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Eric Lowe
Issue date: 3/17/06 Section: Voices
I was in the locker room at the activity center changing clothes after class, and two guys walked in and started talking.
One of them did the majority of the talking, and he was exactly the type of person who should have his mouth surgically sewn shut.
They were discussing a new policy passed recently by the Bush Administration that allows a company based in the United Arab Emirates to control six ports in the U.S.
They had their facts wrong, though.
The loudmouth said, and I quote, "They're letting some A-Rab country run six Army bases in the U.S."
I'm not really concerned about the fact that the information got screwed up somewhere, but I am concerned about what he was implying and what he said later.
He seemed to think that just because the company was Middle Eastern, they funded terrorists, and that we are fighting them.
Here's a little information for you: we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries that have nothing to do with the UAE.
His assumption that all Middle Eastern people are evil, and that they are all "A-Rabs" is ignorant.
It was while I was standing there listening to this that my revelation came.
The South is a paradox.
What is a paradox?
It's two things that exist at the same time and place that cannot be at the same time and place.
The South is one of the most accepting places in the world.
When one speaks of southern hospitality they aren't lying.
But then, we are some of the most ethnocentric, judgmental and down right racist people around.
What is ethnocentric?
It's the idea that one culture or country is right, and all others are wrong.
I'm here to tell you this just isn't the case.
Sure, America does some things right, but it does a lot wrong too.
The fact that a country is Muslim doesn't make its inhabitants evil or terrorists.
The terrorists are the fundamentalists.
One of them did the majority of the talking, and he was exactly the type of person who should have his mouth surgically sewn shut.
They were discussing a new policy passed recently by the Bush Administration that allows a company based in the United Arab Emirates to control six ports in the U.S.
They had their facts wrong, though.
The loudmouth said, and I quote, "They're letting some A-Rab country run six Army bases in the U.S."
I'm not really concerned about the fact that the information got screwed up somewhere, but I am concerned about what he was implying and what he said later.
He seemed to think that just because the company was Middle Eastern, they funded terrorists, and that we are fighting them.
Here's a little information for you: we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries that have nothing to do with the UAE.
His assumption that all Middle Eastern people are evil, and that they are all "A-Rabs" is ignorant.
It was while I was standing there listening to this that my revelation came.
The South is a paradox.
What is a paradox?
It's two things that exist at the same time and place that cannot be at the same time and place.
The South is one of the most accepting places in the world.
When one speaks of southern hospitality they aren't lying.
But then, we are some of the most ethnocentric, judgmental and down right racist people around.
What is ethnocentric?
It's the idea that one culture or country is right, and all others are wrong.
I'm here to tell you this just isn't the case.
Sure, America does some things right, but it does a lot wrong too.
The fact that a country is Muslim doesn't make its inhabitants evil or terrorists.
The terrorists are the fundamentalists.