"Stop calling [Obama] a muslim and saying he not a citizen and call him a nigger..."

Satiating my addiction to Facebook, a friend of mine posted a Shaun King article on her page. Then I watched Fareed Zakaria’s comments on Anderson Cooper 360. King’s quote stood out the most to me. King wrote:

Here’s the thing though – I think the same reason NYPD police officers that saw upstanding citizen Amadou Diallo with his wallet and “thought” it was gun and proceeded to shoot him 41 times is the same reason 50 million people don’t like ...President Obama’s politics and proceed to conclude he is a non-American Muslim. The same spirit feeds both conclusions. An upstanding black man with a wallet is thought to be a dangerous criminal with a gun. A very intelligent American Christian black man that is president is not really as he appears – his wallet is a gun – it must be.

I was then reminded of a former student of mine... (insert flash back music here).



I teach a class that focuses on critiquing how visual culture and popular culture (i.e. music, advertisements, movies, paintings, etc.) teaches us about groups of people. We question the productivity of that teaching. One thing that we do on the first day of class is a series of “get to know you” activities that inform me and the rest of the class about various personal identity traits and how they effect how you perceive yourself and other people (i.e. where you’re from, sexuality, political affiliation and…religion). One student in particular identified as a Christian… what some may call a fundamentalist Christian.

Now…I would probably label myself a liberal Christian. I’m pro-WHOLE life not just pro-birth/anti-abortion. Many Christians need to stop believing one sin is somehow worst than another (i.e. like your “ish” don’t stank). I abhor Fred Phelps (“hate” isn’t a strong enough word). I don’t ever want to go to Holy Land (as Huey Freeman would say as he shakes his head, “they have a white Jesus”) and I like Bill Mahar (my bible study group did a double take when I said that) etcetera, etcetera… But never in all of my days have I come in such a close proximity to a fundamentalist Christian (kinda like a unicorn, I thought they were just on T.V.). Well, minus the homophobic ones on the oval or the ones in front of University Hall comparing abortion to the lynching of black men and women.

This student’s final paper and presentation centered on the belief that Muslims are not peaceful people but terrorists whose religion is radical from the roots. The student quoted the Quran and cited Muslim radicals to support the point. Using my Socratic method (and with the hope of encouraging critical thinking) I inserted quotes from the Bible in her paper that, if read in isolation and out of context, would make Christianity appear just as pro-war and pro-genocide as the student made Islam to be. Well, the student’s minister did not like that, wrote a lengthy email to me and threatened to tell Fox News about OSU’s liberal professors discriminating against students and demanded that I change the student’s grade. Sigh. I felt like Gandhi "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

But this student wasn’t just anti-Muslim. This student was racist. My thoughts were solidified when one of the student’s papers referred to blacks as “lazy, loud, violent, fried chicken eating…” and some other adjectives and things (Dear, God, why do I keep getting these students?).

Well, just as Shaun King and Fareed Zakaria tell us, racism has not left us. Although most people of color know this, the white majority does not. So, as I’ve asked my “we are the world/ kumbaya” students

Me: “Let’s say Obama is Muslim…what might that mean?” Pondering student faces…
“…As you have said America is tolerant and full of good people…aren’t Muslims capable of being good people?” Still pondering…
“If we believe calling Obama a Muslim is an insult, what is that contingent upon? What has to be our socialization for us to see a Muslim President as something to be weary of? Or believe that ‘Muslim’ is a bad word?”

Student: “Hate. We are socialized to be xenophobic.” Silence.
If these religious and “birther” attacks are hidden racism what might that say about America?

By the way Pastor King, I hope to drop by your church some time…