In response to Ms. Lopa Tasneem:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/2515
========================================================


Dear Lopa,

I am very sad listening to your story. I told my husband on the day
of the attack that if I witnessed any middle easterners being
mistreated because of their race that I would step in the middle of
it and damn be the consequenses. He thinks the same way that I do.
I like to think that there are many Americans like me, but as I
listen to the opinions of people that I have known for years and have
considered to be open minded and fair people, I am shocked to the
core at the poison that comes from their mouths. I wish I could make
them see how ignorant and backwards they sound.

I am a white American (translate: great great great grandaughter of
immigrants and Native americans with no more right to be here than
any other american regardless of ethnicity) with blond hair and I
will never know the discrimination that you face. It must make you
feel very lonely to know that so many hate you without knowing you.
Based on what little I have seen that you have written, I believe you
to be one of the more intelligent and valuable members of American
society, simply because you have the ability to be rational and to
think for yourself. Many Americans don't have this ability anymore I
am ashamed to say. They are like sheep in front of their television
sets.

I am now a graduate student at a University and I teach Biology
Labs. One of my students called on 9/12 and said he was afraid to
come to class because there were racial slurs painted on his front
door. Another Grad student said that one of her students had been
spit on. I am working with my student so that he won't get behind in
his work. He has since come to class and there have been no further
incidents.

I used to be the only female firefighter in an entire department, and
I was largely unwanted and despised even though I passed all of the
male qualifications with plenty of room to spare and finished third
in my class at the fire academy and performed my job without fear.
While this may have given me a small taste of what you must be going
through, it does not really compare with what you are facing. I do
know that I felt betrayed by the people I had embraced as brothers,
but I also know that when it really counted on the fire scene, I
would be there for them and they would be there for me. In all of
your years in America, surely you have met people like that. I hope
that you have American friends who will stand up for you and damn be
the consequences. If not, you may consider me the first.

For any other Americans who may be reading this:
I am not afraid to stand up for what I believe is right. I do not
support terrorism against any Human being, regardless of their race,
and regardless of the nationality of the terrorist. Any violent act
by Americans against anyone based on their race is simply terrorism
on a smaller scale and should be dealt with as severely as any other
terrorism. Anyone who would harm another human being because of
their ethnicity and cause innocent people to live in terror is no
better than Osama or any other terrorist. We want to rid the world
of terrorism, and we gain no ground by becoming little terrorists
ourselves. I want to see the people responsible for these attacks
die, just like I wanted Timothy McVeigh dead, but by lashing out at
all middle easterners, we accomplish nothing but increasing the
amount of terror that 9/11 has brought into this country and I can't
help but think we are helping the terrorist cause by doing this. I
don't know what needs to be done in response to the attacks of 9/11
but I am not so deluded as to think that it can be done with no
bloodshed and no great cost. If only it was as simple as finding out
who did it and putting them to death. Those who actually "did" it
are already dead, and those responsible are as slippery as eels and
hiding like cowards in the midst of countries full of people that
they know the US government won't kill if they don't have to. That
being said, there is nothing to be gained by treating ethnic
americans poorly. Not one thing.




--- In mukto-mona@y..., lopa saleh <lopa_saleh@y...> wrote:
> [Mukto-mona Moderator appriciates Ms. Lopa Tasneem for expressing
her agony and affliction in her nice write-up. Readers are encouraged
to give their feed back]
>
>
> I Miss Bangladesh
> Lopa Tasneem
>
>
> The incident of September 11 has affected a lot of people in many
ways. However, I believe it has a long-term impact on the way the
minorities will be treated in this country. For the first time in my
life in the US, I am realizing the loneliness of being part of the
minority group. As I hear more and more news of incidents of racial
harassment, I feel embarrassed and ashamed. A friend was saying that
he heard on the radio, someone suggesting that all Muslims in the US
should be put in the concentration camps. Another friend had trash
piled up in front of her apartment. My cousin who had moved to the
USA 25 years ago when he was 10 years old and had married an American
woman got death threat on the phone. My brother's brother-in-laws got
interrogated by FBI agents. One Pakistani gentle man was asked to
leave the airplane right before it was ready to take off. It goes on
and on. It is surprising to see that this one single incident of the
World Trade Center has made some people of the `land of immigrants'
to stereotype all Muslims/ South East Asians to be terrorists!
>
> All these reports of racial bias are also changing the way I
perceive myself in this country. Two days after the WTC incident, I
went to the grocery store in salwar kamiz. Although this is nothing
unusual, but I felt different this time. Being the only one in the
store in a different outfit from the rest, I felt that some angry
eyes were following me. I am used to people here asking me if I was
from the Middle East or Pakistan. Could it be that because of my
looks and outfit people were thinking I come from the terrorist
groups – I ask myself? Maybe they were cursing me in their minds --
who knows. My looks and outfit perhaps were making them suspicious
about me.
>
> However, this stands in stark contrast the way I have been treated
in my past years of life in the US. Not so long ago people would come
to me and complement my sari or salwar kamiz. I always felt proud of
such an elegant outfit called sari. But for the first time, I
regretted not wearing jeans in a public place, and being the target
of suspicions of many angry minds as a result. I feel that my skin
color and name will never make me an American in the eyes of others
no matter how hard I try to speak in American accent and no matter
how long I live in this country. Maybe the racial ill feelings had
always existed in the hearts of many people we see around. All it
took was a catalyst for it to come out.
>
> My heart gets heavy as I think of all these possibilities. I feel
humiliated nonetheless. I feel sorry for myself for being a second-
class citizen in the land of the affluent. I feel sad. I miss
Bangladesh.
>
> Lopa Tasneem
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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