Recently, the two hosts of a New Jersey FM radio station, Dennis Malloy and Judi Franco of 101.5,
mocked NJ’s Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, who is a Sikh, as “Turban Man” because he wears a turban as an expression of his religious beliefs.
Two articles subsequently appeared in the NJ Star-Ledger condemning the offensive comments. The first was published on 7/28/18 titled “Offensive comments hit at our core American values” by Satjeet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition (which at this writing is not available online). The second is by Afsheen A. Shamsi titled
Grewal is not alone. I'm a Muslim woman who has fought hate groups. Here's what you can do, published on 8/5/18. Here are excerpts:
Kaur writes:
The sentiment expressed by Malloy along with co-host Judi Franco, who coined “Turban Man” in a sing-song voice, goes against our fundamental belief that all people are equal and have the right to life, liberty and happiness. His offensive comments are not just an attack on Grewal, they are an affront to our core values as Americans.
This is especially important at a time when racism and xenophobia are becoming increasingly normalized. It has become clear that our society needs education to learn how to respect one another.
Whether it’s remarks by radio hosts with media-amplified voices or bigoted comments from elected officials about minority communities on the basis of race, sexual orientation, class or religion, we must speak up and hold one another accountable.
Shamsi writes:
As a civil rights advocate having worked for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, on the Princeton Civil Rights Commission and as an ACLU-NJ board member over the course of my life, I am well aware of the challenges that minorities, in particular the Sikh American and Muslim American communities have faced over time in the United States -- especially after 9/11.
Being on the front lines of advocating for the rights of the Muslim American community, I became the target of hate groups who sent me hate mail, left me threatening messages, and labeled me a terrorist.
And so in the face of recent racist commentary by NJ 101.5 FM radio hosts about Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal, I want him and all members of the Sikh American community to know that I admire them for their commitment to their faith and their silent courage.
My emphasis is added.
I sympathize with Satjeet Kaur and Afsheen A. Shamsi. People should not be mocked or treated disrespectfully for peacefully practicing their private religious beliefs, even though even offensive comments are expressions of free speech. And certainly no peaceful person should be subject to physical threats or intimidation, which should be subject to criminal prosecution. Freedom of conscience, religious or secular, is an unalienable right.
But I don’t think religious intolerance equates to racism. Race is not a matter of choice. Religion is. A person’s ideas, including religious ideas, are chosen and thus legitimately open to scrutiny and criticism. Granted, mocking a person for their attire is childish and ignorant, and the 101.5 hosts should be brushed off as such.
But mocking a person for their religious beliefs is not the same as racism. I get mocked regularly for my rejection of climate catastrophism and my belief that fossil fuels are a net benefit to man’s life: I get called a “denier”--an equation to Holocaust denial. But that is not the same as when, as a child, I witnessed my father being called a “Mafia gangster” simply because of his Italian descent. You can rationally defend your chosen beliefs from attack. How does one defend against attacks based on attributes for which one has no choice about?
Being called “turban man” is no different in principle to being called “climate” or “science denier.” Such smearing should be called out. But they do not sink to the level or evil of racism. They are not racist.
It also appears that Kaur doesn’t fully understand core American values. There is no “right to happiness,” only the right to the
pursuit of happiness. The distinction is no small matter. The Founding Fathers were precise about that for a very good reason: A “right to happiness” is incompatible with rights to life and liberty. A right to happiness implies someone must be forced to provide whatever any unhappy person requires to be happy. Since government’s function and justification for existing is to protect individual rights, a “right to happiness” implies that government must use its power to force some people to provide for others’ needs and wants, so they can be “happy”--effectively making slaves of those forced to provide, violating their rights to life and liberty. You can’t have it both ways. The rights to life and liberty means to be free from coercive interference in your liberty to live your life by your own judgement. It’s either the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or no rights at all.
I also want to challenge Kaur’s assertion that “racism and xenophobia are becoming increasingly normalized.” I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, I can tell you that racism is at the lowest ebb of my lifetime, and undoubtedly of all time. Where do you see it, except in the Ivory towers and politics of the collectivist Left? Not in everyday life. Whereas racist comments and attitudes were ubiquitous--normalized--when I was young, today they are met immediately with immediate condemnation, whether by public figures or privately. As to xenophobia, it is still more prevalent than I’d like to see. But even there, the globalization of cheap communication is eroding it. I don’t doubt that irrational prejudice against American Muslims—and, because of similar garb, Sikhs—spiked after 9/11. But that is, I believe, a counter-bump in the downtrend of racism and xenophobia in America.
Both Kaur and Shamsi called out Malloy and Franco for their childishly offensive comments, and got published in a major newspaper. New Jersey 101.5-FM radio without hesitation suspended the two hosts of "The Dennis & Judi Show" for their stupid comments. Good for them. Those facts prove my point. You didn’t see that 50 years ago, when Malloy’s and Franco’s comments would have barely made a social ripple. As Kaur encourages, “we must speak up and hold one another accountable.” Agreed. But there’s no need to paint a false bleak picture of racism and xenophobia in America.
Related Reading:
Falsely Smearing the Right as Anti-Immigrant
The Founding Fathers, Not ‘Diversity,’ is the Solution to ‘Our Racialized Society’
Starbucks/USA Today’s Racist “Race Together” Campaign
Collectivism Generates Irrational Hatred
"Learning Experience", or Anti-Americanism?
