The Enemy Within

Two Muslim were recently kicked off a SkyWest flight because a flight attendant onboard wasn't comfortable with them on the plane, according to a complaint filed by the two men. A photo of the father and son, Mohammed and Fazal Khan, in Thursday's SF Chronicle shows two men with long, bushy beards, white skull caps and dark skin. In other words, characteristics commonly associated with Muslims in popular media and imagination. They are Hayward residents originally from Fiji.

The airlines and Department of Transportation are still investigating the incident according to the Chron reporter, who quoted the younger Khan as saying, "If it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone."

The same day I saw this story, I pulled on my favorite t-shirt, the one with the caption: "I'm a Muslim. Don't Panic."
I had worn it a few times. White folks usually asked, Are you really Muslim? Or are you just messing with people?
I was wondering what that mattered. They obviously didn't get the joke, or just didn't think it was funny. I had, however, managed to get a row of seats to myself on a packed Southwest flight from DC to SF by wearing it.

This day, though, I was having coffee with my friend Lisa at Brewed Awakening on Euclid. Sam, the owner was ecstatic when he saw the t-shirt and asked me if I had heard about the Khans being kicked off the airplane. He was a lot nicer about it than me. He said, Don't you think that goes too far?

Yes. I do. The truth is they were kicked off for being Muslims, or as the joke goes, FLYING WHILE BROWN (like African Americans guilty of Driving While Black). Lisa told me a story about a flight she took on which two white guys sat down opposite of two Muslim men and proceeded to stare at them hostily for the entire trip.

The whole thing made me wonder: Could someone have asked them to stop? At least alerted the flight attendant that two men were harassing them? Would no one stand up for the Khans?There’s a 1000-pound gorilla in the room and no one wants to talk about it: fear and racism. Muslims and Arabs are the Enemy Within for many Americans. It's all wrapped up in terrorism, victimization, fear-mongering, war, and zenophobia. Fear of the foreign.

So, I am going to try to unwarp that sad package here. Stay tuned.

President Bush Doesn't Know How Interest Rates Are Set

I really feel sorry for Americans sometimes because they have to put up with an incompetent president and a sorry bunch of reporters. Two events this week blew my mind.
One, President Bush does not know how interest rates are set. He told a group of reporters that "an independent group" is responsible for determining interest rates.
He is evidently not acquainted with Alan Greenspan or Ben Bernanke, the former and new head of the Federal Reserve Bank. Or the years of news: Greenspan is lowering/raising interest rates.
And he got cranky bc someone interrupted him as he was answering. So he said it twice.

Doesn't surprise me, given that he has said many times that he doesn't read newspapers. He gets all the news he needs from his staff, he says proudly. That fact alone explains why he seems to be living in an alternative reality regarding many issues, including the war in Iraq. Increasingly it reminds me of stories from journalists during the Vietnam War, who took to calling the 5 o'clock briefing the 5 o'clock follies. A seasoned Washington reporter warned me that reporting in DC was like having a bad case of cognitive dissonance: they'll tell you the sky is green and the grass is blue, she said.
Okay, news value is a hard thing to pin down for me sometimes, such as in this case. I think it is certainly news that the head of the most powerful country in the world (ugh!) does not know how interest rates work. But if it weren't for Marketplace, a radio show on KQED radio, I wouldn't have known. Didn't see it, read it or hear it from any other news outlet. Don't you think that's news, though? Honestly.

The other issue is the response that Bush got by taking a question from Helen Thomas, the 85-year-old salty reporter who covered Washington politics and the White House for ages. I've heard she still commandeers UPI's seat at WH press briefings. (Thomas spent years at UPI until the Moonies bought it. She quit and they began running the news service into the ground. Rev. Moon owns The Washington Times also.)

The news was not that he took her question (that's called doing your job) or was unscripted. The news should have been that he answered her question about why war by saying that "they attacked us, Helen." She had to remind him that had to do with Afghanistan. Not Iraq. What should have been newsworthy was the credibility, accuracy and substance – or lack of those qualities – of his answers. The bar has been set really low with that guy.

I promise to do better, always. Whether it is my lowly reporting job at The Argus or, one day, with higher profile positions.