Since 9-11, we’ve all seen the proliferation of flags on cars.
One thing that I’ve noticed is that it seems that most cars I see where the driver looks like a stereotypical middle easterner (darker skin, a long full beard, sometimes a turban) is that they have flags plastered all over the place on their cars.
I can’t help but wonder how much of this is a genuine outpouring of patriotism, and how much of it is a “Look, USA, USA! Please don’t kick my ass, Cletus and Elmer!” kind of thing.
Now, obviously I know that no one here can speak for a volume of people, but I was wondering what other people thought.
While I am not in the USA, and therefore cannot pass judgement on the OP specifically, I can relate some very similar ideas.
My best friends family is Lebanese. They came out here about 35 years ago. My friend was born here. This country is his all time favourite country in the world. Followed by Lebanon. It’s a tough time in his house when the two countries are playing sport against each other (which does happen, I swear).
So my thoughts on the matter are that while they may be obviously middle eastern descendents, that does not mean that the country they have adopted is not their first choice for a country to belong to.
Out of all of my friends, the ones that are the least patriotic are those that are Australian descent (many generations back). For myself, one of my relatives came out on the First Fleet (he was also eaten by cannibals in Far North Queensland, but we won’t go into that now). My friends who have families that are only first or second generation Australians seem to have a much greater appreciation of the country, and what it allows them to do.
So while there may be a slight exaggeration in the patriotism in order to fend off the over-zealous “terrorist haters”, there is a good chance that they may seriously be enamored with the USA, and are sincerely trying to show that at a time when they may be judged to be “anti-US”.
First, I must point out that “turbans” generally describe articles warn by men from the Indian subcontinent, not the Middle East.
Second, your post is abrasive, sir, and not a little offensive. Could it be reworded this way?
I have observed that many drivers who seem to fit the stereotypical image of the middle eastern male have an inordinately large number of US flags on their cars. Does anyone have any knowledge or opinion as to whether this excessive display is due more to patriotism, or a need to declare one’s self a “loyal American” to avert some kind of racist attack?
My parents moved to the States from Iran in 1971, just over 30 years ago. They’ve both contributed immensly to the communities they’ve lived in. My father does free Prostate Screening Exams MONTLY at local supermarkets in the area, he’s the only doctor for a few hundred mile radius who will take public health patients and still HE HAS BEEN ATTACKED.
He built a new office building, taking out a loan from his small town bank. As a gift, the bank gave him a flag pole and a US flag to put in front of the building (this is their standard gift to business clients who buy new property). This flag pole has been repeatedly defaced, bashed and generally destroyed.
In addition, his front yard, on the main street of the small town has been trashed, the pathway lighting has been kicked in and smashed and his trash cans have been knocked over, spilling trash all over his lawn and onto the street.
Important to note, that my dad is a pacifist, is not a practicing Muslim and does not wear a turban :rolleyes: . He merely speaks with an accent and has PERFECTLY grammatical English.
Why should he have to defend himself for having a flag on his car (I haven’t seen his car nor asked him, so I’m not certain if he does or doesn’t) any more than any other minority group member or immigrant?
I’ve read that some conservative groups are calling for Muslims and/or people of Middle East descent (or birth) who are US citizens to sign or swear an oath of allegience. This scares me.
Plenty of non-Muslim Sikhs and Hinduists have been taken for Muslims. My boss is Indian-American, and sometimes I overhear customers - not necessarily in a hateful way, but ignorantly - call him an “Arab”.
Anyway he is fairly patriotic, as many immigrants are. People who are born here and have lived all their lives here are often blind to what’s really great about living in places like America or Australia, Canada, and so on - not to say that these ‘first world’ countries are anywhere near perfect or that ‘third world’ countries are bad. But we have many things that we take for granted, and maybe some of those people are showing their appreciation.
Now, I wouldn’t deny there is some element of defense involved with some of these people. During WWI in America, many Schmidts and Muellers became Smiths and Millers, most bilingual people in the Midwest and central Texas stopped speaking German in public, and for a while - sauerkraut was packaged as “Liberty Cabbage”. What’s going on now may not be so extreme, but its not unprecedented.
I thought it was somewhat sad that many people of Middle Eastern descent felt like they had to give up their traditional dress in the weeks after the attacks. I live in a neighborhood with a lot of Muslims, I’m just down the street from one of the larger mosques in the Dallas area. I’d gotten used to the long flowing robes and headcoverings that you see every day around here, and after the attacks it didn’t take me long to realize that there was hardly anyone dressed like that. I thought at first that all the people who were afraid of retaliatory violence were staying home, but then I noticed there were a lot of women of dark complexion wearing long dresses and long-sleeved blouses in the local Kroger - many were adopting Western dress while doing their best to maintain their modesty. I felt bad for them, I imagined they must have felt really uncomfortable going out in public like that.
Things have pretty much returned to normal, however.
Unfortunately Annie, there is nothing much more he can do. There are many, many people out there who are bigoted, extremist, racist. The real scary thing is there aren’t just your local Cletus and Lurleen smashing a flagpole, these are people wearing suits and ties, going to work everyday, raising families, living the “American” dream.
The hidden racist is the long term threat. At least the outright racist can be ignored and ridiculed.
(insert Homophobe, Xenophobe stc, and scarily, it still holds true).
“I’m sorry, Cletus. If you had taken advantage of that free prostate exam by Dr. X, maybe your prostate cancer would have been found at an early stage.”
“I’m sorry, Cletus. If you had taken advantage of that free prostate exam by Dr. X, maybe your prostate cancer would have been found at an early stage.”
Ironically, you are not too far off the mark. My dad works in a very small town, and is the only board certified urologist in the county. He was heavily recruited to come to this area because they weren’t able to keep qualified doctors who were willing to put up with the small town lifestyle.
So, the hospital he’s affiliated with is staffed by about 70% foreign doctors, Pakistanis, Lebanese, Iranian, Palestinian, even. If they’d like to get rid of all the ‘ferriners’ then they’ll be left pretty high and dry medically.
For starters, I am well aware that a turban is typically not associated with people who practice Islam. I did not know that it was incorrect to refer to India as the Middle East. So, Afghanistan is the Middle East, but Pakistan and India are not. I stand corrected.
Exactly the point I was trying to make in the OP, you take some redneck and he sees anyone with moderately dark skin and non-American style of dress, he just sees on of them A-rabs – Whether they be from India (hence the turban comment), Pakistan or actually from one of the Muslim countries. Sorry if I didn’t succeed in making that clear.
Yodan, please explain how that post is offensive, and how your rewriting of it is now not offensive. Thanks.
I think that it royally sucks that people may have to resort to putting a flag on their car to avert some kind of trouble. But, truth be told, No one is looking twice at Japanese people or German people or Peuvian people right now. All the hysteria is concentrated on “people who look like the terrorists” * . I don’t like it any more than you do, but that is reality.
[sub]*Not my words, just a generalized ignorant perception that some people have. Lest I offend anyone else, there’s your disclaimer.[/sub]
Mouthbreather, thank you for clarifying your OP. I appreciate your candor, and would be happy to explain my initial impression.
Basically, I simply could not tell whether the wording of your question represented your own feelings in earnest, or (as is now clear), if you were being sarcastic in your characterization.
However, because I could not tell initially, it seemed to me that you were doing several things:
Arbitrarily conflating the ethnic and social groups of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent.
Casting doubt on the patriotism of others without any cause.
Representing those men as being bigoted themselves:
However, I hoped that all of this was rather inadvertant, and that you actually had an honest question, and were not simply trolling at the expense of others. With my rewording, I was trying to present another version of that question which would ask for the same information without ambiguity or innuendo. But most basically, to avoid any hint that this is somehow a joking matter. As you are aware, it is matter of deep significance and sadness, affecting the lives of thousands of people in the US today.
I am very glad that my hopes for a more genuine purpose in your OP have been borne out, and that the thread brings you useful and enlightening information. I know that I have enjoyed reading the responses, and I offer amends for any bruised feelings.