Unconscious Racism

On Sunday afternoon, I dropped my parents to the church and drove back home with my sister to take her car battery to the auto place for charging. When we approached our house, a car was parked near our driveway blocking our parking space. We stopped. A guy jumped out of his car and walked towards my window. He said that he was our neighbor and was waiting for his wife to pull out of his driveway as the snow was blocking their space. I told him that it was alright and he could park where he was because we were leaving in a few minutes. He asked me where I was from and I without any hesitation told him. We were from Pakistan. He said, "Welcome to America." He assured me that I should be glad that no one will blow up my home in America and I will be safe. What an assurance??!! I was just shocked at his statement. He said that he does not like when people say Americans are racist or intolerant. He said that Americans are tolerant, they welcome people from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Places where government supports terrorism. I was just still in a shock having such an intelligent unconventional conversation with a neighbor. It was making me uncomfortable to the core. I shared with him that every country and every individual has some kind of prejudices and bias. He continued convincing me that if 9-11 had happened in Pakistan, the citizens of Pakistan would have hurt him and his family. He continued to assure me they would not hurt us. He said that President Trump is getting American values and their identity back. According to him, every culture has its identity and they preserve it unlike US. He told me he was a cop in New York City when 9-11 happened. I kind of understood his trauma probably from that incident. My skin color reminded him of what happened a few years ago.

I do feel sorry for his trauma with people of my color. However, I am shocked how he approached me to talk about this stuff. I am more mortified how he think only people from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and Aghanistan come to America. What about people from other countries? Is America not welcoming them. It is sad that I will always be a minority. I was in Pakistan because of my religion and here in US because of my color.

I wish there was a cure of such divisions. I wish hate and anger was not triggered so easily because of these divisions. I wish I could spread awareness and help people to love and live in peace.

I wish tolerance was based on differences not just on similarities. I wish if loving someone different was not easy, may be distancing from them could be a solution.

I wish color and religion was not use to propagate hate and fear.

May God be given all the glory!! Amen