FAHRENHEIT 197, "Considering the incident of Nov 14 at UCLA"
I should be writing a school paper right now, but I think it's time to for another installment of FAHRENHEIT 197.
I think we should not let Amnesty International the American Iranian groups tell us what happened at Powell Library on the 14th.
According to the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management's 2005 Student Profile (http://www.aim.ucla.edu/home/Undergraduate_Profile_Fall_2005.pdf), there were 24,811 undergraduates, 10% of this population is marked as International or Other/Unknown, the other 90% is marked as Native American, African, Hispanic, or White. This means that around 2500 undergraduates are Middle Eastern or other nationalities, so I would hardly say that Mr. Tabatabainejad is the only Middle Eastern student to hang out in Powell, he was not singled-out because of his apparent nationality.
If indeed Mr. Tabatabainejad was profiled due to his race, let me throw out another statistic: According to the National Counterterrorism Center's 2005 terrorism report (http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/nctc2005.pdf), over 11,000 attacks occured resulting in 14,500 deaths and that "Muslims bore a substantial burden" of those attacks, 40,000 people beign killed or wounded due to Muslim terrorism. Those of you that argue that what I have stated just now is pejorative can take a hike, it's merely a statistic. Now, we cannot discount the psychological effect these attacks have on Americans, their own protective mechanisms tell them that a Muslim is more-likely to commit a terrorist act than a non-Muslim, this is NOT racism: let me explain.
Racism, and there are many forms of it, according to Robert Blauner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Blauner) racism is a tendency for people to categorize different cultures by physical attributes such as skin color, hair color and texture, eye shape and facial structure, and the dislike or distrust of that race simply based on the fact that they are 'of' that race. In the case of an individual, especially an American, profiling a Middle Eastern person, is considered 'discrimination' which is the behavioral manifestations of 'prejudice,' in this case 'utilitarian' prejudice. (from Lustig & Koester, "Intercultural Competence" Ch. 6) An American may believe that a Muslim is more-likely to be a terrorist based on the fact that the majority of violent terrorists are Muslims. But facts do not always reveal truth.
Mr. Tabatabainejad is a senior at UCLA, so is fully aware of the plurality of the campus' ethnicities. He should also be fully aware that on the back of his BruinCard (his identification) it states "BruinCard is the property of UCLA..." So when a UCLA official asks you for it, you give it to them without hesitation. Any of us would assume a defensive position if someone is hesitating to give their ID.
According to Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/1448245), Mr. Tabatabainejad failed to show his ID...at 11:30 pm...so officers asked him to leave. What happened between the time this happened to the point where the now-infamous cell phone video begins is still uncertain, and is important for us not to jump to conclusions.
Word on campus is that Mr. Tabatabainejad was being verbally hostile toward someone before the incident occurred, it is not clear who, or if this rumor is even a fact. However, according to the transcript of an interview with Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of the Southern California Council on American Islamic Relations, it is understood that "...maybe Mostafa was a little bit obnoxious. Maybe he wasn't too compliant. We don't have the whole picture actually, but based on what we heard from news report, it seems yeah, maybe initially he was asked for an ID and he didn't show the ID." Interesting.
UCLA has, I think, acted in the best possible way, establishing their own investigation and paying for a third party investigation as well.
It seems strange to me that just because an officer asks you for your ID, the first thing out of your mouth is to claim racial profiling, and within days have a lawyer all ready with a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit in hand...
I'll tell you, as a UCLA student myself, I would rather the people protecting my campus and I be more tough than less tough, and if that includes overshooting on an incident like this in the interests of being better safe than sorry, so be it. Next time someone is asked for the ID, perhaps they'll be more apt to show it.
I think we should not let Amnesty International the American Iranian groups tell us what happened at Powell Library on the 14th.
According to the UCLA Office of Analysis and Information Management's 2005 Student Profile (http://www.aim.ucla.edu/home/Undergraduate_Profile_Fall_2005.pdf), there were 24,811 undergraduates, 10% of this population is marked as International or Other/Unknown, the other 90% is marked as Native American, African, Hispanic, or White. This means that around 2500 undergraduates are Middle Eastern or other nationalities, so I would hardly say that Mr. Tabatabainejad is the only Middle Eastern student to hang out in Powell, he was not singled-out because of his apparent nationality.
If indeed Mr. Tabatabainejad was profiled due to his race, let me throw out another statistic: According to the National Counterterrorism Center's 2005 terrorism report (http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/nctc2005.pdf), over 11,000 attacks occured resulting in 14,500 deaths and that "Muslims bore a substantial burden" of those attacks, 40,000 people beign killed or wounded due to Muslim terrorism. Those of you that argue that what I have stated just now is pejorative can take a hike, it's merely a statistic. Now, we cannot discount the psychological effect these attacks have on Americans, their own protective mechanisms tell them that a Muslim is more-likely to commit a terrorist act than a non-Muslim, this is NOT racism: let me explain.
Racism, and there are many forms of it, according to Robert Blauner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Blauner) racism is a tendency for people to categorize different cultures by physical attributes such as skin color, hair color and texture, eye shape and facial structure, and the dislike or distrust of that race simply based on the fact that they are 'of' that race. In the case of an individual, especially an American, profiling a Middle Eastern person, is considered 'discrimination' which is the behavioral manifestations of 'prejudice,' in this case 'utilitarian' prejudice. (from Lustig & Koester, "Intercultural Competence" Ch. 6) An American may believe that a Muslim is more-likely to be a terrorist based on the fact that the majority of violent terrorists are Muslims. But facts do not always reveal truth.
Mr. Tabatabainejad is a senior at UCLA, so is fully aware of the plurality of the campus' ethnicities. He should also be fully aware that on the back of his BruinCard (his identification) it states "BruinCard is the property of UCLA..." So when a UCLA official asks you for it, you give it to them without hesitation. Any of us would assume a defensive position if someone is hesitating to give their ID.
According to Democracy Now! (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/20/1448245), Mr. Tabatabainejad failed to show his ID...at 11:30 pm...so officers asked him to leave. What happened between the time this happened to the point where the now-infamous cell phone video begins is still uncertain, and is important for us not to jump to conclusions.
Word on campus is that Mr. Tabatabainejad was being verbally hostile toward someone before the incident occurred, it is not clear who, or if this rumor is even a fact. However, according to the transcript of an interview with Hussam Ayloush, the Executive Director of the Southern California Council on American Islamic Relations, it is understood that "...maybe Mostafa was a little bit obnoxious. Maybe he wasn't too compliant. We don't have the whole picture actually, but based on what we heard from news report, it seems yeah, maybe initially he was asked for an ID and he didn't show the ID." Interesting.
UCLA has, I think, acted in the best possible way, establishing their own investigation and paying for a third party investigation as well.
It seems strange to me that just because an officer asks you for your ID, the first thing out of your mouth is to claim racial profiling, and within days have a lawyer all ready with a Federal Civil Rights lawsuit in hand...
I'll tell you, as a UCLA student myself, I would rather the people protecting my campus and I be more tough than less tough, and if that includes overshooting on an incident like this in the interests of being better safe than sorry, so be it. Next time someone is asked for the ID, perhaps they'll be more apt to show it.
posted by Stephen M. Gold at
11:27:00 PM
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