Pajiba

This kind of bullshit needs to stop. My alma mater is a sister college to one in Turkey, and as such, we have several exchange students every year. Its a pretty integrated college for one stuck so far back in the boonies, but when 9/11 happened, you wouldn't believe how many of those exchange students decided not to come back. And who could blame them? They were already at a squared disadvantage just by putting their toes in the big white punchbowl of Appalachia.

One of my friends was a Sikh, an awesome guy who'd lived in America all his life, who played guitar and loved video games and was just cool as hell to hang out with. Two days after 9/11, a bunch of our fat-head stupid football players decided they were going to beat the crap out of him because he -ahem - looked Muslim. Ten of those assholes came after him, cornered him, and threatened to beat his ass. Lucky for him, a bunch of his friends happened to be nearby and jumped bad on the football guys. (Just for the record, our football dudes were mostly all major douchebags, and half ended up expelled or are now in jail for beating people up). The football guys couldn't believe these other guys were taking sides with a Muslim over good old 'Mericuhns, and when the guys tried to explain that he wasn't even from the Middle East, they just didn't get it. He had dark skin and wore a turban, that was all they needed to know. They ended up stepping down, because they were punks willing to beat up a single guy for their so called principles, but not take on a whole bunch of guys.

By the way, nothing ever happened to those football guys over this, because they played football, and that's more important than making sure ALL the students get to come to class an learn without being physically threatened and/or assaulted.

He's hot?

I do find it weird that all the news reports keep mentioning that people confuse Sikhs for Muslims. As if it's impossible that the shooter might have been targeting Sikhs for being Sikhs. Because while I understand (as far as understanding goes) people beating up dark-skinned turban-wearing people that they randomly encounter on the streets, I find it harder to believe that someone who lives near a temple labeled "SIKH" didn't know the people inside were, well, Sikhs.

It's turning out the dude is actually an incredibly racist fuckhead, who, according to the NY Times: “This guy was in the thick of the white supremacist music scene and, in fact, played with some of the best known racist bands in the country”

What the hell is that?!

For the people not in favor of greater gun control, let me spell this out. I think handguns should be legal - up to 2 per person. I think assault weapons should not. And while it is true that making many kinds of guns illegal won't prevent criminals from acquiring them, it DOES mean that if you find someone with an illegal weapon you can a) seize the weapon b) prosecute the criminal. Possibly before he's decided to open fire on people living their daily lives.

The racist music scene is actually a thing? I swear, I thought that was a bad punchline to a stupid joke. Or bluegrass.

Do not google the band "Prussian Blue" if you value your sanity.

Never mind, I just looked them up and they're pot-smoking liberals now. Score one for humanity.

Huzzah! That kind of makes my day, thanks for the update.

It is all about misconception and promoting ignorance.

Still to this day in this country, every Arab sounding name is automatically labelled as Muslim, as @Phil Worthington puts it, half of this country confuses Barack HUSSEIN Obama (hello Jane Pitt) with a Muslim. This often reignites our fears following 9/11, and conveniently forgetting that the Arab world consists of not only Muslims, but followers of Judaism, as well as Christianity, with their many sub-cultural religious sects. Never mind the country with the most Muslims is Indonesia.

Our country with its imbecilic “Axes of Evil” only served to dumb us down into further cultural ignorance, and prosecute anything Arab sounding or looking.

Good thing Jane Pitt didn't use Willard Mitt Romney's full name as well, for the feeble minded would have believed in a British invasion!

Well, half of America seems to confuse Obama with a muslim too...

Succinct and to the point. Love.