Alycia Clark
Blog #8
03/19/11
This week in class we discussed criminal activity, and how criminals are perceived by their community. One of the aspects we discussed was the critical race theory, which says that race, gender, class etc. are used to classify how one views a criminal. This perception was recently used against a man earlier last week, who had not committed any real crime, but “looked” like a criminal.
As a student in a United States public university, all students that are attending to better themselves should be given the same equal human rights that are guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. These rights were violated of Somali George Mason Student Abdirashid Dahir. Last week, while trying to study for his final exams, Dahir had occupied a room in the campus library. After leaving for a short amount of time, and returning to his belongings in his room, he found that a Caucasian girl had taken over the room. While trying to plead his case and keep the room, she decided to call the police on him, and tried her hardest to get him in trouble. While waiting on the police, she expressed her intolerance of foreigners, and stated that Dahir should go back to his country. When the police finally did arrive, they only listened to the Girl’s side of the story, and then excused Dahir from the library.
Dahir went to the campus police station, to try and get things cleared up, when he actually ended up getting into even more trouble with the police. He then returned to his dorm, where he was a R.A. and was later arrested by the same police for, of all things, abduction. He has planned to talk to the Dean of Students, and has a court case in April.
The fact that someone’s life could be so dramatically changed because of someone’s perception of them is incredible. A man, who had not actually done anything wrong, was treated like a common criminal, because of his ethnicity and color of his skin. Would this problem had been the same if he were a Caucasian male, or even a female? The “unspoken” rule of society says that it would, which just goes to show that America, and the rest or the world, still has a lot of tolerance to gain.
1 comment:
Stories like this make me so angry at our society. People can be so openly racist that it is almost unbelievable. One would think that in the "land of the free" anyone would be able to feel welcome and free to accept who they are and not have to hide it. I have a friend who was being questioned by the police and the cop wa going to let him go with a warning until another cop asked to see his id. He didn't think anything of it and so he handed the cop his passport and she openly said "oh you are from morrocco! Give him a ticket!" I was absolutly disqusted by this act.
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