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Head Scarves and Hoodies: The Very Real Dangers of Profiling
This image has been spreading over social media in the days following the murder of Shaima Alawadi. #justiceforshaima
On Saturday night in El Cajon, Calif., Iraqi-born Shaima Alawadi was beaten to death in what appears to be a clear hate crime. The perpetrator left a note reportedly reading: "Go back to your own country. You're a terrorist." Such a vicious crime is already horrific enough; the hateful, ignorant motivations that seem to be behind it make it even worse.
My heart and thoughts go out to Alawadi's family and community, who are surely reeling with shock and grief. And honestly, we all should be. While it's clear we live in a country where harmful stereotypes of Muslims abound and create a culture in which events like this seem on some level unsurprising, it is simply unacceptable. And we all need to stand up, speak up, and do everything that we can to stop this from happening.
Commentary on this horrific murder is all over social media, a fact which seems to garner more New York Times coverage than the murder itself. I saw a tweet the other day that poignantly drew a parallel between the murder of Alawadi and that of Trayvon Martin:
From #TrayvonMartin to #ShaimaAlawadi - from hoodies to headscarves. it's been a sad week, America. #LoseTheHate
— Amina Waheed (@atwaheed) March 25, 2012
Stereotypes and profiling engender a dangerous thought process: Alawadi was a Muslim who wore a head scarf, so she must be a terrorist; Martin was a black youth who wore a hoodie, so he must be a criminal. Among other things, these attitudes distance people as "other" and dehumanize them.
The damage and pain caused by such attitudes is obvious, as we see in these recent headlines. But it's even more insidious than first glance reveals. The prevalence of individuals who engage in this kind of profiling and "othering" makes it possible to pass legislation that does the same, like the recent anti-immigrant laws in Arizona. In effect, this creates a feedback loop in which those laws bolster the individual attitudes, which further reinforce discriminatory laws, ad infinitum. Stereotyping and profiling create a culture of fear that reaches all levels of our culture, from individual interactions to broad government policy. And we must break this cycle.
We can start on an individual level. In the midst of these tragic murders, I hope that people will band together against hate and start truly building bridges of understanding among the many people and cultures our country is home to. UUSC works every day against hateful racial and religious profiling, and we want you to join us. There is no place for Islamophobia, for racism, or for oppression of any kind in the world we are trying to create.
Comments
Inaccurate post
Re: Inaccurate post
Thank you for commenting with this update. While it is true that this post is now outdated, when I wrote it on March 27 the incident was still being investigated as a potential hate crime. For those looking for more current news coverage, I've just read this article on the Huffington Post and numerous other articles are available online as the case continues to unfold in court.
A few things come to my mind in light of these new developments. One, whoever killed Shaima Alawadi did leave a note intimating a hate crime, and this was seen as a seriously plausible motive. Whether that note was a ruse or not, I think this speaks to the prevalence of profiling in our culture. When I heard about the note, sadly I was not surprised; that this was my reaction speaks to the dangerous levels of profiling we see in our country. I've read in other media reports that violent hate crimes against Iraqi immigrants in that area were far from unheard of. Even if it turns out that it wasn't a hate crime based on her cultural and religious identity, the fact that I've grown so accustomed to hearing such stories is a reason for us to keep working to end profiling and build bridges between various cultures.
The second thing that I think when I see these updates is that if her husband did in fact murder her, I still see it as a hate crime — just one based in patriarchy and misogyny, not in religious and ethnic bigotry. This is, of course, a different topic than racial and religious profiling, but I see a profound connection — they are all forms of oppression, tied together by the thoughts and actions of perpetrators that assert power and control over other people they deem lesser than themselves. Domestic violence in this country is a problem our society talks about far too little. And this is true throughout much of the world. That's one reason that UUSC makes a point to work with women in so many of our programs — they are much, much too often denied their power, their agency, and their human rights.