Vhotee,

I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that racism is a human instinct and it exists everywhere. You also provide some compelling examples of human differences based on religion, skin color, beliefs etc.

Your observation of Nepali individuals is your observation – pardon the redundancy. Although you used to term “statistically”, I have yet to see a statistic on liberal views (or the lack thereof) of Nepalese on America. It seems like a generalization to me, and although it may be true, I have encountered several Nepalese people who are liberal both back home and here. If you just read through some threads in sajha, you will find people who turn a blind eye to misogynistic remarks, racism and discrimination based on one’s sexuality. However, there are plenty a people who are liberal in both nations. Although a transnational analysis and scrutiny of one’s belief might provide different results, my point is that not everyone is a brain-washed liberal. And, in making that assumption, you are trivializing their knowledge and awareness and the entire discourse on racism.

I believe the point Dr. Jilani was trying to get across was that racism exists, and hence a discourse is necessary. In this thread, we have seemed to digress from that discourse to the argument that “If it happens in Nepal, it is ok, but if it happens in the US, we have no right to whine about it.” If we were to follow that line of logic, if an Indian girl got raped in say, Ohio, she would have no right to seek justice because rape is “tolerable” (read: not reported/dealt with as much as in the US) in India.

If Seema Jilani is an afgan by heritage, then I conclude this lady is a bigot.

I failed to comprehend the “If……..then” logic here. Is she a bigot because she is an Afghan by heritage? Isn’t that generalization/assumption the root of racism and the very issue Dr. Jilani is talking about?

Texasranger

If I agreed with you, we would both be wrong. The stereotypes and generalizations you present – “we” went on the streets to kill Muslims, black people are lazy (to name a few)- are not only straight up false, but very offensive.  

Freedom 2012,

Just because you are fine with racism does not mean that others have to neglect the issue. Like others have said before, tolerating racism is an easy way out, and if that is the path you want to take and you want to teach your offspring, that is your personal choice.

“The West has experimented with it. Now they are realizing that not all people in this world are democratic and egalitarian so they are feeling that this multiculturalism is a mistake.” I would love to see where you got that from. Again, “The West now realizes that multiculturism is a mistake”, Hmmm.

The question here isn’t why Dr. Jilani did not have the keys and it isn’t how many sets of keys they have. If she was trying to get into a private party (I use ifs because as we said, we only know one side of the story), maybe she was at fault. However, the way she was treated right after (again, if her account is accurate) is a form of blatant racism. And that act of racism cannot be condoned just because “she comes from a society where it is tolerated”. Her views against white privilege and the discrimination that it results in might not be agreeable to you based on your views on racism and discrimination. However, racism isn’t for you or I to define and one’s discrimination isn’t for you or I to condone.

I am probably done talking about this issue, however, it will never cease to baffle me that I had to try and convince people that racism should not be tolerated (again, given the account is true).