The UTD Mercury

Issue date: 1/15/07 Section: Opinion

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we celebrate the great strides made in civil rights ­- for blacks, but also for people of all races, genders and religions.

Yet bigotry is everywhere ­­- including at UTD.

In December, electrical engineering sophomore Syed Maaz Shah was arrested at by the FBI on federal firearms charges. Shah, a 19-year-old Pakistani native and secretary of the Muslim Student Association (MSA), was arrested in conjunction with a terrorism investigation. He does not face terrorism charges.

Sadly, the reactions posted on The Mercury's Web site were hateful and suspicious comments that demeaned Muslims, Pakistanis and UTD's MSA.

Some commenters called for oversight on MSA, claiming the chapter could be supporting terrorism. Others used derogatory racial slurs, and bashed Pakistanis and Muslims as prime terrorism recruits.

With just a handful of angry words, they condemned entire groups of people based on the actions of a few. Due to the offensive and incindiary nature of the forum, The Mercury closed commenting on past news stories about Shah.

It is disappointing - but perhaps not surprising, that such close-minded opinions exist, even in our politically correct world.

Humans have a long history of prejudice and suspicion based on racial and cultural differences, even when there is no factual basis for their bias, says Attorney Chip Pitts, who serves on social accountability advisory boards at UTD and also teaches at Stanford Law School.

But do our fears, spoken or unspoken, point to unspoken truths of American society? Don't blacks become incarcerated at higher rates? Isn't it true that illegal immigrants are mostly Hispanic? And weren't the 9/11 hijackers of Middle Eastern descent?

Here's the problem. Stereotypes may be based in truth. But they're not all-encompassing traits guaranteed to be true for any set of individuals.

As Shah's lawyer puts it, "Not everyone with a Middle Eastern surname is a terrorist."

Furthermore, stereotypes are not always accurate, nor are our fears. For one, terrorism pales in comparison to the number of people who die in car accidents each year, Pitts says.

And Professor Jennifer Holmes, a terrorism expert, says experts debate whether al Qaeda's motives are religious or political, surmising they may want to create what only looks like a religious conflict to recruit members.

On top of that, Holmes says there are about 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. Terrorists who are also Muslims constitute a miniscule part of this overall population.

"Blanket suspicion/harassment of Muslims is misplaced and counterproductive," Holmes wrote in an e-mail. "Discrimination or hatred towards Muslims (or Arabs for that matter) merely help groups like al Qaeda recruit and hamper intelligence efforts at home and abroad."

MSA President Ahmed Subhani tells me he agrees with Holmes.

While he said MSA has not received any negative comments or threats since Shah's arrest, he recalls the Muslim community was concerned about hate crimes and negative sentiments towards them after the 9/11 attacks.

Subhani noted some people question whether or not people can achieve true equality in their minds. Everyone, he said, inevitably has biases.

This has been well-studied by scientists at Harvard, who developed tests that can detect biases on topics such as skin tone (light-dark), weight (fat-thin) and race (Asian American - European American). The Implicit Association Tests (IAT) can be taken online at http://implicit.harvard.edu.

Most Americans, the tests have found, prefer people who are white, young, thin and heterosexual.

The evidence is somewhat damning for those who believe we can exist in a world without prejudice. The alternative, some say, is to judge people on their actions, and not the sincerity behind them.

So, in a nutshell, it doesn't matter if you really are racist/ageist/sexist. It only matters that you act like you aren't by treating others equally.

I took a few IATs. And yes, I do have biases. Even in light of that, I still disagree with the idea that we should only pretend as if we see each other equally. And I'm not sure Martin Luther King, Jr., would have approved, either.

One example that comes to mind is when an acquaintance of mine, who is white, began to recall a joke by popular black comedian Dave Chappelle, whose humor often lampoons African-Americans.

When he saw a black couple approaching, he quickly said he'd deliver the punchline after they were out of earshot.

Whether or not this person is truly biased or simply wanted to share a funny, slightly offensive joke is beyond the point. I'm uncomfortable thinking what it'd be like if I was the person who someone was waiting to get out of hearing range.

It isn't enough to merely muffle outward expressions of prejudice. True equality is not the same as false civility. It has to be real, even if it starts with examining our individual prejudices.

And now, more than ever, we have to strive to rid ourselves of hurtful biases. This year alone, Ethiopians fought Somalis, Israelis clashed with the Lebanese and America warred with Iraqi insurgents. Faking it isn't enough. We have to truly want solidarity and equality, however difficult and seemingly impossible that ridding ourselves of biases may be.

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