The terrorist attacks in Paris have alarmed people all across the world including the United States. Understandably, many have questioned the logic of allowing Syrian refugees into our country because the extremists of ISIS use Syria as a home base.
Many Republicans and Democrats suggest that Syrian extremists will be able to come into our country by posing as refugees and do harm on American soil. Sure that is a possibility, but that possibility is based upon religious stereotyping, plain and simple.
It is always interesting how racial, and some religious groups, are discriminated against based upon the actions of a few. Historically one of the worse periods in American history was when people of Japanese heritage were put in internment camps during World War II. American history also includes slavery, anti-Semitism and the infamous Operation Wetback by President Eisenhower that moved illegal Mexican immigrants back to their home country, often accompanied by civil rights violations and physical abuse.
In retrospect, all of the events where America has tried to control the movement, access and liberty of a particular group, based upon religion or race, are always looked upon with embarrassment. All of these horrible events were driven by powerful white men. Yet we do not stereotype all white men as evil. At least I don’t, I have spent my life with one.
It is the divine irony that white men who stereotype other groups and take actions to limit that group’s liberty are never stereotyped in the same way. Most mass shootings not involving family members; white males. White inmates are three times more likely to have abused a child than black inmates. Remember Timothy McVeigh who killed 168 at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City? We don’t stereotype white men as pedophiles and sociopaths; and rightfully so.
I watch the fear mongering about Muslims take hold with many of our presidential candidates, particularly Republicans, as they trot out soundbite solutions to an audience desperate for reassurance that these atrocities won’t happen on American soil. Unlike these seekers of high office, I think in 20 years this will just be another embarrassment in American history.
I can only hope that as Martin Luther King famously said that people be judged by the “content of their character.” It is what we all hope, including the LGBT community. You do not want to be judged by the actions of a few in the LGBT community. How many of you have complained that XYZ in the Pride Parade does not represent me? Muslims deserve no less, they are individuals and judging them as a group by the actions of a few is simply unfair. Let’s ensure that America lives up to its creed and shows the true essence of its character; freedom and equality.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
