If Dateline is looking to film interesting reactions to Muslims in public places in America, they can just go to where I used to work.

My boss there was Muslim. Pakistani, too. She was pretty darn Westernized, though, as she’d been raised here almost her whole life. But it was still enough to set the locals into quite the tizzy.

Despite the fact that we all wear nametags, customers would ask her name constantly. And then they’d make her repeat it. And then repeat it again. And then ask her what kind of name it was. And then mispronounce it – after having made her say it three or four times.

And what was this horrible tongue twister name with which she was cursed?

Alia.

Not that there was any racism or Islamophobia going on there or anything…

I think it would make for a good experiment, if they leave the whole ignorant redneck equation alone. Of course, if that’s what they really want they should come to my little corner of the boondocks and check out the local Wahl-Maht. They’d have their proof for sure then.

Fair point.

One thing that is interesting, though, is when I got out of college, I got a job working as an office bitch in a law firm. And we had an incredibly diverse workforce there- a Haitian guy, a Somali, a Sudanese, two Bosnians, a Puerto Rican and a guy from Sierra Leone. And half the fun of working there was that we could all make fun of each others’ ethnicity (I remember walking into work and hearing my Somali friend yell out “WHITEY’S IN THE HOUSE!” I’d respond by calling him “Saddam.”)

So it’s weird- one of the advantages of having a multiethnic office is that you can get away with being racist bastards as long as one person isn’t being exclusively picked on.

I think it would make for a good experiment, if they leave the whole ignorant redneck equation alone.

Yeah. I mean, it’s certainly a real story. And you can’t really see if Muslims don’t experience discrimination if you don’t, you know, film them in public places…

(First comment there was addressed to Jillian) 🙂

OK, I gotta really get some damn work done now. Be back tonight, chil’ens.

And we had an incredibly diverse workforce there- a Haitian guy, a Somali, a Sudanese, two Bosnians, a Puerto Rican and a guy from Sierra Leone. And half the fun of working there was that we could all make fun of each others’ ethnicity (I remember walking into work and hearing my Somali friend yell out “WHITEY’S IN THE HOUSE!” I’d respond by calling him “Saddam.”)

Yeah, me too. It was a print shop, and my boss was central-African. And it was like, hold on a sec: Contrary to what many white kids are carefully taught in high school, black people don’t collapse on a fainting couch if you ever mention the secret of their blackness. They, like, know about it already. For one thing.

[…]

“I got a job working as an office bitch in a law firm.”

Just curious, a bunch of us are sitting around inside our law office wondering which one of us qualifies as the “office bitch.” My vote goes toward the bagel/runner dude (we don’t screw with the secretaries-they own us). An associate votes for the IT guy. A secretary says it’s the new attorney. And, the new attorney says it’s the paralegal. In any event, the paralegal is out sick so one of us has to step-up and be the OB. The question is, what standard is used to determine who qualifies as a OB?

Seems a bit silly to bring a camera crew along. Wouldn’t a hidden camera do a better job of capturing a genuine reaction?

The wingers are all for waving child porn in people’s faces to see if someone would bite- creating the crime for entertainment, but you know taking pictures of some Nascar guys- that’s just wrong.

I wonder if they’ll be at the All-star Race in May. Hmmmm… if they’re there, and I see them, I’m going to have some kind of wild reaction so I can get on TV.

The spittle monkeys at PoliPundit really spilt a bibful over this yesterday. For example:

NBC hates us, that’s the brutal truth. They hate our living guts.

They want to do to the Republican party and Conservative Americans what the Bismarck did to the HMS. Hood, that is, blow it entirely out of the water.

They want to make us go on Fear Factor and eat worm intestines!

As someone pointed out, there’s not much difference between this as that Tyra Banks stunt where she punk on a fat suit and went out amongst “ordinary Americans”.

Eek! TBogg is after Marie Jon’! Loose the cats!

Or more elegantly:

The spittle monkeys at PoliPundit really spilt a bibful over this yesterday. For example:

NBC hates us, that’s the brutal truth. They hate our living guts.

They want to do to the Republican party and Conservative Americans what the Bismarck did to the HMS. Hood, that is, blow it entirely out of the water.

They want to make us go on Fear Factor and eat worm intestines!

As someone pointed out, there’s not much difference between this and that Tyra Banks stunt where she put on a fat suit and went out amongst “ordinary Americans” to eavesdrop on their reaction. Didn’t see much in the “blogosphere” about Fox mocking decent, godfearing fat-o-phobes.

Newsflash to conservatives: you do not own Nascar. You are not being ‘targeted’. Shutup.

Hey, Bwad….can I have some ice cweam while you’re gone? I won’t get it on the kitty this time. Ooh, lookie…matches!

Be back tonight, chil’ens.

Racist!

How are you “provoking” people by having a bunch of Muslims sitting at a NASCAR rally?

In fairness, the spokesperson actually said “The obvious intent by NBC was to *evoke* reaction” which does have a different connotation and is in fact what the piece was designed to do.

Ugh, did I just defend NASCAR?

The question is, what standard is used to determine who qualifies as a OB?

In a law office, it’s clearly the records staff (of which I was one once. OMG did the secretaries dump heaping piles of, well, poo on me.)

I think there’s a few questions. The first is whether they wanted their Muslim friends to do anything to get a reaction. If they did, that’s sleazy, if not quite the horror that the frothosphere makes it out to be.

Then there’s the cultural angle. Why select NASCAR? If it’s sort of cultural stereotyping — “let’s just go to NASCAR, there will be lots of bigots there. Bigots like NASCAR,” then it’s sort of embarassing and plays into the elite-liberal-media meme. (The meme isn’t entirely incredible — I don’t think that the media is liberal the way the frothosphere whines, but it can certainly be disconnected).

Finally, given that this is Dateline NBS, I hope said Muslims checked to make sure Connie Chung has not rigged them to explode.

In fairness, the spokesperson actually said “The obvious intent by NBC was to *evoke* reaction” which does have a different connotation and is in fact what the piece was designed to do.

OK, but even so, I don’t think merely seeing Muslims at a NASCAR rally would evoke a negative reaction from people unless they’re already bigots. Again, if this piece is a quick hit-job against Southerners or NASCAR fans or whatever, I’ll be the first to condemn it. But at this moment, we don’t know how it’s going to turn out.

Would the Muslims be NASCAR fans?? Hats, jackets, whatever else those people wear/do/know useless information about?? If not, then it’s not really a valid study because they wouldn’t necessarily be outsiders because they are Muslim but because they aren’t NASCAR fans. I’m sure a bunch of lawyers in three piece suits of any color would be stared at and most probably mocked by NASCAR fans.

“Again, if this piece is a quick hit-job against Southerners or NASCAR fans or whatever, I’ll be the first to condemn it.”

Why?

PS: Has it occured to anyone that NBC had to do this in part because it is near impossible to find non-white NASCAR attendees?

Yeah, yeah, I know: RACIST!!!!1!1@eleventy-one!1!

Okay, flipness aside, the real point is this: you’re being far too accommodating to the wingnut mentality. I mean, this construction:

Now, as long as they aren’t simply targeting NASCAR tracks to do a cheap hit-and-run story on “all them white ignorant yokels,”

I’m sorry, Brad. NBC, corporatist? Compromised? Lazy? Yes. Punk’d-meets-Ali G. they are not. Do you really think even for a split second that NBC is going to buy tickets to NASCAR for a Muslim (Arab?) family and send them in to roll out prayer mats and get the wife ullulating? Come on.

Couching your post in conciliatory qualifications is beneath you.

Still tender after the Ann-lashing?

Maybe NBC has a hidden agenda. Instead of recording how NASCAR folk respond to Muslims, they want to study Muslims in the midst of the NASCAR population. I think it would be incredibly entertaining. Reality TV at its best. What will they order at the food stand? Which team will they root for? Just curious.

Speaking as a liberal white elitist, where else but to a NASCAR event am I going to go if I want to be surrounded by “white ignorant yokels”? The art museum? The library? I’m sure it’s not everyone, but c’mon, you have to admit, the WIY ratio has got to be pretty high at any type of “cool car go real fast, brmm brmm!” event.

I can’t possibly get interested in an issue that relates to American society’s baffling contradictions about elitism and class.

The most class-stratified society among Western nations that sees itself as class-free?

I mean, look at what we have here. An inarguably trivial passtime (stock car racing) has become a sub-culture, the participation in which becomes a determiner of a whole slew of ethnic, cultural and poltical characteristics.

I can’t even begin to describe what I find so weird about that.

PS: Has it occured to anyone that NBC had to do this in part because it is near impossible to find non-white NASCAR attendees?

You know this from all the races you’ve been to?

I’ve always seena lot of people of different races at the tracks.

What will they order at the food stand? Which team will they root for?

1)Turkey Legs. 2) Stanton Barrett. Muslims love Stanton Barrett.

Do you really think even for a split second that NBC is going to buy tickets to NASCAR for a Muslim (Arab?) family and send them in to roll out prayer mats and get the wife ullulating?

Now that might actually make for some good TV.

There was once a time, many years ago, when Michael Moore brough a mariachi band to a neo-nazi rally. He also brought an interracial cheerleading squad out in front of the big Christian Identity compound in Idaho and had them handing out pink heart shaped balloons and cheering “Two, four, six, eight, learn to love and not to hate!” in their best Prozac-overdosed cheerleader happy pep fashion.

In an odd way, it made for riveting TV. It was simultaneously funny and terrifying, because you knew the potential for genuine violence was there, and yet the show was filled with choice comedic moments like the “pro-life” activist who jumped up and down on a bed of freshly planted flowers, viciously murdering them, whilst wailing at the top of his lungs about how he was pro-life.

I say NBC should go for it – might help the ratings.

“I’ve always seena lot of people of different races at the tracks.”

Got me there, THYCWOTI. That’s some nice anecdotal evidence.

I’ve watched them, and I concede that perhaps the camera operators lie. Perhaps those showing the events on television focus on and emphasize all the white folks at the event to the exclusion of the huge numbers of Asians, Latinos, Arabs and black folks in the stands. Kinda like the opposite of the Republican National Convention, where the camera will focus on Alan Keyes’s face to the exclusion of the sea of pasty white people with whom he is surrounded.

And maybe all those tiny confederate flags in the parking lot are just nods to history and a completely non-race-related cultural heritage.

The NASCAR people are just nervous that something might happen, given that they know their fan-base demographics. I think that NASCAR wants to embrace diversity; like other capitalists, they know it makes good business sense to increase one’s market share, and better sense to do it slowly without completely alienating existing fans. One race this year in the NEXTEL Cup series (the premiere level of stock car racing, where most of the name-recognition lies, like Dale Earnhardt & Richard Petty) featured a black driver — not a surge forward, I agree — and a new generation of drivers is thinning the ranks of the Dukes of Hazzard ‘shine-runners. Dale Jr actually advised his people to watch Fahrenheit 911.
Personally, I think ugly confrontations would be more likely at a Monster Truck Rally (stentorian voice: SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! AT THE GEORGE WALLACE MEMORIAL ARMORY AND LIVESTOCK HALL…). And I think that ugly scenes, though maybe less violent ones, would also take place at exclusive country clubs if NBC planted Muslims on the wrong side of the serving trays.
Disclaimer: I am not interested in the “sport” except to be somewhat conversant in it with my wife, who is very much a fan (and is also educated and open-minded).

Point taken, Neil.

teh, it’s just the sweeping generalizations about NASCAR that get to me. Sure, there are people with Confederate Flags in the parking lots, and sure there are a bunch of white racist rednecks. But that’s not everyone that watches and enjoys NASCAR.

Go to any sporting event where there are thousands of people, and there will be a lot of white racist rednecks there.

The Busch Series of NASCAR has added a race in Mexico City for the past 2 years.

And as far as the cameras go, whenever I watch a race, I hardly ever see them focus on the crowd at all. Usually, they’re showing those cars making left turns.

Seriously, go to a race, and look around at all the people you see there.

Make sure to tailgate for a while and drink a lot, and I’ll guarantee you’ll have fun.

“Go to any sporting event where there are thousands of people, and there will be a lot of white racist rednecks there.”

Implying… What, exactly? That you will find the same percentage of Good Ole Boys at a rugby match?

I’m siccing PP on you for that hideous, hideous breach of logic.

Okay, I didn’t clarify – any sporting event where there are thousands of people there, in the United States. As awesome as rugby is here, I don’t believe it draws thousands to the matches.

I meant the major US sports – Football (American – not soccer so much), Baseball, Hockey, Golf, Racing.

easy, y’all – watch the southern-bashing. there are lots of us who live below the mason-dixon line who fight the good fight, sometimes while watching NASCAR. two of the most revolutionary pieces of music of the past year have been “america first” by merle haggard and “in the news” by kris kristofferson.

it’s generalizations like these that let the republicans roll roughshod over us in the south. be careful about tarring people who like to blow off steam by watching people drive cars real fast with the “idiot redneck” brush.

“[T]wo of the most revolutionary pieces of music of the past year have been “america first” by merle haggard and “in the news” by kris kristofferson.”

Huh? I’m not familiar with either pieces. Why or what makes them revolutionary? Am I missing out?

My point on “percentage-wise” stands, except maybe for golf and hockey. And even then, though the stands may be predominantly white, they are not necessarily the whites who’ve been so blatantly courted by the Bushista right.

At any rate, am I saying all Southerners are racist? No. All Stars-&-Bars wavers? No. All NASCAR attendees? No.

But there is a reason the right was up in arms about the “NBC sends Muslims to the track” story, and it did not start with anything said by non-Southern, non-Stars-&-Bars waving, non-NASCAR attendees.

PS: Maybe we should get off the Southerners = NASCAR fans thing, ‘cuz that clearly hasn’t been true for a while…

I know a number of NASCAR fans. They are funny, happy, friendly people who would likely either not even notice that someone was not white (law offices are not the only diverse work places), or they would be interested in talking to Muslims to see what their opinion is on the drivers/cars/teams, etc.

Again, lovely anecdotal evidence, really. And I fully concede Neil‘s point (see above). Again, I still take issue with Yosef’s assertion that a NFL game is as much a draw as a NASCAR race is for folks who might not be too friendly to non-white non-Christians (my concession to Neil’s point notwithstanding).

Again, however: “there is a reason the right was up in arms about the ‘NBC sends Muslims to the track’ story, and it did not start with anything said by non-Southern, non-Stars-&-Bars waving, non-NASCAR attendees.”

Dateline NBC should apologize to NASCAR fans….

http://www.muslimsforamerica.us/fullstories/april2006_nascar_akir.html