International Blog Against Racism Week

[brigdh]

It is the Third Annual International Blog Against Racism week! The basic idea is simply to, well, blog about racism, on the basic idea that talking about things, listening to other people's perspectives, bringing potentially shameful topics out into the light, is a good idea. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that. IBARW this year runs from August 4 to August 10. There is a suggested theme of intersectionality, although anything that relates to racism is welcome.
For more details, and links to many interesting posts, see ibarw.

While I was in Syria this year, my mom read a book about the 1100 and 1200s, possibly because it mentioned Syria on the back cover. She told me about it a few days ago, starting with "Did you know there was more than one Crusade?"

Uh, yeah, I said.

"And they weren't really about religion. People were just fighting for land, and power, and prestige."

I mention this not just to point out that my mom is astoundingly ignorant, if at least well-intentioned. But this seems to be a common level of people's knowledge about the Middle East, and I'm seeing a lot of it as I catch up with people, and they ask me how my trip was. The most common question which people seem to ask is some variant on "So, what do they think about us, over there?" or "Weren't you scared?" The unstated assumptions in these reactions- the oooo, exotic and oooo, dangerous- make me uncomfortable. And it has been the fact that it's Syria, because I've been on trips that lasted as long or were as far away, and I didn't get these types of reactions.

When I get asked these questions, I find myself asserting that everyone was nice, everyone was friendly. And that's a lie. Only in the sense that there's nowhere on the planet where everyone is friendly- I couldn't walk down a street in my hometown and find that everyone was friendly- but it's still a lie. A simplification. Of course Syria has problems, issues with gender equality for example, but I'm reluctant to admit that to people who have a knee-jerk reaction to everything associated with Islam or Arabic. I feel like refuting or denying any hint of negativeness they suggest, to defending this place where I was, or at least attempt to provide a different portrayal of it than what some have picked out of the media. Maybe that's not really a good idea, maybe it's never helpful to make things less than they are. But it’s very tempting. I don't like the implications of evil and menace that have come to be associated with this region, race, and religion.

So I've been lying. Not to everyone; I've only been so simplistic in cases when people cringe at the mention of a mosque, or a photograph of a guy in khaffia. And in some ways, it's not utterly a lie: I really was never in any danger, and I’m sure it was a much friendly, more open, and more normal experience than the people I have these conversations with would imagine.

I probably should not lie. It's better to be realistic, to see people as human in their successes and failures. But when I keep running into people who are so willingly prejudiced, I just really fucking want to shake them up.

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Something that's smacked me in the face with how little I know about the Middle East area every year for the past three years is that someone I watch over on DeviantArt (http://lillymon.deviantart.com/) goes to Afghanistan with her family for a couple of months every summer. And every year I'm "Afghanistan? What parent on earth would take their child there?" and then immediately realize that there's got to be a hell of a lot I don't know, because it's obvious that they do go every year and that she's not in the least bit worried about anything.

But I still haven't taken any steps to learn more about the country, to figure out what areas are worse and what areas are better, mostly out of laziness. :/

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

You can see it in the Olympic coverage too-- Here, in exotic China! Oy.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

God, yeah. The announcers on the Olympics have been driving me crazy.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

There was one awesomely adorable profile of the artist who created the Olympic mascots. But aside from that...eh.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

My favorite was during the Opening Ceremonies, when they described it as "typical of Chinese narrative, moving from one emotion to another". As opposed to, like, every other type of narrative ever?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

And don't forget the cracks on the alphabet. FAIL.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

This is an occasion for selective reporting of the facts.
"I felt very safe over there."
"I enjoyed it ."
"People were very friendly."
"I met many, many kind, wonderful people."
"You are the sort of stupid ignorant hick who gives our country a bad name."

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Heh, very true.