White Out: Media Heap Suspicion On Brown People In Boston Marathon Bombing [Racist "Revenge" Attacks follow]

verbalresistance:

WASHINGTON — Hours after the Boston Marathon bombing, there was alreadyInternet chatter that a “Saudi national” was the suspect. Police raided the apartment of Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi, a 22-year-old student from Saudi Arabia, as he was recovering from the blasts in a Boston hospital.

Next, CNN’s John King raised the alarm about a more elusive “dark-skinned male” who the TV reporter said was in custody on Wednesday.

The following day, the New York Post got more specific. It slapped pictures of two young men on its front page, calling them “Bag Men” and identifying them as persons of interest to federal authorities. One was Salah Barhoum, 17, a Moroccan American middle-distance runner.

And then there was news that a man in Bronx, N.Y., who was born in Bangladesh was beaten up for supposedly being “a f*cking Arab” by a group of men who wanted retribution for the marathon bombing.

A Palestinian woman near Boston also reported being the victim of a hateful assault on Wednesday, when a man hit her and yelled, “F*ck you Muslims! You are terrorists! I hate you! You are involved in the Boston explosions.”

What all of these people have in common is that they’re innocent of the bombing. They also happen not to be white.

For the most part, the response to the marathon bombing has brought out humanity’s better angels. Deserved attention has been shed on the heroic efforts of bystanders like Carlos Arredondo and the many first responders who rushed to help the injured.

But it has also served as a depressing reminder that the racial profiling that increased against men of Middle Eastern, Arab and South Asian descent after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks continues to infect the public response to terrorism.

It may turn out that the Boston Marathon bombers are Arab. But they could also be white, black, Native American, Asian or Hispanic. While CBS News tweeted Wednesday that a “white male” was a possible suspect, most people subjected to the speculation grinder have been non-white — all before the FBI on Thursday released photos of two racially ambiguous suspects.

The consequences have been brutal for some of the innocent people caught in the frenzy.

Alharbi had “every inch” of his apartment searched by law enforcement, with authorities seen lugging away bags of items from his home. Residents in his building called it “a startling show of force.” His roommate was questioned for five hours.

“I was scared,” the roommate, Mohammed Hassan Bada, 20, of Saudi Arabia, told the Boston Herald.

Meanwhile, Alharbi was recovering from shrapnel wounds in a hospital. News outlets later reported that he was a witness, not a suspect, and “was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

CNN’s “dark-skinned male” never materialized, as it quickly became clear that its report of an arrest was wrong. PBS journalist Gwen Ifill said she found it “disturbing” that a television network was allowed to characterize a supposed bombing suspect in such a way.

Barhoum had his world turned upside-down when he saw himself on the cover of the New York Post.

“It’s the worst feeling that I can possibly feel. … I’m only 17,” he said. His mother, meanwhile, felt “sick and upset.”

Barhoum went to the police on Wednesday to clear his name, after he noticed photos of himself getting tagged on social media. He was unable to compete in the marathon, but decided to go and watch. Federal authorities told ABC News that they were passing around his picture to find more information — as they no doubt were doing with pictures of many of the people photographed on Monday.

Later Thursday, after a public outcry over its cover image, the New York Post ran a follow-up story clarifying that authorities said the two “bag men” had “neither had any information or role in Monday’s attacks at the Boston Marathon.”

The rush for indictment and revenge has also taken a toll on Abdullah Faruque, 30, the Bronx man who was beaten up for having brown skin and looking “Arab.” He was assaulted by three or four men outside an Applebee’s on Monday, just hours after the bombing.

“One of the guys asked if I was Arab. I just shook my head, said like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ I didn’t even know that [the] Boston [bombing] happened because I had a busy day,” Faruque explained to the New York Post.

“Yeah, he’s a f*cking Arab,” responded one of the men, before the group jumped him. They dislocated his shoulder and left him semiconscious.

Heba Abolaban, who lives near Boston, was assaulted and harassed on Wednesday. Abolaban told Malden Patch that while she and her friend, who were both wearing hijabs, were walking with their children, a man came up and punched her shoulder and accused them of being involved in the Boston Marathon bombing.

“I did not say anything to him,” Abolaban said. “Not even that we aren’t terrorists. … He was so aggressive.”

… Talal Alyan, an Arab American student, launched an online campaign on Thursday demanding that the New York Post apologize for its coverage.

“We demand an apology from the New York Post for identifying a Saudi Arabian national as a suspect for the Boston Marathon bombing despite having no evidence,” read the petition, which had more than 6,600 signatures as of Thursday evening. “The New York Post based their conclusion that the wounded marathon runner was a suspect only on the fact that he was an Arab. The New York Post needs to apologize to the falsely accused and the broader Arab and Muslim community.”

Still, Barhoum was uneasy at being targeted, while others around him in the marathon crowd weren’t.

“The only thing they look at is my skin color and since I’m Moroccan, I’m kind of dark,” said Barhoum. “Last night I couldn’t sleep. Just thinking about the consequences. What are people going to say and what the result is going to be.”

Huffington Post

(via destieliscanon)

digatisdi:

portablemiah:

benskid:

portablemiah:

illegal immigrants? you mean white people

except that white people didn’t immigrate into the united states… they funded the united states. you can’t illegally immigrate into a society you created. 

did you actually just say white people created society in america

funded xD

(via sophiecognito)

Academic Men Explain Things to Me: Mainsplaining with a Side Order of Racism

athenasaurus:

negativecos:

mansplained:

Not strictly academic, but close enough. I’m Asian American and was taking a plane back to my university to finish up my PhD in English Literature and teach a composition class. The man sitting next to me asked me why I was flying from the West Coast to the Midwest. I told him I was going to the University of ________.

He asked me why I was going to the university so I told him I teach English.

He says, “You mean you’re learning English.”

“No,” I say. “I’m teaching English.”

“You see,” he replies, “You are confusing the words ‘teach’ and ‘learn.’ You are learning English.”

oh. my god. 

welp

thatisnotfeminism:

Because sexism, racism, etc. are only things that exist in gender studies classes and have absolutely no relevance to the real world!

And yes, “jew down” is fucking offensive. 

Even IN my social science class, this is basically how my classmates responded to the teacher the day we learned about white privilege.

(Source: )

needlestosay:

sourcedumal:

deliciouskaek:

thinkspeakstress:

deliciouskaek:

sourcedumal:

seekingwillow:

sourcedumal:

Any black man who believes this bullshit can go straight to hell in gasoline soaked pajamas.

—

Why you so nice? WHY YOU SO NICE?!!! Gas soaked pj’s? These assholes need to go to hell coated in napalm, with a stick of dynamite in each hand, and one up their arse. What the hell is this ‘Black men want/need/deserve a mammy with a half ounce of Jezebel BULLSHIT?!’

I’m loving how focusing on success is a “negative” trait, as well as the bullshit notion that the woman on the right doesn’t “know her worth.”

Clearly Black men who agree with this shit don’t know her worth either since they are judging her on white supremacist standards.

i am so tired of seeing these

so damn tired

This whole poster is full of shit, but the thing that’s killing me is… how is “independent” a bad thing?

i don’t even know. i also don’t know why being driven by money and success are supposed to be bad. i mean, shit, why can’t i have nice things and want to work for them? there is no shame in that. but then again, “no shame” made the list, too, so…

and “shallow” can’t be all bad, because whoever made this is pretty fucking shallow themselves.

See, the thing is, all the traits for the woman on the left are traits that men are allowed to get away with because of patriarchy.

Men are allowed to not know how to cook or clean because they are entitled to a Mammy to do that for them.

Men are allowed to be shallow because they are entitled to pussy.

Men are expected to be driven by success and money.

Men are allowed to be independent because their worth is not based on whether or not they have a partner.

Men are allowed to “have no shame” (ie fuck whoever they want) because men are “more sexual” than women are.

I see the bullshit in this.

Interesting discussion.

There are just sssooooooo many things wrong with this, so I’m going to mention one that hasn’t been covered in the above discussion: the “loves God” part. That, along with I think all of these traits, shouldn’t have anything to do with how you judge a person.

casistrophic:

barkinmad:

casistrophic:

barkinmad:

kapanet:

barkinmad:

kapanet:

barkinmad:

fuckyeahsocialjusticesally:

((This actually happened recently in the Legend of Korra fandom with a piece of fanart, where it got to the point of bashing the artist))

BBBuuuut it was actually whitewashing :O light doesn’t reflect that way! light never makes people look white, to my knowledge, unless it has changed its ways the last time i talked to it

though i agree, no one needed to bash the artist. when it gets off topic to the point people are just being downright rude, it’s bad. but in my opinion, when it’s a valid concern over whitewashing/racism, which is still as serious issue, i find it important.

but that is just my opinion. ’ v ’ please do not allow your precious jimmies to be rustled.

Actually, in some cases it does. 

For example, in the Korra fanart, she was surrounded by fire.

Fire will change the lighting to where skin looks a few shades lighter.

Even in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Esmeralda was being burned at the stake her skin was a few shades lighter from the light’s reflection.

Yes, but does she appear white in those pictures? ;; I understand no one is a perfect artist, and that one will make a few errors in their career as an artist, but in my opinion, it was a bit too light to be a mistake…I don’t know, it personally made me uncomfortable to see the piece of artwork in question because Korra was literally a white girl with bright green eyes in the picture. I myself have seen my rather tanned sister in close proximity with fire in many situations- daylight, night, etc.- and she was not white in the least bit. (>oHo<) If it is a legitimate mistake by the author of the artwork, I offer my apologies, but it’s really just my opinion.

are we looking at the same picture here? o:

I remember her having a lighter tan, with the areas highlighted for the lighting

I don’t remember her eyecolor in the picture, but I know in canon Korra has really bright blue eyes.

I can’t find the picture, which is kind of a shame, it would be helpful to have so I could be a bit more accurate….

I think the eyecolor was green, but that’s irrelevant if Korra has naturally blue eyes. That’s just a minor inaccuracy, and everyone does those.

Well, Korra is a really dark character; 

see? and like esmerelda, in firelight, she would only be a tidbit lighter, which is still rather dark.

In the picture, I believe she was pretty caucasian looking. But I may be mistaking myself- ergo why I wish we had the picture. }:(

Here it is. She is really…not that much lighter in skin tone considering the size and intensity of the flames. I think the skin thing was blown way out of proportion because the hair is significantly lighter and makes the skin look lighter since they’re right next to each other. Although, the hair is clearly “very washed out brown” with yellow (from the fire) highlights, it is not painted to be blonde.

Still though, tell me I am not the only one that thought “super saiyan Korra” when I thought this? That this doesn’t have to be some absurd issue of race?

Think of it this way-

I don’t know you, so I don’t know if you’re LGBTQ or a sympathizer or what, but say you are.

Say they make a gay character in a Disney film. A lesbian princess, let’s say. Well that’s a really cool thing! You don’t see a lot of homosexuality or any normalizing of it, making it seem like an okay thing, in children’s media.

Then an artist draws a picture that can easily be interpreted as making that character straight.

It’s kind of like someone just shat all over your parade. You felt so great that somebody made something that you identified with, and then somebody who felt uncomfortable about it (in your opinion) felt the need to contort it so it was okay for them (once again, in your opinion, because you never know another person’s intentions).

It’s very, very unsettling. And I think, I don’t know, but I think, that’s how POC felt when they saw that picture. :/ Once again this is all my opinion.

I would love it if racism wasn’t a problem and we could instead make DBZ jokes about the error in lighting in the picture. But, sadly, the world hasn’t reached the point where we don’t even need to worry about an artist trying to whitewash.

I really hope nobody is taking what I’m saying too harshly. :C It’s seriously just my opinion, not a fact.

That example is in no way applicable at all. Lighting is difficult to learn and terribly difficult to master, and there are a lot of rules and nuances that apply to different situations. Sexuality is…not. Not with regards to art, that is; you can’t just go “whoops, my brush slipped and now she’s making out with a guy!” It’s just not comparable or applicable to this situation in the slightest.

And I think, I don’t know, but I think, that’s how POC felt when they saw that picture. :/

Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s how one guy felt about the picture and everyone else was trying to explain to him that he was mistaken.

The DBZ thing was not referring to error, but homage. Of course I can’t say for certain the artist’s intentions either, but if it wasn’t a mistake in the lighting, then was it perhaps a purposeful manipulation to evoke that image of power, or something similar? It makes more sense that the artist was trying to do something stylistic than trying to make a character white because nonwhites “made them uncomfortable.”

Racism is a problem. But if you take every little thing and make it an issue of racism, you’re just hurting the actual cause by burying it underneath trivial and misguided paranoia. If something is actually racist? Yeah, call them out on it. But if it’s something like this where the overwhelming likelihood was that it was just a mistake, it’s better to think for a moment and realize “okay, there probably isn’t anything really racially-motivated here” and let it go. Harboring these feelings that racism is hidden around every corner and in every detail is only harmful in the long run.

Also did you see my previous post’s edit with a screencap from the show?

I heard about this conflict but didn’t comment because I’m not an artist who knows a lot about lighting and I hadn’t seen the actual fan art. I’m still not an artist. xD But now that I’ve seen the actual picture, I personally don’t think it’s whitewashed when you look at how much freaking fire there is. I think people are analyzing it using their own experiences sitting around campfires with a multiracial group. That’s not what this is. She’s bending fire and there are bonfires worth of it right up in her face. We could argue for hours over whether it’s exactly the right shade, but I don’t see any reason to believe that the artist is racist. Why not? Because the light is also making her dark brown hair look BLONDE, proving that the artist thinks the fire would make that huge of a difference in coloring. You can even see that Korra’s skin is darker than Caucasian at the top of her face, where it’s angled away from the flames.

I am aware that Avatar characters have been whitewashed in fan art in the past, and considering the horrid whitewashing in The Last Airbender, I don’t blame people for being on the lookout and for being pessimistic about the level of racial awareness that other people possess.

Sometimes I think it’s a curse to be white.

ohmyfaultystars:

mad-man-with-a-scarf:

ricksantorum-2012:

We are blamed for everything. Any time a black man shoots a white family, we are told it’s because of slavery which we had nothing to do with. Any time there’s white-on-black crime, we are al victimized, harassed, brutalized and murdered. 

But then I remember, it’s not a curse at all. We are human too even if we’re white. We made this country and we will not give it up. Not now. Not ever. After all, would black people give up Africa? They wouldn’t.

We are the victims, but we will survive and we will fight for our right to live.

How is the general demographic that controls 70% of the planet’s wealth while barely composing 20% of the population considered a victim?

While I sure as hell don’t particularly agree with the first post (I mean, come on) racism does work both ways.

But yeah, that’s a good point post 2 :)

And when the hell has someone said that a 21st century murder is the result of American slavery…?

Anyway, ricksantorum-2012 really needs to realize how wrong he is when he says that “we built this country.” Asian railroad workers, other Asian immigrants, black slaves, black free people, and people of every other race helped build this country as well, and we should all be proud of that. I don’t know why he ignores it. It’s like he thinks the founding fathers did all the work and everything that happened after was magic.

If anything, he’s describing the prejudice against Muslims that flares when there’s a terrorist attack by a radical Islamic group.

sweetxsecret:

boxlunches:

lanuminga:

pallas-athena:

ricksantorum-2012:

santorum2016:

We made America what it is today. So yeah it is ours. 

Uh… okay. The Natives didn’t make anything here, so yeah, it’s ours. The natives also didn’t have any concept of individual rights and properties. 

Shows how much this person knows about other cultures or American history. That’s like me coming into your house and saying “You haven’t decorated or made home improvements I want to make, so it’s mine now.”

And I REALLY hate it when people say Native had no concept of property, because A) There was a huge continent full of people, so not everyone there is going to be the same or be apart of the same culture. Europe is much smaller but everyone agrees the countries are different, and B) Territory is a basic natural instinct that everyone, including all animals, have. And tribes often fought both each other and settlers over it. ‘No concept of ownership’ is a misconstrued notion because many North Americans didn’t have Kingdoms like Europeans had, and it was used as both an excuse and propaganda to justify killing off people.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

No, Santorum, just no. America is what it is now, and cannot be changed. We had no right to do what we did, but it is done. This place belonged to people whose ideas were different from our own, but that doesn’t make them in any way inferior. 

Women, gays, native americans, african americans… is there nothing you won’t hate on or degrade? 

Pray we never meet in the street, ricksantorum-2012 and santorum2016. Pray we never meet.

“The Natives American Indians didn’t do anything here, so it’s ours.”

Oooooh boy. Do you need to go back to high school to learn U.S. History again?

I really really hope ricksantorum-2012 is a troll.

(Source: leedukes)

Got Islamophobia? Turks in Europe reportedly changing the names of German towns

ricksantorum-2012:

truthprevails4ever:

Perhaps this can be filed under creepingshariacolonization. Turks in Germany, apparently unsatisfied with intimidating German citizens into staying out of areas they’ve declared as their own, have taken matters a step further.

Via Islam versus Europe:

Turks colonising the German city of Mannheim have decided to rename a part of the city where they have come to predominate. Turkish associations and others recently met in the town hall to discuss the new name.

Peter Kurz, the burgomeister, proposed the name “Little Istanbul”. Other suggestions included “Beyoglu” and “Kücük Istanbul”. The plan is to narrow the list of proposed names down to three then put the matter to the vote in a referendum.

While Germany has historically done a good job of snuffing out Holocaust denial, its leaders seem content enough to deny that Hitler’s ideological allies are incrementally claiming Germany as their own.

If you’re wondering what that taste in your mouth is right now, it’s probably irony.

Are you serious?? These people are INSANE. How can Germans allow the Islamists do this?? DISGUSTING! Soon they’ll change the name of Utah to Utanstan and Washington to Jihadton or something. Ugh. Makes me so angry.

Remember that time when white people kicked out millions of people who had established civilizations thousands of years prior and renamed everything after European places? You’re living in it. But I suppose you have some justification for that.

(Source: shoebat.com)

Racism and Avatar Community (an educational post)

bundleofjoyiscoming:

I love the Avatar community, but something that has been getting to me lately is the people trying to classify characters by “Race”. As an anthropology and sociology senior at SFASU, I disturbs me on how little people actual know about race.

First and formost, race is a cultural idea. There is no biological proof that race exists. There is no evidence that there are subspecies that correspond to what people refer to as “race”. So someone is not “white”, “black”, ect. First off, you have to define what your idea of “white” or “black” is. In the early 19th century, “white” did not include the Irish, Italians, or Jews. “Blacks” in America are a mixture of African, Caribbean, and European (as much as 20%) ancestry.

Here is how differences in humans happens. Physical variations in any given trait tend to occur gradually rather than abruptly over geographic areas. And because physical traits are inherited independently of one another, knowing the range of one trait does not predict the presence of others. For example, skin color varies largely from light in the temperate areas in the north to dark in the tropical areas in the south; its intensity is not related to nose shape or hair texture. Dark skin may be associated with frizzy or kinky hair or curly or wavy or straight hair, all of which are found among different indigenous peoples in tropical regions. These facts render any attempt to establish lines of division among biological populations both arbitrary and subjective.

So you cannot simply say that those from the Water Tribe are “black” because they have dark skin. Well, so do people in many geographical areas around the world. Just as you cannot say that Aang is “white” because he appears paler than other characters. Those who are “white” have varying skin tones as well.

Perhaps people have failed to realize another reason Avatar characters don’t fit into particular groups (black, white, ect) is because one of the points of Avatar is equality. Katara has dark skin and light eyes, and people have a hard time categorizing it. Maybe that is the point. She’s not a certain race because races don’t exist. She doesn’t fit into some arbitrary group because there are none.

Avatar teaches us that it’s what inside us that matters and not the outside. By continuing to classify characters, you are continuing racism and the idea that we are different. We genetically vary very little from each other. We’re more alike than different. I would have thought that Avatar thought people that.

ricksantorum-2012:

dicksantorum-2012:

ricksantorum-2012:

I’ll tell you why you can’t use religion/Christianity for political arguments: because although almost 80% of the population indentify themselves as Christian, the USA are officially a secular nation and therefore does not have a religion. Religion has (or rather, should have) no place in a political campaign.

Answer: This country was founded by Christians and should be for Christians. The laws should reflect this.

This argument is being led by a dumbass and should only be followed by dumbasses.

Ricksantorum-2012, get your head out of your ass and actually think about people OTHER than fucking white Christian men for once.

Let me guess, you blame white Christian men for all the problems of the world? We BUILT this country. Learn some respect for God sakes.

YOU did not build this country. The white Christian men living today did not build this country and do not deserve respect because of the actions of other white Christian men. If you think that the respect due to them should carry over to you simply because you’re the same gender and race, then I guess you also accept all blame due to them, including blame for slavery. 

nassimmm:

King said in an interview that this photograph was taken as he tried to explain to his daughter Yolanda why she could not go to Funtown, a whites-only amusement park in Atlanta. King claims to have been tongue-tied when speaking to her. “One of the most painful experiences I have ever faced was to see her tears when I told her Funtown was closed to colored children, for I realized the first dark cloud of inferiority had floated into her little mental sky.”

(via themamafox)