Hallowed Ground - Part 2

Image courtesy MadyanWallpapers.com

I woke up this morning to reports of hate crimes against Muslims here in America.  On every channel was the story of the Muslim cab driver who was stabbed in the neck by a loser college kid in New York.  Meanwhile a mosque was vandalized in Madera, CA and a drunken man urinated outside a Queens mosque.  While the latter mosque was charitable enough to offer the drunk their assistance, and refute claims his attack was anti-Islamic, it is not hard to see a troubling trend at play here.

There is a dehumanization of the Islamic community happening here in the United States, that is being sanctioned by leaders in both the Republican and Democratic parties.  The Republicans do it as part of a pattern of exploiting fear, ignorance and outright bigotry for short-term political gain - from Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, to the erroneous anchor babies canard (peep the link to see why this is BS), to the widespread Republican belief that President Obama is a Muslim, to the fact-allergic allegations of the birthers, to death panels, death taxes and all manner of other obfuscations & outright lies. 

Democrats are hardly immune from twisting the facts to further their political interests. But the GOP has made a practice of playing on the fears of the ignorant to generate support for an otherwise lackluster policy platform.  And by refusing to stand up for the First Amendment in the case of Park 51, Democratic leaders from Harry Reid to Howard Dean have presented their party as little more than a spineless lapdog to GOP messaging.  I give kudos to the many brave leaders on both sides of the aisle who have stood up for the rights of all Americans.  Part of the problem currently, is that so few Americans have any substantive experience with Muslims or knowledge of Islam, so it is easy to play on the natural fears & uncertainties bred by the current conflict with the radical fringe of that faith.

The radical fringe of our own society is today fueling the flames of Islamophobia and their actions are being sanctioned by supposedly mainstream leaders.  It has got to stop.  Here are some reflections on my experiences growing up in the Middle East, and why we as Americans of all religious & cultural stripes must to stand together against the hate.

"Hallowed Ground - Part 2":

AfriPoppin

AfriPop Magazine

The other day I got a tweet from AfriPop magazine with a link to an archived interview I did with them a few years ago.  At the time I hadn't been home in a little while but they got me thinking about a number of issues related to African identity & culture.  After receiving the link, I re-read the piece and it reminded me again of both the challenge & the value of an immigrant identity.  The current backlash against illegal immigration has a lot of Americans taking what strike me as very reactionary positions against immigrants and particularly Latinos.  The public rhetoric is that the anti-immigrant sentiment is targeted exclusively against the undocumented, but I look at the current  nationwide brouhaha about the building of mosques (as reported in yesterday's NYTimes) and I think the issue is much deeper than most would care to admit.

I believe there is a genuine and understandable indignation about the idea of people "taking advantage of the system" particularly during difficult times.  But the kind of heated invective that we hear daily hurled at so-called "illegals" seems to be about a lot more than law & order.  In my interview w/ Sheriff Dupnik of Pima County, AZ he flat out stated that he believed bigotry was a factor.  When I look at the all-out rhetorical assault on undocumented workers, combined with a concurrent assault on fully documented American muslims, combined with the inane yet persistent allegations of President Obama being foreign-born despite all evidence to the contrary and I think...hmm, might some Americans have a problem w/ foreigners?

I mean in every case you can dress up the drama in a veneer of earnest rationality that sounds something like:

a) An appeal for law & order and securing our borders (ie. why we need to ship all the brownies back across the border)

b) A concern that terrorists will claim victory when a mosque is built in America (ie. why freedom of religion means some religions are freer than others)

c) A need to protect the Presidency & the nation from foreign interlopers (ie. facts & evidence be damned get that Hussein boy out the White House!)

However much lipstick you put on it, there's a whole lot of BS in this bacon.  It seems to me like "outsiders" are the scapegoats of the day, in perfect accordance with historical precedent.  Fortunately we live in a world where we can make our voices heard more widely & effectively than our forebears could have imagined.  So here's my message to the nation:

Dear America,

Hi, I'm an American.  I'm also an immigrant.  Unlike the president I was actually born in Africa.  I am very proud of this. I have two homes, one in Ghana where my grandma lives and one in California where my baby girl will soon be born.  She's not an anchor...she's a baby, just like yours.

I like cheeseburgers, Kosher hot dogs, Jollof rice & fried plantains.  I am also big on arroz con pollo.  I carry Accra and Brooklyn in my heart & in my voice.  I love them both.  I believe in law & order.  I also believe it can live in harmony with human compassion and rational social & economic policies.  Estoy aprendiendo Español although I still suck at it.  I came here long ago from a place far, far away.  I believe America is all the greater for being home to people like me.

Picante Wishes & Apple-Pie Dreams,

D.N.A

Immigration Nation

So on July 31st I had a convo w/ Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County Arizona about the ongoing immigration saga down there.  He gave us some very interesting insights into the situation on the ground, including a refutation of the claims of rising crime & violence in the state.  According to him, in recent years AZ has not only seen a drop in violent crime, but also in illegal border crossings.  Given that, I asked him what he thought was behind all the controversy & he took it back to the "old school."  Check out the clip above and peep the full interview on my Oprah Radio page.

Drill Baby Drill

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig ablaze. Oil spill picture. Image: U.S. Coast Guard.  

This is a piece I wrote in May as I watched the OilSpill unfold into the Gulf.  At the time, I thought this issue would have been resolved by now, that Financial Reform would have been signed into law, that the American people might be looking more carefully towards the November elections - more critically at who represents our interests and who represents the interest of those who exploit the "small people."

Show me their papers...

Human nature is ultimately to adapt towards survival, and my nature is to tend to believe in the ultimate goodness of humanity, so I can't help but be hopeful.  But in the meantime, it's worth reminding ourselves of what's at stake.  Since some American politicians are willing to bow down and apologise before mega-corporations like BP, irrespective of the damage they do, I can't help put pay homage to the hubris of the powerful.  Let the people say...Drill Baby Drill.

Drill Baby Drill
By: Derrick N. Ashong

I have a dream
That one day every child in America
Will be judged not by the color of their skin
Nor the content of their character
But by the vehicle they drive in
The degree of wealth they run after
And since power must be powered
I say:

Drill Baby Drill

I see a day
When the suns rays won't penetrate
The mighty plumes of soot that levitate
High above fields of factories
Oceans of industry
Waves of transportation
Fueled by exploration so
I say:

Drill Baby Drill

Imagine a world where markets run free
And every banker has a chance to Be all that he can be
Grab all he can see
Liberated from responsibility
To anyone other than himself
For in the pursuit of wealth
We must leave no soul unturned
Thus we must:

Drill Baby Drill

And so what if
A little black gold
Spills out from the depths
Of a gaping hole we dug
In the ocean floor
Trust your faith no more
Rather put that trust in us
For in God we just:

Drill Baby Drill

Drill into your hearts desire
Drill until your hope expires
Drill you full of expectation
Of dreams deferred until salvation
Drill for every fear you've kept
Alive inside your quivering chest
Drill until you're xenophobic
Then drill you with drugs to help you cope with
A world you no longer understand
Then turn to me I'll take your hand
And show you just who is to blame
Plant bogey men inside your brain
An army armed with swarthy faces
An outrageous brown invading nation
And only you can save the races
Stop the alien’s attack
Demand his papers!

And then you'll go home to rest
Knowing you bested the beast at his best
Though he did look more scared than scary
He was no match for our town military

So go home now & polish your gun
Reminisce on from whom the West was won
And be sure to deposit your checks
For from there we will finance our next bet
That America will someday be brown...

But until that day comes to town
We've got to

Drill baby
Drill baby
Drill you for all that you've got

Cuz in the depths of your soul
Is that certified gold
That will always keep me on top