I’ve been reading this interesting new blog the last few days. Its called Discrimination & National Security Initiative (which in my opinion is a very un-bloggy name). One of the bloggers, Dave Sidhu, writes,

The focus of the research is the mistreatment of minority communities during times of war (e.g., the post-9/11 backlash against Sikhs, South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims). The project will gather information (like cases, articles, statutes, reports, etc.) and also perform original research on the human consequences of this mistreatment (like Muslim families not traveling or flying, Sikh males cutting their hair, etc.).

One story that they reported on last week was this one on CNN about discrimination at Denny’s:

Seven Arab American men filed a $28 million lawsuit against a Denny’s restaurant in Florida saying the manager kicked them out and told them, “We don’t serve bin Ladens here,” their lawyer said on Thursday.

They sued the restaurant owner, Restaurant Collection Inc., and former manager, Eduardo Ascano, saying they were harassed, humiliated and refused service at the Denny’s in Florida City, southwest of Miami, in January 2004.

Lawyer Rod Hannah said the men had not ruled out an additional lawsuit against the Denny’s chain, which paid about $54 million in 1994 to settle a discrimination suit filed by black customers.

The Florida lawsuit said the men visited the restaurant early in the morning of January 11, 2004, and, after long delays, were seated, given menus and served drinks.

After waiting more than an hour for their food while later customers were served, they asked twice about their order. The lawsuit said Ascano told them “Bin Laden is in charge of the kitchen.” Asked about the reference to the al Qaeda leader, he swore and told them, “We don’t serve bin Ladens here” and ordered them to leave, the lawsuit said.

This morning a Sepia Mutiny reader, who I will call “S,” sent us an email asking us for a sanity check. We get tips all the time but nobody asks us for advice. Suddenly I felt the need to step into a phone booth, transform, and fly forth from our North Dakota headquarters and into the “real world.”

How do you KNOW that you have been the victim of discrimination and that it’s not just your “overly-sensitive” perspective skewing things, was her general query? I think most of us who grew up in the U.S. tend see the glass half full in instances of possible discrimination. I know I do. I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt even in instances where a neutral third party would clearly label it as bigotry. Let’s look at her situation and see what we think.

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Consider if you will some of the following quotes:

“There are Koreans, Chinese, and Hindoos numbering over one billion. Allow them to secure a foothold in the United States, and they will, within a few generations, sweep like an avalanche of death from the Himalayas around the globe”

or

“It is essential that the blood of the American-Europeans of this country, who together with their ancestors developed civilization to its present state, should be kept pure and free from the taint of the decadent Orientalism of China, Japan and India. We have no quarrel with those people. We wish them well in their own countries, but we do not want them in ours.”

or

“[Indian religions are] debauched with deeds of lust and blood…Many of the Indian deities, given to lustful amours, are especially worshipped by the people….It is not surprising that religion in India is not only divorced from morality but married to vice…much indecency exists in India under the guise of religion, many of the temple dancing girls are merely consecrated prostitutes, and in many cases respectable women are led to lives of shame.”

Do you get angry when you read this? Or perhaps it sounds vaguely familiar to you? When compared to the transcript of the Jersey Guys radio show that I posted a few days ago the above quotes aren’t that radically different. Well what if I told you the quotes above are all about a century old? Indolink.com has a very educational article titled, Fear and Loathing: Hinduphobia in America .

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