Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called and offered a personal apology to the two Muslim women barred from sitting behind him on stage at a Detroit rally earlier this week. He should not have done so.Obama and his volunteers were not wrong. And the Muslim women were wrong... for their cavalier attitude to a hostile American climate!
The Muslim woman were wrong for their insensitivity to a man of color trying to achieve the impossible in a world nurtured to hate people of color.
I could get into the non-specifics of my statements, go global, and talk about how people of darker skin hue are treated all over the world. I've seen light skin Brazilians who are allowed to model jewelry, and the dark ones who live in ghettos.
Obama Calls Muslim Women to Apologize for Controversial Snub
I could talk of the relieved mother in-law in Thailand who is overjoyed to meet that light skinned future daughter in-law and not the dark skin maid of honor. Of course we know about the light skin Mexicans senoritas who work the cash registrars in the markets and the dark skin ones who are sweeping up.
And in Agadir Morocco, a Muslim man might be chief among his village, perhaps a prosperous shop owner or an esteemed educator but when he arrives in Paris, "the city of lights" that same French speaking man is just a "sand negro" swinging off a garbage truck. This is the world we live in. Not the whole world, but a big part of it.
But let me comment to the "specific", to the actions of these two women. And let not the words come from me, a "Christian African American Outsider", but from some other Muslims.
One year after the 9-11 attack. I was in a shopping mall here in Los Angeles California, thousands of miles from the sites of the physical attacks of that day. I observe two young men and a woman in there mid/late twenties shopping at a suburban mall. They wore jeans, a simple dress, polo shirts, typical fashion of the day, Nothing special. They were about to round a corner when they shrieked back in horror as if they had just seen the invincible Hulk.
And this is what I heard them say, "I can't believe it. Are they crazy? They just don't get it. Are they trying to get us all killed? Ya' gotta' know when to keep that stuff out of sight. When I go home I'm going to remind my mother."
It is at that point I looked to see, they were talking about two women walking the mall in full Muslim clothing, the black head wrap and the full long dresses.
I then looked closely at these three and realized, wow, their family origins are obviously from the far east also and they are probably Muslims too. the difference... These three got it. Considering how Americans were feeling about Muslims after the 9-11 attack and the fears even a year later, these three were trying to just blend in and live in peace. They were trying to get throgh a difficult period in America. They got it.Someone forgot to send a memo to the two Muslim ladies in the mall, as well as the two Muslim ladies in Detroit. Barack you need to Kick Butt and apologize after you are president.