When bad people happen to good things
This is a response to an OpEd published in the Chicago Flame written by Salwa Shameem titled Islam and the West: Take two.
People do bad things because human beings are flawed. The justification and reasoning for their behavior comes from whatever is handy. Sometimes the excuse for bad behavior comes from the (mis)interpretation of a religious edict as Salwa has pointed out here. No matter the religion, human beings seem to be masterful at stretching any idea to ridiculous extremes in order to justify their behavior.
The end of racism?
Recently, many people have been discussing the possibility of the “beginning of the end of racism.” Often this conversation is lumped with a discussion about the origins of racism. The most common explanation I hear is of innocent children being indoctrinated by closed minded adults to think certain minorities are inferior for one reason or another.
“you’re _____ and I’m _____”
I recently read a note written by a friend of mine who was thanking someone for understanding him – even though his friend was white and he was Asian. On the surface this sounded pretty harmless as I’m sure it was intended to be. But it made me think of something a little more sinister – something implied by that statement that runs much deeper and, while based in some truth, turns out to be more of a self-fulfilling prophesy than anything else.