Sweet Freedom

On a trip to Disney a few years back, I bought a necklace in the Morocco pavilion. It’s a round white pendant that they wrote my name on in Arabic. I love it and wear it all the time.

But recently, I was wearing it and someone made a comment that they couldn’t believe I was wearing it in this country. Really? Isn’t it enough that we mistrust entire religions, races, countries, etc? We’re going to demonize a language now? One of the top 5 languages in the world, no less? That sure is a lot of people you’re deciding aren’t OK.

I am sick to death of over-the-board judgments like this. Especially since they tend to be made by people who forget that they are part of a race that enslaved millions of people (and for fun, beat, raped and murdered them) that were stolen from their homes and bought to another country for this purpose. Or part of a race that displaced, attacked, massacred, enslaved, tortured, raped, and infected many millions of natives who lived on the land for thousands of years before it was stolen from them. Or part of a country that detained over 100,000 of their own countrymen in camps, based on their ethnic background, and who – in the name of god and country – have burned more villages and raped and killed more women and children than one can even think about without getting physically ill. Or part of a race and religion that killed millions of people in concentration camps (and let’s not forget the super fun beating, raping, and torturing).

Yeah – they tend to forget that when they go off on their stereotyping and thoughtless, racist rampages.

My response to the mental midget who dared comment on my necklace was that I was glad we lived in a country where we all had the freedom to do and be what we wanted. I could wear my necklace and she could be a racist asshole.