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Yailet Gomez
Jennifer Rodrick
English 114B
3/30/16

Feeling Shamed For How We Look

Racism is alive and well. I know this is something we hear all the time by every single
form of media but there are people who believe that racism had died out. The case isnt always
racism, people are targeted because of their
religion as well and beliefs that dont
always have to do with religion. According
to nbc news and the FBI uniform crime
reports, race in incidents of hate crime in
the US from 1995 to 2012 have a
percentage of 54.4% amongst blacks, 16.3% amongst whites and 10.3% toward Hispanics. From
1995 to 2000, Jews have the highest count of incidents toward them at a percentage of 78.6% out
of 24,872 people whose crime was reported. Something that is said a lot is that white people are
privileged, that they shouldnt feel oppressed when things dont go their way because theyre
white. All these ideas though are very much influenced due to media and what we see on a daily
basis but racism is everywhere no matter what skin color.
Sometimes I wonder if people think things through before they say them. Which in most
cases the answer is probably no. Shareena Rahat is a woman and mother of two from Guyana
who was on her way to an Astoria mosque to break Ramadan fast according to alternate.org. This
might not make any sense as to how its related to project space but it will. Rahat has a daughter
who mentioned to her mother that, she doesnt want to wear hijab or scarf on the way to

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mosque, even in the car. They are scared someone will attack us or pull out a gun on us. This
woman was also spat at and disrespect in front of her children. This is where everything ties in
together. Her 11 year old daughter wanted to put aside her religion in order to survive living in
New York. As we all know, New York is a very populated area, also we also know, its where 911
happened. Still up to this day, there are people just like Rahat who go through biased racism due
to 911 happening. It doesnt matter if they people are Muslim or not, to some people anyone who
wears a head scarf is targeted. Innocent people are blamed and abused because of something they
did not do. An 11 year old feels the need to hide a huge part of her life because someone with no
decency thinks that it is correct to harm an innocent person. Racism is alive and real. There are
people out there who say it doesnt exist but those are the ones who are probably privileged. In
the story we read Black men and space, the narrator explains how his first victim was a woman
who ran away even though he had done nothing wrong to her.
I have been at fault of this. One time I was waiting in my car while my boyfriend was
pumping gas and a man came up to me and said nice car, its new I immediately locked the
doors because it was late at night and because of where I was even though I was literally down
the street from my house. The man noticed I had locked the doors and he had mentioned it to me.
After my boyfriend had pumped the gas, the man went up to him and spoke to him and my
boyfriend said sorry man, its her car not mine and we drove away. Things like these are
portrayed in movies. We usually see the white family driving through whats considered a
dangerous neighborhood and right away they lock their car. It took me a while to notice that
these thugs dont care about the people like that. The only reason why they might come up to
you is if you are on their territory or if they think you belong to a rival gang. For all I know,
the man at the gasoline station needed some extra crash and I am so influenced by where I live

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that I judge the people in my hometown. But just like with Rahat we are at the wrong place at the
wrong time.
Phoenix Williams was 13 when this happened to him roughly a year ago. He was going
to a fieldtrip with Bloomfield Hills Middle School near Detroit when two bullies began harassing
him. The kids used racial slurs toward him including Ill give you a piece of candy if you call
Phoenix a dirty nigger. Things like this are damaging to a kids mental state, especially at such a
young age. Just like with the 11 year old from my previous example, it hits children the most
hard because they still have their whole lives ahead of them and they will have to live in fear
worrying about who is going to walk up to him and attack him just because of skin color. Kids
are evil especially at this age, the boys threated to break Williams phone if he snitched on
them and threw his hat to the back of the bus Phoenix was recording the whole incident on his
phone and its obvious that the reason these two kids threw the phone was to destroy the
evidence. If theres no evidence theres no huge consequence. The surrounding children wouldnt
have spoken up and cases like this are seen everywhere because they fear they could get bullied
too by no fault of their own. The most heartbreaking part about this was that the two young boys
who harassed Williams were only suspended for a short period of time and returned to school
and werent given other punishments. His mother of course wanted a further deeper punishment
for those two boys who caused such harm to her young son. Their punishment wasnt fair
enough, and according to his mother, she would like for both of the students to be expelled and
for the staff and the parents and the students to also go through training in diversity. No mother
should have to see their children fear their surroundings because of their color. Williams
mentioned, I really dont feel safe going back to school at all. He knows his attackers are
roaming the school and he would have to face them every single day and constantly be reminded

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of the pain and harm they put him through. No one should have to live like that, so yes the
children should have been expelled and charged with assault even though they are young kids.
Being prejudice towards some ones religion is
much alive. In the incident with Rahat, mentioned up
happened to her in New York. 911 happened in New

also very, very

above, she said this
York and for a really

long time, Muslims have been targeted for

being at fault

of 911 happening. Non- Muslims are also

blamed for something they had nothing to do with. In the case of Jagroop Sinhg he was assaulted
because of his religion. Judge Stephen Southwood mentions The turban is the crowning glory of
the Sikhs. For Sikhs, the head and the turban are sacred, they must not be touched or insulted in
any way. I had no prior knowledge about Sikhs and what the turban meant to them apart from
knowing its part of their religion. After reading this first sentence, I felt like it was
foreshadowing what the rest of the article is about. In Melbourne a couple by names of Angeline
Kim Sollitt 44 and Michael John Arbouin 40 have been sentenced to nine months in jail for
attacking Singh. It was reported that Singh a taxi driver, picked up the couple from a yacht club
last November when they incident began. Sollitt began by saying, Youre in Australia, mate, this
is not your country. If you want to live in Australia, take this off. At first he kept on driving and
didnt mind them but eventually he pulled over because Sollitt got out and yelled grab his
turban, rip it off and ran to Singh and pulled it off. When I began reading this, I had a feeling
this would happen. Whats even worse is that they are two grown adults pulling stunts on
someone whos is doing their job and doing them a favor. It is so immature and this is something
an ignorant teenager would do, to two 40 year olds who are probably going through a mid-life
crisis. Like when people say boys will be boys yeah because boys are immature and cant

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make conscious decisions just like this man. This didnt stop there, they also said to him You
see what happens with your turban? Now Im going to rip your hair off. This man has every
right to wear his turban because he is a human being with a job who does things for himself and
deserves every ounce of respect for working for the public.
In conclusion racism still exist and it will be around for probably a really long due to
hatred people have toward one another. We as people have to be more open minded and
understand that no one is the same. No two people look nor act the same because we are our own
individuals. Rahats daughter was so influenced in a bad way by the man that terrorized her
causing her to not want to show who she really is as a person because a grown man cant keep
his hatred bottled up towards a woman. Nor could he think before he acted Statistics show that
the most harassed and attacked ethnicity are black people and those recorded statistics were from
1994 to 2012 with a 54.4% of attacks. Imagine now how high that percentage would be?
Statistics would be through the roof, especially with all the police brutality and unjust shootings
that have been all over the media lately. Not only are people being targeted for their skin color,
but also because of their religion even though they have every right to practice it because they
are human beings who deserve the right to practice whatever religion they desire.

Works Cited

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"This Black Teenager's Bullying Case Shows Racism Is Alive and Well in America's
Schools." Mic. 14 Apr. 2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
"Hate Crime in America, by the Numbers." NBC News. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
"Couple Sentenced to Nine Months for Racially Abusing Sikh Taxi Driver." NDTV.com.
17 July 2013. Web. 30 Mar. 2016.
"Investigation Underway into Racist Bullies at Bloomfield Hills School." WDIV. 13 Apr.
2015. Web. 30 Mar. 2016. <http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/investigation-underway-intoracist-bullies-at-bloomfield-hills-school>. Video regarding Phoenix Williams attack.