Loading ...Identity Politics: Racism and Sexism
Last week, I had discussed how ethnic minorities can be racist and sexist. Now, I’d like to address the irony courtesy of the identity politics pursued by minorities of the West. Those of Asian Caucasian heritage like Linda Sarsourand Bahar Mustafa tout their new-age definitions of “racism” and “sexism” to appeal to their own bigotry. This contentious battle over “who” the biggest victims are in the ‘white man’s world’ has quickly escalated into divides of two extremes that only perpetuate racist and sexist behaviour.
Where would racism and sexism be without one of the most powerful people on Earth, the Arabs? The worst place for people of actual colour, those with obvious levels of melanin, like Africans and South Asians, is the Middle East. There are many articles from earlier years and present day reports which confirm a constant trend in the Arab Muslim world where employers starve, beat and rape female migrant workers after luring them in with hopes of employment and decent wage. The victims are often denied their salary and the right to terminate employment due to phony contracts – then, eventually, their passports are illegally confiscated and many women are never heard from again. Even migrant men face much of the same sordid tale of promised work and survival only to be exploited and their lives laid to waste, permanently. I find it amusing that Linda Sarsour, who is appropriating the struggles of African Americans under the guise of “solidarity”, has never once addressed any of these issues regarding “power and bigotry”.
Is it not dubious to march for Africans in one land while remaining silent about Africans being abused and enslaved by the Arabs in another land? It’s clear Sarsour’s narrative is that of the “white man vs the rest of us”. Not a single Palestinian demonstration has been organized to support the migrant workers of colour who are systematically abused by Arab Muslims – yet, suddenly, their indignation has crossed oceans for Ferguson? Not dubious at all! I suppose where there’s an opportunity, it will only flower when taking advantage of the colour that screams the most pain? I wonder how African Americans feel about a pretentious woman coming to their rescue with the intent to romanticize her own abuse?
On May 28, 2015 – it was reported that a male soccer team from an Islamic school refused to engage in a tournament in Brampton (Ontario, Canada) where the opposing team had two female players. As per the policy of the tournament itself, a school that lacks a female team can accommodate female players in the male team – but the Muslim team refused to respect the policy and proceed with the tournament unless the girls are excluded from the game – which forced the female participants to sacrifice their right to engage in the tournament just to accommodate the misogyny demanded by Sharia.
These are males of colour displaying sexism and demanding gender-segregation in the name of religious rights. They cited “belief” as reason and imposed Sharia on the entire organization – and sadly, they were allowed to. This gender-based atrocity is yet another form of evidence that Islamic schools belonging to even Western societies are dictating sexism and misogyny that devalue women and girls of the real world. To what extent should Canada tolerate Islamism that infringes on the rights of women and girls as it so often happens in the Middle East? The answer is simple. Zero tolerance.
Linda Sarsour, who was raised in the privilege of Western liberalism [the “white man’s world”], complains about the Western Muslims’ inability to fully practice Sharia which directly endorses the infringement on the rights of non-Muslims than the “family values” that is often cited to glorify it. Sharia is banned [in the West] for a very logical reason – it’s incompatible with the equality that’s pursuant to the liberalism in the West. The Middle East is a perfect example of what happens when Sharia is implemented in the justice and social system. But a woman as Linda Sarsour with active ties to CAIR who are rumoured to being a pro-Islamist organization, wouldn’t be swayed by the brutality women and girls face in the actual Arab world as a result of Sharia.
Sarsour has yet to condemn the honour killings in Palestine that has increased 3 times its national average since Hamas, a genocidal Islamist group, was willfully elected by Palestinians. She applies the “Islamophobia” babble to deflect discourse regarding the tyranny imposed by Sharia on her Eastern brethren. Her selective understanding of Islam, much like Reza Aslan’s and Mehdi Hasan’s, displays an overwhelming volume of intellectual dishonesty. Just like Aslan, Sarsour echoes FGM is an “African problem”. As a self-proclaimed “unapologetic Muslim”, is she claiming the endorsement of FGM in Islamic scriptures is un-Islamic? But again, I don’t expect much honesty from a woman who is associated with CAIR, an organization that was actually created in response to a fictional Hollywood film – nothing outrages orthodox Muslims more than caricatures and screenplays!
In the same week as the Canadian soccer fiasco, the leaders of the Jewish Hasidic sect in the UK banned women from driving – adopting Saudi Arabia’s policy on the dehumanization of women and girls. Not only have Jewish women staunchly and publicly denounced the ban, but vocal atheists and women’s rights groups in the Western society had also joined the criticism. While most Muslims in both Eastern and Western world defend the sexism and misogyny within Islam through denialism – the Jews care very little for the extremist verses within the Torah – misogyny and sexism are simply an unacceptable application to their faith in the modern Western world. The orthodox Jewish men and their phobia towards female passengers on planes is still problematic – but it’s an issue that has been widely condemned and mocked, just like their ban on driving.
Even the Duggar family crisis was given very little sympathy from Westerners. People made scathing remarks towards Josh Duggar and his parents for censoring the sexual abuse on 5 girls, including some of their own daughters. The Duggars are remnants of the Christian fringe, much like the Westboro Baptist Church, who are not tolerated by the liberal American society. It doesn’t matter that they are white and Christian – both people of colour and no colour denounce the bigotry and racism of the Christian right.
The gang-rape of Jyoti Singh still leaves people with a heavy heart upon hearing her name. Her rape and the sadistic nature of violence inflicted upon her body eventually killed her. She was literally raped to death. It prompted India’s biggest anti-rape campaign known to the Western world. And yet, the Singh family was ostracized by the Indian society that believed Jyoti had brought the attack on herself by going to school and having friendship with a male.
India is one of the leading countries with gender-selective abortions that only target female fetuses. For those who cannot access abortion, they find other ways to kill the newborn girls. As a result, India has the worst rate of female infant mortality – and it’s all credited strictly to a social problem that devalues female children as a burden whose virginity must be protected until marriage and sold off with a hefty dowry to preserve family honour. India also happens to be the country that celebrates the birth of female children by planting trees for every girl born in remote villages – so the misogyny and sexism varies per region but the overwhelming violence against women and girls remain unchallenged. Marital rape is yet to be criminalized and lawyers, much like those who defended Jyoti Singh’s rapists, openly victim-blame and shame survivors of sexual violence as we’ve all seen in the documentary “India’s Daughter”.
India has an estimated 1.3 billion citizens. Alas, an overwhelming majority refuse to give equal rights and opportunity for women and girls. The legal age for marriage in India is 21 for males but 18 for girls – why does such a gap exist at all? Child marriage still plagues the land that perpetuates gender-apartheid by sealing little girls in a life of sexual abuse and child birth. They are denied education therefore a state of illiteracy and naivety affects multiple future generations to come. They are slaves to their family and then sold off as slaves to a man – that is “sexism” and “misogyny”.
The caste system still measures human life in much of India and majority of the Asian countries – is that not “racism”? Also, Asian Caucasians disenfranchise their own people who are visibly dark in complexion – is that too not abuse resonating from racial contempt? If racism and sexism are defined by power, then every single person on earth who is powerful is also a racist/sexist bigot. By such erroneous logic – all the powerful people from Asia to Africa – where the world’s majority reside –– are also the most racist and sexist people on Earth.
European Caucasians are in fact the minorities of Earth therefore they “can’t” be “racist” and “sexist” once you apply Linda Sarsour’s and Bahar Mustafa’s logic. Such scale of bigotry bred through the toxicity of tribalism is an educational factor for many – as an unapologetic humanist and feminist – I must thank them for emancipating the European Caucasians from the label of “the biggest racists and sexists on Earth”. So, how far have they exceeded in their bigotry – they have maligned the world’s majority as the worst human beings to ever live – and as a person of colour – I must denounce theirinternalized and indirect racism and sexism. When belligerence shines brighter than the intellect necessary for human advancement – tribal fanaticism makes a mockery of itself.
The Western world has learned to adapt to the modernization of the 21stcentury where social liberalism and equality is fiercely acknowledged [for the most part] while people of colour continue to cite religious and cultural rights to endorse sexism and racism. The social evolution of the “white man’s world” had adopted Secularism, which as a result paved the way to fight against sexism and racism no matter which route it came from. We will be in an endless state of dispute over this matter so it’s time Linda Sarsour and Bahar Mustafa reap the product of the “logic” they continue to sow – European Caucasians are the ethnic minorities of Earth after all which makes their racism and sexism just a fraction of the abuse we people of colour endorse.
Reality, however, is that institutionalized racism and sexism exists everywhere on earth, and if structural abuse resulting from power is what racism/sexism is defined by – then by the measure of population alone, people of colour are being grossly implicated. So be wary of the landscape you paint to justify your own bigotry – and that goes for all human-beings incessantly associating their tribe to victimhood to justify their own foolish contempt.