The Ft. Hood Killings and a Fear of Loathing

The Nov. 5 killings at Ft. Hood have made me fearful. I fear for Muslims across the country who may suffer a backlash of intolerance as a result of the murders.

I am appalled as anyone by the massacre, and grieve for the dead and wounded. I can't imagine how terrible this must be for the victims' families, the sense of loss they must be suffering.

But even if Major Nidal Malik Hasan had not acted alone, even if it was the "worst terrorist act since 9-11," as Senator Joe Lieberman has stated, this is no reason to react with anger to Muslims in our community.

In church today a fellow told me he saw a customer in the local hardware store who was wearing a veil. Seeing her made him "so angry," he said, "especially after the incident at Ft. Hood."

We have to keep in mind that the actions of a few rogue individuals do not represent an entire religion or organization. To be angry at all Muslims because of the Ft. Hood incident would be the same as being angry with all Christians whenever an abortion clinic is bombed or an abortion doctor is killed by a religious extremist.

There are violent zealots and fanatics in many major religions, but they are out of the mainstream and tend to be unbalanced individuals acting alone or in concert with a few other misguided people. The vast majority of Muslims are peace-loving and kind-hearted, just like the vast majority of Christians, Jews, Hindus, etc., and the incident at Ft. Hood hasn’t changed that.

ShopRite Employee Calls Asian Customers "F_cking Gooks"

This morning I was shopping at ShopRite in Edison, New Jersey, when I heard an employee walk past me and say to a fellow worker: "F_cking gooks!"

ShopRite is a low-price grocery-store chain much like Ralph's in southern California or Jewel-Osco in Chicago. It has outlets throughout New Jersey, New York state, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

I heard the comment when I was standing next to the cheese island. The produce section was behind me, the seafood counter was to my left and directly in front of me were swinging doors that led to the back of the store. The employees were pushing a cart toward the swinging doors and had just passed me when the offender, a young white man, made the racist remark. It was obvious he was angry at a customer.

I assumed he was referring to a Chinese family behind me that was gathered around a stack of watermelons. The father was tapping the fruit, apparently teaching his young teenager daughter how to select the ripe ones.

It was unclear what had irritated the employee. Maybe the family's cart had blocked the way; maybe the employee had asked them a question and they didn't answer or didn't understand. I don't know, as the encounter occurred behind me.

Whatever the case may be, I am embarrassed to admit that my initial reaction to his racist slur was to do nothing. He could see me when he made the comment and probably assumed that because I was white I wouldn't care.

Unfortunately, I did just as he expected: nada. I didn't want to correct him. I was afraid, not of him, per se, but of confronting him. Confrontations can be prickly after all.

But as I wheeled my cart away I started thinking. "If I ignore what he said--I, a husband to an Asian woman and father to three half Asian children--then who will stop such racism from spreading? If I don't confront such racism, who will?"

I then became deeply ashamed. "What kind of a father and husband am I?" I thought. Here was a perfect opportunity to protect my family and make America a better place and yet I'm doing nothing. I was a coward.

So I turned my cart around and went back to the cheese island and peered through the windows of the swinging doors, looking for the employee. He wasn't inside, so I started walking around the store looking for him. The last thing I wanted to do was accuse the wrong person of racism.

And as I looked at each employee I noticed something I had always known, but never really paid attention to: the diversity of the ShopRite staff. Among the workers were Indians, African Americans, Hispanics and other races, as well as many whites, of course.

"How could someone be so blatantly racist in such a diverse work place?" I thought.

The makeup of the ShopRite workforce is reflective of the neighborhood: Edison, New Jersey, has residents of almost every color and creed. The latest wave of immigrants has been from India and they hold festivals every year celebrating their rich ethnic heritage. They've also had several highly publicized run-ins with the (mostly white) local police force.

I never found the racist-slur-spewing employee, so in the end I sought out the manager and told him what I had heard and where. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he was Korean American and took my complaint very seriously. He went directly to the back storage area and asked employees about the incident.

I am not writing this to impugn the good name of ShopRite (which is owned by Elizabeth, New Jersey-based Wakefern Food Corporation, one of the largest retailer-owned cooperatives in the country). The store manager's reaction makes it obvious Shoprite has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to racism.

The reason I'm blogging about this is to show that racism is alive and well in America today. There are some people (and I was one of them, when I was younger and less well-informed) who think racism is a thing of the past, and that minorities who complain about it are over-sensitive or imagining things.

My experience demonstrates that racism remains a current problem. I witnessed it today, at around 11 o'clock this morning, at a locale I frequent regularly.

The Korean American ShopRite manager told me that he came from a military family and that one of the most difficult transitions he made growing up was switching from a military (D.O.D.) school to a public one.

"All a kid wants to do is play with other kids," he told me, "whether they be black, white, Korean, whatever." The children he met in the New Jersey public schools were not kind, and that memory sticks with him to this day.

I hope my kids don't encounter such people when they start going to school, but if what I heard that ShopRite employee say today is any indication, it's likely they will--unless we do something about it.