Has racism affected you?

[N.O.R.F]

Reading this here article has cast my mind back to the old days of being new to the UK and then later to when I was starting out in the construction industry. Can’t say I experienced anything near what Malik has, but I think it is inevitable for everyone to experience some form of racism especially in 1986, when there was hardly a Somali in sight!

 

I think experiencing racism (non violent forms thereof) is good for you and makes you a stronger person. What say you SOLers?

 

 

UK Muslim Minister Rides out Racism

 

IslamOnline.net & Newspapers

 

CAIRO — School beating, police assault and work taunts have marked Shahid Malik's path to his current prestigious post as Britain's first Muslim minister.

"You just accepted it, and looking back on it I don’t bear any grudges towards any of those people. The truth is that they were ignorant. And so really it wasn’t their fault, they were just children," Malik, the junior minister in the Department for International Development, told The Times newspaper in an interview published Saturday, August 11.

 

Malik said the racism he faced at his early life was one of the turning points "that formed the person that I am."

 

Malik described his native town of Burnley, in north-west England, as one of the poorest wards in the country and "probably the most racist environment anybody could ever be brought up in."

 

In Burnley, he attended a whites-dominated school. "That sometimes used to feel like thirty against one," he said.

 

He recalled racist assaults he came across in his childhood, which ranged from being beaten "pretty badly" by four skinheads in his first week at secondary school, to being stabbed in the leg with a chisel during woodwork after an argument about race.

 

In 2001, when race riots broke out across northern Britain, Malik was forced down on the ground by policemen in Burnley.

 

"I walked up to this officer and said to him, ‘Listen, everything’s going to be OK. I’m going to move this lot and there’ll be no trouble whatsoever’," Malik said.

 

"Within seconds he had lifted his shield and started to smash it in my face. And then the batons came out and I was knocked unconscious."

 

Malik said he was in a state of shock not because the police officer who abused him went with apparent impunity and is still in office.

 

"You can imagine, I was a commissioner on the Commission for Racial Equality, I was the only ever British commissioner to the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. I was on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) sitting with Tony Blair and others.

 

"And I’d been commended for my work in calming the situation for the last two days, and here I’d been knocked unconscious, my face was soaked in blood, I had cuts to my chest and arms," he said.

 

But he never generalized or stigmatized the entire security establishment for the work of few.

 

The day after he left hospital, during the unrest in 2001, he was out patrolling the streets with the police "to show that the police aren’t bad."

 

Malik was also the victim of a hit-and-run incident in a Burnley petrol station, his parent’s family car was firebombed and, while walking the street, he was surrounded by 20 members of the extreme-right group Combat 18, who said that they were going to kill him.

 

Commons Racism

 

Shahid was little known in Labour circles until he was elected to the Labour's NEC (the first non-white person to hold that position) at his first attempt in 2000.

 

His family tried in vain to dissuade him from racism-marred politics.

 

"They think it’s thankless. In the autumn of 2003, the family were just saying to me, ‘Listen, you’ve been through quite a lot, just stop it. You’re not going to get a (parliamentary) seat.’ And I just thought, ‘These people are mad. Of course I’m going to get there’."

 

His father's warnings proved true. Once Malik made it to the House of Commons as an MP for the West Yorkshire constituency of Dewsbury, he began encountering a new round racism.

 

He still vividly remembers one incident.

 

"We’re on the terrace, there was me and there were two female colleagues, white. And one of the security guys ignored both of them and came up to me and said, ‘Sir, have you got any ID?’ I think you learn through experience to just be very patient and just be very relaxed about these things . . ." he recalled.

 

But the thing that annoyed him the most, he said, is that after two years in Parliament he is still got confused along with his fellow Muslim Labour MP Sadiq Khan.

 

"Everybody has got our names wrong – the Speaker has got us confused, the Deputy Speaker has got us confused. MPs get us confused constantly."

 

After two years it was "a bit unforgivable," he said.

 

Malik rejected that his unpaid new post in cabinet was largely symbolic, noting that this role was more important to him than money.

 

It just proved that "the Government actually isn’t trying to be overly politically correct," he said.

 

He continued: "It’s an unpaid role, he happens to be Muslim, so what? Big deal. It shouldn’t send out any messages.” Later, he added suddenly: “Forget about being paid, I would pay to do this job."

 

But he is not sensitive about being handpicked by Prime Minister Gordon Brown because he is Muslim.

 

"I don’t mind if people say that I’m here because I’m a Muslim in the same way that women have had to endure [discrimination] for years," said.

 

Now Malik says he bears no grudges whatsoever towards those who abused and showered him with racist taunts.

 

And he is as patriotic as the British constitution itself.

 

"I always thought of myself as very much British, very much that this is my country," he said.

 

"I still say it’s the best country in the world to live."

source

[chubacka]

North, wen did you get bk? quick quest, you know Masjid Medina in Buroa, do they allow women in?

 

Anyway, these ppl suffered a lot subhallah and they can be so reasonable and understanding about it.

 

Personallay I dnt think any kind of racism is "good for you" (i'll jst have an apple plz)

 

But if hardship does happen to you and you get through it like these ppl, it really does add to your character.

 

Prob is ppl react differently, some ppl would never be able to get over what happened to them, it could really ruin their lives. An you dnt know how it will affect you until it happens.

 

I really dnt think its good for neone to go tru regardless of how it affects dem.

[Ariadne]

I think affects everyone that can be put into the "of colour" category.

However I have never experienced anything like he has, mine were small incidents and for the most part on a verbal scale.

[Malika]

I havent experience anything in that scale,but had been involved in dealing with cases like Malik's.I would never forget the look on the eyes of 15yr old african boy,after he was chased,and beaten up by a gang of 25 white boys after school..His eyes will haunt me forever,subhanaallah! He was beyond himself with fear,anger,disappointment,hurt and all I could do was comfort him..I could not do anything!!The police,came and all they did was take statements,but if the shoe was on the other side,there would have been arrests, any black boy would have been a suspect.

 

Honestly I dont have faith in any authority when it comes to dealing with racism.

 

I think as an adult, one learns to deal and avoid situations,but for the children it is a tough world out there.

[Chimera]

in 92' when we just arrived in Holland(from dubai) me and my brothers and sisters went to a whites only school because we were the only Somali/muslim/african family in the whole freaking town (i couldn't say black because there was another family from Suriname but they look like Indians(the dravidian type)

 

at the first they all thought we were indians aswell one teacher even complimenting my background in front of the class stating Somali people are very good looking or something like that ( i didn't understand dutch that well at the time most of it was gggg ja ja ggg of NIET), but after 6 months or so they started to dislike us for some reason because me and my brothers and sisters would always with every lunch break come together and stay and play with eachother instead of with the rest of the kids and reer Hollandiin didn't understand that, damn crooks tricked us one morning when we came in late, ~12 students started making up a b.s rule stating students that come in late have to go home and stay there for the rest of the day.....<--this is not even the part that schocks me 15 years later no not at all the thing that mindboggles me is how a grownup female teacher claimed the same dirty lie and then proceeded to actually enforce it upon us

 

we left that school eventually cause my brothers kept getting into fights with them Johnny bravo's

[rudy-Diiriye]

i face that everyday!! lool.. i even got a call from kkk! i laughed at the guy... i told him here is my damn address come and get me. U know he aint gonna show in south central la.. my grib.

 

these days, this white gal at next company to us keeps calling me homie...??? i told her, homie dont play that!