On America, Islam, and the Signing Line

Monday, January 16, 2012

On America, Islam, and the Signing Line

So I’ve just gotten back to the hotel after an amazing night at the Atlanta stop on the Tour de Nerdfighting. More than 800 people came out to Agnes Scott College, and it was fun and exhausting and everyone was lovely etc.

Whenever you meet 800 people in four or five hours, you’re going to say some stupid things (I’m sure I said many tonight), but tonight I outdid myself in a really interesting way.

So two young women are in line (both wearing headscarves), and the first says that she has come to see us all the way from Saudi Arabia, and I am of course like whoa, thank you for coming halfway across the world, but then she adds that she also made the trip because she wanted to see her best friend, whom she hasn’t seen in three years.

So then when talking to the best friend, I say, “So you live here now?”

(And by the way I should pause and say that the signing line is by necessity moving pretty fast because there are 800 people.) And the second young woman says, “Um, yes,” and I say, “Do you like it?” And she says, “Um, not really,” and I say, “Would you rather move back home?” And she looks at me blankly for a second before saying, “Um, I was born here. I’m from here.”

Whereupon I realize that the first young woman’s family moved TO Saudi Arabia three years ago, not that the second friend had moved here FROM Saudi Arabia three years ago.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the night feeling bad about this, because some part of my tired brain assumed that this person wasn’t born in the US because she wore a headscarf, and probably generally made her feel less-than-awesome at the signing. I still feel bad about it, and if the young woman in question somehow finds this tumblr post: I’m sorry.

But I bring this up mostly to point out how our brains function when sorting ideas of other. Because the first girl said she was from Saudi Arabia, I assumed the second girl was also from Saudi Arabia, but I didn’t listen for their actual voices, which were totally American and accentless. This is but one of a bazillion ways that race and religious identities shape our assumptions about other people.

Worth remembering on Dr. King’s birthday.

Okay. I’m going to bed. Thanks again to everyone who came to see us in Atlanta tonight.