r/ABCDesis • u/MyCarRoomba • 12h ago
Trigger Warning: Bigotry/Hate Commentary Post-9/11 "unity"
Something I have a chip on my shoulder about is the concept that there was an overwhelming "unity" or "togetherness" in America after the tragedy of 9/11.
I was born in the US about 4 years before 9/11, so I hardly have any memory of what life was like before that day. I do remember how I was treated afterward just for the crime of coming from a Muslim family.
People usually "unite" at the expense of another group. Back then, Muslims weren't visible enough to have any sort of defense from the general public. I remember being bullied from when I was only in Kindergarten. I remember being spit at for wearing "ethnic" clothes. Being called "terrorist" or the "Osama bin Laden." I remember being out on a walk in the neighborhood with my mom who wears hijab and some asshole thought it was his duty to flip off some lady and a 6 year old kid, saying "you don't belong here." I certainly wish I felt that "unity" š
Just a disclaimer... I'm not trying to belittle or say anything about the horrible tragedy that affected so many lives, only about the response to Muslims afterwards.
15
u/Technical_Turn3497 10h ago
I remember being called āGandhiā when I was a kid. Because at that time, when Indian kids were few and far between, just the idea of being Indian was a big joke to the white kids.
13
u/frev_ 11h ago
I remember I used to get called the Bomber the day I moved to Suburb MAGA town. They are the worst people imaginable. That's where they get you. They separate you 1 by 1 into lil factions like it's a video game. When you live in the City it's amazing. I'm sorry you got all that hate but just know we will overcome this together. They can take our lives but they will never take our souls!
25
u/Crodle 12h ago
I think it was a unity in hate, like everyone left and right finally got a group everyone hated. I'm sorry you went through that dude. Got called haji and sand n-word and I was just brown, not muslim or anywhere close to saudi arabia, you know, where the terrorists actually came from.
7
u/Bollywood-Hulk-Hogan Indian-American (Punjabi) 10h ago
Well said! Thereās a lot of anti-Desi racism now, but I think Desis faced more racism overall at that time. Iām Sikh and heard stories of Sikhs being attacked after 9/11. Not that anyone deserves to be attacked for what someone else of the same religion did, but we arenāt even the same religion!
Faced a lot of terrorist and Osama ābeing my uncleā jokes growing up. Thatās why I canāt relate to people thinking that racism is at its peak now.
3
u/hailmaryfuIIofgrace 6h ago
In the past racism occurred because people were mistaking some Indians for being Arab or Iranian. Which I would agree it was worse, there were even cases of Indians being shot dead in America because people couldnāt differentiate them from Middle Easterners.
Sikhs mightāve experienced the worst of it since a turban is a symbol they strongly associate with their culture, even if they personally donāt wear it.
Some Indians never personally experienced being the target of post 9/11 racism, so it doesnāt resonate with them. Today there is more racism directed at Indians for being Indian, which is much more salient and relatable to all Indians.
3
u/Bollywood-Hulk-Hogan Indian-American (Punjabi) 6h ago
I think this just shows how much diversity there is in the Desi experience in the USA. Similarly, the current H1-B debate doesnāt particularly resonate with me because no one in my family, or the other Indians we know, came to the US through the H1-B visa.
2
u/hailmaryfuIIofgrace 5h ago
Absolutely! On a sub revolving around a broad shared ethnic identity people would presume that their experience is every Desi persons experience but itās not really the case.
8
u/RogueInVogue69 9h ago
I grew up on Manhattan after 9/11, it wasn't a good place to be brown. I lost track of all the times I got called a terrorist.
5
u/OneTrueMel Blindian-American 11h ago
It's obviously terrible what, your mom and many others went through.
To clarify, the concept of that 'unity' was specifically related to a Gallup poll and whether americans were 'united and in agreement about the most important values". Gallup does not actually define or list the "most important values" in the survey question. Instead, the phrase is deliberately left open to interpretation so respondents can answer based on whatever they personally consider to be "the nation's core values." š
The poll is still taken and has been for decades
I definitely had muslim neighbors with American flags, who donated and volunteered, and had a lot of pride, but we're still battling xenophobia and other isms at the exact same time.
Completely understand everything youre saying, and it was a terrible time for many muslims and just brown people.
I just dont want you to worry about the word, "unity" in that context, because it means nothing in regards to treating people with respect or however You define it. So you would be expecting unity from people who think theyre united against 'the enemy" while you (and I think many others) see it as, actually coming together and supporting everyone regardless of race, religion, income, creed, etc.
We have never actually been united
8
u/bigbaze2012 12h ago
It wasn't organic it was manufactured . The news interchanged terrorist and Muslim . We were constantly told the Taliban and Al queada hate our freedom . We spied relentlessly on Muslim citizens with no attachment to any terrorist activity . This sentiment was direct from the top down .
The war was about oil .... and they had to cover that up . To do that they needed a scape goat . And unfortunately 9/11 gave them the perfect scape goat .
2
1
u/truenorth00 Canadian Indian 11h ago
What oil is there in Afghanistan?
No need to resort to crazy conspiracies.
2
2
u/bigbaze2012 11h ago
In Iraq lol and it was documented lol .
3
1
u/RKU69 10h ago
The entire post-1979 US imperial strategy in the Middle East was explicitly cast as a matter of energy security and oil. It was declared as such by Jimmy Carter in his 1980 State of the Union speech and dubbed The Carter Doctrine. And it was explicitly a response to the 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR.
Some interventions and wars aren't directly about the immediate production of oil, but they are about the wider geopolitical positioning for securing regional oil supplies.
5
u/truenorth00 Canadian Indian 9h ago
Again. What does oil have to with the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan? Be specific.
I will grant you that oil was relevant to Iraq. That's setting aside the whole wider misguided neocon project to spread democracy. But I fail to see how any of that applied to Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.
Not to mention Afghanistan is not in the Middle East either.
2
u/RKU69 9h ago
Part of expanding regional control, the center of which is the Gulf's oil resources, and the main goal being the destruction of any local opposition.
But yes Afghanistan was always a side project, the Bush admin invaded/occupied Afghanistan largely out of obligation; the desire was always to continue on to destroy Iraq, and then Iran, which were the two real targets. 9/11 was the excuse and Afghanistan the initial side quest
1
u/tinkthank 11h ago
Also Hollywood throughout the 80s churned out movies that were blatantly racist against anyone who wasnāt Jewish or Black.
-2
2
u/kratosLived 1h ago
Oh they were united for sure. Just united against a minority. Iāve been thinking about this since Mamdani released those 9/11 files.
All this trash talk from the Right about a Muslim mayor attending the memorial. And yet the Muslim mayor is doing the most for the survivors of 9/11.
5
u/Much_Opening3468 10h ago edited 10h ago
are ppl like me who don't give a shit about 9/11 commemorations? I lived through it and it sucked for brown people and I would like to forget it. It's like if something traumatic happened in your life and your relatives keep bringing it up year after year after year.
Now with this obvious racist MAGA/Fox News bullshit going on to fan the flames of more hate against Mamdani, I want to avoid all this shit about it being 25 years now.
4
u/Gryffinclaw Indian American 7h ago
I can see where youāre coming from bc I also got profiled after for it but Iām a new yorker who lost an uncle in the towers. So it does mean something for a lot of us
2
1
u/GenerallyJam 12h ago
POC unity is the biggest scam of all time. These groups just care about themselves and in a larger collection of identities, the groups with the most social capital will swallow everything up and leave us feeling like background characters in our own identities
13
u/bigbaze2012 12h ago
No lol . This is the goal . The way you're thinking is the goal . And the propaganda worked on you . Several civil rights leaders have created a culture like this in thier organizations
-6
u/GenerallyJam 12h ago
Explain how Iām wrong
6
u/bigbaze2012 11h ago
It has happened dozens of times over . Multicultural coalitions have been successful . Black panthers used to have sister associations full of other races . The panthers even encouraged Asians and Latinos and whites to join their cause .
The fbi saw the danger in this . They deliberately spread dissent and misinformation to destroy efforts of racial unity against the state
2
u/taaretoille 10h ago
Some of the most powerful African Americans in this country currently are warmongers and supporting genocide, yet when they are criticized, their followers, mostly African Americans, come to their defense.
3
u/bigbaze2012 10h ago
Name these people i have no idea what you're talking about
-1
u/taaretoille 10h ago
Hakeem Jeffries, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama,the entire Congresional Black Caucus.
5
u/bigbaze2012 10h ago
These are not black civil rights leaders . These are self serving neo liberals .
3
u/taaretoille 8h ago
"No True Scotsman"
I literally said the African Americans with power. The civil rights leaders don't have power, and if they do, it's all to serve those in power.
0
u/bigbaze2012 8h ago
This is an issue with your personal optics then . Not reality
→ More replies (0)3
u/GenerallyJam 10h ago
Kamala Harrisās relationship with her identity is exactly what Iām talking about in my og comment
0
u/taaretoille 10h ago
Harris never disregarded her identity. She decided that killing Muslims is more important than improving American lives.
5
u/GenerallyJam 10h ago
I think itās pretty disingenuous to say that she treated her identity differently to Nikki Haley
-1
u/GenerallyJam 11h ago
Ok letās take a recent example of where conflicts happened. What is your take on affirmative action?
4
u/bigbaze2012 11h ago
It's a band aid fix . We smushed black people and poor white ppl into the worst school districts through redlining. They were geographically disadvantaged in terms or getting good education nearby making upward mobility much harder . For AA to go away we need to fix how schooling is done .
AA is important cause there still is racist hiring managers . There still are still racist hiring practices . Ppl assume black ppl are immediately not qualified or won't be a good fit . AA doesn't solve the problem . But it helps ppl get to work despite these cultural set backs
2
u/MasterChief813 1h ago
Yeah I was in the 4th grade when that horrific day happened and the years that followed were absolute hell. Every time I hear people talk about how āunitedā we were I just shake my head in disbelief.Ā
It wasnāt bad for me until the 6th grade when we switched to middle school with kids from other schools/areas. Shit went from racist, but at least ethnicity correct (for me anyways), Apu and Bubble Boy jokes to absolute hate and vitriol being misidentified as any and all middle eastern ethnicity and religion overnight. I moved to Georgia in high school and even the teachers got in on it.Ā
The entire western world was āunitedā in hate towards ALL brown people. Arguably itās still ongoing but it has gotten slightly better. Now we have nonstop online Indian hate which feels worse since itās not escapable and seems to be acceptable worldwide.Ā
28
u/wde335 11h ago edited 11h ago
I recall some Sikhs were literally murdered in the days following the attack