabilizing countries, waging war, opening the door for other conflicts, and then demonizing the victims & denying them refuge. 12
Destabilizing countries, waging war, opening the door for other conflicts, and then demonizing the victims & denying them refuge. 12
The Muslim Ban alone has upended countless lives, denying people access to family, lifesaving treatment, safety. I mean, I can go on, but point being that after all of the hate-programming, at least 1/2 of the country thought "Muslim ban? Good idea, we'll be safer". 13
I grew up around white dudes who would call me "terrorist" as a term of "endearment". Those same dudes would've been at that insurrection in DC if they could have afforded the flight & hotel stay. Shit, maybe a few of them were even there. 14
It's absolutely stunning to see such a clear act of terror on such a huge scale, perpetrated BY THE PRESIDENT and his cronies in Washington, the police, and all of those mostly white cultists, and 4+ days later, he's still in office. They still have jobs. 15
Meantime, MENA & South Asian people, or anyone w/ a vaguely Arabic name (lots of black Americans) will continue to get screened at airports, reported to flight attendants for speaking Arabic or doing math, won't receive calls back from jobs they've applied for, etc. 16
Much like how people are saying "imagine if this were black folks or BLM protestors trying this" about how the cops looked the other way on Wed. b/c the perpetrators were white... Can you imagine if they were Arabs? I certainly can. 17/17
