I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist. • Hacker News Board

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#11

Post by ceejayoz » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:27 AM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #8

So? If I were to go to Saudi Arabia and wear jeans and a wife beater I would get looks as well. You find it strange that people look at you funny when you wear a hijab in a western country? I have a Muslim cousin and she sometimes wears a hijab to university but stopped because people would stare at her. Obviously! She stuck out like a sore thumb amidst a sea of people with no hijabs. She got tired of people asking h…

Interesting that you think "look at you funny" and "called me a terrorist" are equivalent.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#12

Post by kvnn » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

sergiotapia wrote: post #8

So? If I were to go to Saudi Arabia and wear jeans and a wife beater I would get looks as well. You find it strange that people look at you funny when you wear a hijab in a western country? I have a Muslim cousin and she sometimes wears a hijab to university but stopped because people would stare at her. Obviously! She stuck out like a sore thumb amidst a sea of people with no hijabs. She got tired of people asking h…

> So?

So, its not as obvious to some of the rest of us. I honestly had never thought that wearing a hijab would change 99% of your social interactions with strangers in a negative way.

I probably ignore women in hijabs more often than other women. I'm not going to any more.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#13

Post by gurkendoktor » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #3

An exercise more people should partake in. Sometimes on HN I find it shocking just how completely clueless some of our prolific commentators are re: prejudice, whether by race, gender, creed, orientation, or anything else. The number of times I've seen people in privileged positions try to downplay, trivialize, and belittle those struggling with prejudice has made me want to quit HN more than once. Walking a mile in…

I agree, and I wish we could do that, but how? I won't look half as convincing if I wrap a scarf around my head. I have thought about this after reading about Günther Wallraff[1], and I haven't found a nice way to try this out. Maybe I should "dress up" on the internet?

So far, the closest experience I have is being white and understanding Chinese - but it doesn't hurt nearly as much, the worst people regularly think about me is that I am an unreliable, eternal frat boy.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Günter_Wallraff

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#14

Post by ceejayoz » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

guylhem wrote: post #9

If wearing a hijab cause people to call you names, throw bad looks or more generally makes you feel discriminated against, what about trying not to wear an hijab?? Maybe I'm clueless and prejudiced and all that but it seems to me that religion was a perfectly "open" choice, ie something you can change at any time. Comparing that in any way to racism is insulting. People do not chose their ethnicity. People can chose…

I'm an atheist, but it's quite clear that many of my religious friends can no more easily change their religion than their ethnicity - particularly for reasons as absurd as other people holding unreasonable prejudices.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#15

Post by mgkimsal » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:29 AM UTC

Total western white-male stereotype-infused ignorance here but...

Perhaps people avoid muslim women because we don't want them to get in to trouble. I'm surprised to see women dressed like that out in public on their own, because I've been led to believe they need male escorts, and assume that one might be around. if I make eye-contact, I might be contributing to an honor-killing, or perhaps some acid-splashed on her face.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#16

Post by lucb1e » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:30 AM UTC

guylhem wrote: post #9

If wearing a hijab cause people to call you names, throw bad looks or more generally makes you feel discriminated against, what about trying not to wear an hijab?? Maybe I'm clueless and prejudiced and all that but it seems to me that religion was a perfectly "open" choice, ie something you can change at any time. Comparing that in any way to racism is insulting. People do not chose their ethnicity. People can chose…

People don't believe in a religion because it's convenient. If it were simple like that, everybody'd be atheist, there are no rules attached to that whatsoever.

People have a belief because they believe. Or perhaps because they think a certain lifestyle is a good one (isn't that what bhuddism is? I know too little about this...).

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#17

Post by Jach » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:31 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #3

An exercise more people should partake in. Sometimes on HN I find it shocking just how completely clueless some of our prolific commentators are re: prejudice, whether by race, gender, creed, orientation, or anything else. The number of times I've seen people in privileged positions try to downplay, trivialize, and belittle those struggling with prejudice has made me want to quit HN more than once. Walking a mile in…

Some of us have walked in the others' shoes, at least in this limited case of discrimination based solely on clothing. Guess what? Humans discriminate on clothing! You can drum up the social justice network and try to remove this neural programming without drugs, good luck with that. You can try and fight it, again, sincerely, good luck, I agree that clothing is irrelevant when judging other people, but I don't think you'll succeed.

However, unlike discrimination based on someone's skin color or gender, discrimination of clothing has a very easy solution for the person being discriminated against: change your outfit. Some people who love their t-shirt and jeans need to wear a suit every now and again if they want to be treated well or taken seriously by certain people (and vice versa depending on social context--some formal suit-loving people need to dress more casually if they go to certain conventions for a talk). If I were a muslim girl getting discriminated against for wearing a hijab, I'd stop wearing the hijab.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#18

Post by Timothee » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:31 AM UTC

guylhem wrote: post #9

If wearing a hijab cause people to call you names, throw bad looks or more generally makes you feel discriminated against, what about trying not to wear an hijab?? Maybe I'm clueless and prejudiced and all that but it seems to me that religion was a perfectly "open" choice, ie something you can change at any time. Comparing that in any way to racism is insulting. People do not chose their ethnicity. People can chose…

You're trolling, right?

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#19

Post by senthilnayagam » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:32 AM UTC

hnolable wrote: post #5

One aspect that is probably being confounded here is that hair plays a huge role in attractiveness. By putting on a hijab and hiding her hair this girls attractiveness (at least by western standards) probably went down a bunch of points. So part of what she may have just experienced is what it's like to be an uglier person. An interesting experiment to come up with would be to wear something that clearly indicates yo…

Just visited dubai, even Arab men cover their whole body in traditional dress like women.

The whole point is dont look attractive to other people, just like abstinence.

People get judged all the time. I can give you examples where I felt people judged me because of Eating with hands, drinking coffee with milk and sugar, wearing sandals instead of shoes.

Re: I went to the mall, and a little girl called me a terrorist.

#20

Post by mgkimsal » Sun, Oct 21, 2012, 2:32 AM UTC

potatolicious wrote: post #3

An exercise more people should partake in. Sometimes on HN I find it shocking just how completely clueless some of our prolific commentators are re: prejudice, whether by race, gender, creed, orientation, or anything else. The number of times I've seen people in privileged positions try to downplay, trivialize, and belittle those struggling with prejudice has made me want to quit HN more than once. Walking a mile in…

Closest I've gotten is traveling in other countries. Being the only white guy in a sea of non-white faces is... a bit unsettling. Not speaking the language makes things doubly hard, but even without that, it's at best challenging. In my case I know these situations only last a couple weeks, and I can go back to my comfortable world - everyone is not as fortunate as me.

I totally realize it's not really even in the ballpark, but it was close enough for me.