All that is necessary for the triumph of evil

[andrewducker]

A female actor dressed as a muslim is refused service by an actor playing the role of a shopkeeper. Various members of the public react (or not):

Via Scalzi.

Comments

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

When those girls started crying I teared up too.

[andrewducker]

Me too!

[recycled-sales.livejournal.com]

It's a brilliant video, and certainly made me think if I was in the same position would I have the guts to stand up and say something.

[ms-tek.livejournal.com]

I noticed the vast majority of the people in this video had Southern accents.

Is one area in the South representative of the US? I heard Texas mentioned... Texas isn't even representative of the South (just as I wouldn't say Southern Louisiana is either). A lot of Texans want Texas to still be its own country.

I think this is a terrible, one place representation... the testing pool was bad. Do Muslims have issues? Yes they do. Are they likely to be attacked on the streets of Chicago? Indianapolis? LA? NYC? How about Atlanta? But if you pull up some town in Texas or Mississippi or Tennessee, then yeah... because they are still 75 years behind the rest of the country. They are not, however, the country.

[girl-onthego.livejournal.com]

A muslim cab driver was stabbed this week when a passenger asked him if he was muslim. In NYC.

The ground zero mosque stuff has this issue back in the media, and it certainly needs the spotlight.

[ms-tek.livejournal.com]

And I got arrested and nearly thrown in jail in Louisiana for being the wrong color.

Never happens to me in Chicago... Or NYC, or anywhere else for that matter. Cops usually like me.

So what?

Sorry, again, one Texas town does not a country make. My point is that the media is making broad generalizations again without any science behind it. I didn't say there were issues, I'm saying that you have to be more careful in what your base test is before making "good" television. It happens far too often.

If I were to walk into a gas station where I am located right now, I tell you, you'd hear and see some stuff that would make you stop in your tracks.. about blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Muslims... basically if you aren't white, you aren't American. Is this a good case study for how the rest of the US acts?

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

It is what it is. It might not happen the same way in Iowa or California or Maine but there is a certain homogeneity of approach across the Bible belt. If it can happen in Texas it can happen anywhere.

I think that its unfair to compare behavior in Chicago and NYC to the tiny town of West, TX. That's not an apples to apples comparison. West (where the program was filmed) is a tiny town off of I-35 between Dallas and Austin not a bustling super-metropolis.

If had been gay men, lesbians, or a panhandler the treatment could probably be similar- no matter how white they were. This type of behavior has more to do with "different" and this is just the Ugly American version of it.

I guess I should also note that I'm not condoning what happened here in any way, just saying that I'm not surprised in the least by it. I moved to Texas from south Louisiana and the "God, guts, and guns" mentality is much more pervasive here.

[sttatus-quo.livejournal.com]

This brings the reality home so completely. That 22 did nothing...

It makes me realize just how easy not getting involved is. This is a timely reminder- thank you.

[ajr.livejournal.com]

Via Scalzi.

Ah. Via Mary Robinette Kowal, actually, guest-blogging at Scalzi's site, while the man himself has a bit of a break.

[andrewducker]

Good point, well made :->

[girl-onthego.livejournal.com]

Well, wait a second here. If it's going on in NYC, and it's going on Lousiana, and it's going on in Texas...it's not exactly just one isolated situation, then, is it?