CHRIS CHAMBERS (talking to my Dick Cheney fan/Grenada Invasion vet neighbor in line with me at the bank): "Um...dude, that guy's a Sikh...from India."
DICK CHENEY FAN: "Huh? Same difference...ragheads. Them A-rabs...Jesus is stronger than Allah but you'd get arrested by the 'sensitivity cops' for discrimination for saying that publicly around here!"
CHRIS CHAMBERS (smirking because this is the same guys who despises "rich Jews" here yet loves the Israeli Army...'descendents of Joshua's soldiers,' he calls them): "Didn't you think I was a Muslim when you first met me?"
DICK CHENEY FAN (shrugging...and whispering now that some Africans in line are raising their eyebrows): "Only when I saw you at the mailbox at a distance, but you were dressed like an American and your wife wasn't wearing a bedsheet. You're one of the few black guys I can have an interesting debate with."
[n.b.--he doesn't seem to mind his portrayal on the blog...for now, at least. I'm worried such will change, now that the NY Yankees are winning again. He hates them more than he hates Hillary Clinton]
"Everybody Loves Abdullah."
5 comments:
Your neighbor sounds ignorant. Do you really have "debates" with something like that?
I would love to see this documentary. However, I found that last statement interesting--that Will Smith somehow is a counter to "black pimp" stereotypes. His success might be seen as a type of stereotyping and Hollywood formulas too!
Angelina Jolie seems to have tried to "reform" the image (of Pakistani Muslims, at least) in A Mighty Heart. What baffles me is that all these conservative fools on talking head shows and blogs seem to rally for her and Marianne Pearl on the race-casting thing but seem to miss what Bradgelina have done with the story. It's highly pro-Muslim, anti-Bush and State Department, etc. There are all kinds of references to gleeful torture of Muslims by American proxies and the like, and I think in a Post a few days ago you alluded to the fact the movie downplays Daniel Pearl's fate as due in large part to him being Jewish. I think it downplayed Daniel Pearl period, according to the critics.
I think the people who go see this movie are probably not so inclined to accept stereotypes as much as the "Talledega Nights: Ricky Bobby" fans. LOL
On the other side of the coin don't you think Arabs and Muslims in general here and in Europe have a responsibility to assimilate? I can't chalk 100% this up to self-defense.
PS we saw Walter Mosley at the LA Times Festival of Books and he told us about The Darker Mask, and how hard you guys have worked on it. Always extra hoops for the brothers! That which doesn not kill us makes us stronger!
Chris,
What the hell are you talking about? A-Rabs are old black dudes selling produce from horse carts in Baltimore.
Also, what are you doing standing in line at a bank? Use the ATM or drive through and avoid us wingnuts in line.
I'm chuckling because Indespensable Destiny is right. Anywhere else in the nation NTR would be correct, but in Baltimore, and to an extent in the 19th Century and pre World War One Washington D.C., "A-rabbers" were peddlers!
I am certainly not concedeing NTR's point (or more accurately the documentary's point) but the only other "positive" portrayals I can figure in addition Shariff Ali in "Lawrence of Arabia" are some characters in "Hidalgo," and "Kingdom of Heaven."
My wife and daughter went to see "A Mighty Heart" and reported that it was suitably uplifting, by the way. Angelina has supplanted Brad.
You are just as racist as the white racist. We are all human beings. Some good some not so good.
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