Racism lingers on

Race is a very peculiar concept. It is one of those things that everybody thinks they understand, but gets less clear the harder we look at it. It is also a cultural category into which people are placed based upon apparent biological characteristics.

The racial situation has gotten worse in America within the past two years since Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath of the devastating loss of life and property, the nation as a whole has been faced with financial strain, ongoing threats of terrorism and bio-terrorism, the U.S. declaration of war on terrorism, and the increasing likelihood of additional military actions. All these factors contributed in making the racial situation worse
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A year after the attacks, I traveled home to Pakistan to celebrate the holidays during my break from classes at North Lake. I enjoyed seeing my parents, friends and relatives. In January 2003, I packed my luggage and decided to leave my country to attend spring semester here at NLC. I was traveling from Islamabad to Dallas. I noticed increased security at the airports, but a strange incident happened to me at Heathrow. I was standing among all the passengers to be checked in. When they saw me holding a green passport (Pakistan), I got singled out by the staff while they let all others go through the normal procedure. The security staff opened my luggage once again. After two hours I finally got through their investigation.

When I got here in Dallas I felt mixed reactions of sorrow and anger. I was walking to my car after a night class when a group of young men in a car drove past me nearly running me over, yelling, “Wherever you are from, go home! Leave our country!” I knew then that things would never be the same for me here in America, no matter how long I had been an American.

I used to work at my uncle’s convenience store. Three months after 9/11 at seven o’clock in the evening, four young white and black Americans stormed into the store owned by my uncle, smashed the windows, overturned coffee tables and shattered mirrors. I chose not to say anything and remained silent. They yelled, “You foreigners caused all this trouble.” I called the police soon after they left the store. When my uncle came in, he said, “ I appreciate that you didn’t do anything to those boys because it is time to bring the anger down.”

No one should be a racist. There are so many people in the States, so many people with all different kinds of skin colors and everyone should accept each other. America has long been called a melting pot because of the varied mix of races, cultures and ethnicities that live here. As more and more immigrants come to America searching for a better life, the population naturally becomes more diverse.

It is my feeling that everyone is an individual and that there is no person who is inferior to another one.

(Tanvir Ahmed is an English 1301 student of Dr. Nancy Castilla’s. He is also a student worker with 7PCHELP.)