The "Mosque" at "Ground Zero" and the Master's Tools

            While I realize that there is not much (ok, anything) on this that I can say that hasn’t already been said by people who are much more qualified to be commenting on such things, I thought that I would throw in my two cents just for funsies. Also, I'm writing this on a plane so I can’t really look specifics up at the moment, so if there are any facts I messed up horribly, please let me know and I'll fix it ASAP. So here we go.

            There are two main issues I have with this controversy. The first is the mass amount of misrepresentation going on about the issue. It’s not a mosque. It’s not at ground zero. It is a community center. It’s (I believe) 5 to 8 blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood in an old Burlington Coat Factory that has been shut down since the attacks caused damage to the building. It will be open to the public and have basketball courts and meeting spaces and a prayer room. Also, there already is a (real) mosque about the same distance from ground zero that has been there since before 2001 with no controversy. If it were actually a mosque, I still would not take issue with it, but so many people hear mosque = terrorist training ground and panic. This sort of knee jerk reaction, the grouping of and entire (huge) religion into one stereotype is damning in so many ways to all involved. Not only does this type of essentializing make the U.S. look extraordinarily racist, but also denies us the insight that people who are of the Islamic faith can provide us, and I don’t just mean on their religion, Middle Eastern relations, or the war in Afghanistan. In my absolute favorite piece of writing, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”, Audre Lorde says,

“And where the words of women are crying to be heard, we must each of us recognize our responsibility to seek those words out, to read them and share them and examine them in their pertinence to our lives. That we not hide behind the mockeries of separations that have been imposed upon us and which so often we accept as our own. For instance, ‘I can’t possibly teach Black women’s writing—their experience is so different from mine.’  Yet how many years have you spent teaching Plato and Shakespeare and Proust?  Or another, ‘She’s a white women, and what could she possibly have to say to me?’  Or, ‘She’s a lesbian, what would my husband say, or my chairman?’  Or again, ‘This woman writes of her sons and I have no children.’ And all the other endless ways in which we rob ourselves of ourselves and each other.” [Emphasis mine]

While this quote specifically is about women, it is absolutely just as applicable to this situation. By essentially telling Muslims that they do not have the right to practice their religion, to voice their beliefs in this country, we rob ourselves of any meaningful connection we potentially could have had. The moment we make the connection that Muslim = terrorist, we scope out anyone who could potentially be Muslim and deny them the opportunity to participate in a) our democracy and b) our lives. From my understanding, the people leading the Park51 project (Park51 being the real name of this so-called mosque) are doing this in part to show Americans, and specifically New Yorkers, that they will not allow the Al Qaeda extremists to speak for everyone, and that they want to improve relations between non-Muslims and Muslims. Instead, they have come under ridiculous amounts of attack for these peaceful attempts. They have to see protestors with posters declaring their hate for a “9/11 Victory Mosque,” hear that they are essentially shitting on the graves of those who died in the attacks, and listen to news reporters accusing them of destroying America’s moral fiber or something absurd like that. For a country that was supposedly founded on the basis of religious freedom and democracy, we sure do love (both now and historically) to try to prevent the practice of any religion that is not Protestant Christianity and silence the voices of those who are not wanted. This was a chance to show ourselves and the world that we're not a selfish, racist, little punk of a country, but we certainly blew the chance.

            The second main problem I have here is that this is not an isolated incident. People would like to think that the controversy surrounding this particular project is directly related to the proximity to ground zero, but in both Tennessee and California, places no where near any sort of recent terrorist activity, there is still a ton of controversy surrounding the building of mosques. Which really just makes me disgusted with how Americans see it fit to treat each other. Obviously I think that 9/11 was a terrible tragedy and certainly do not want to ever see something like that happen again, but it happened for a reason. Not in an “everything happens for a reason” kind of way, but it happened because there was a fundamental problem with the way the U.S. was acting abroad. I am NOT saying that the violence was at all justified, but if we are to avoid a future tragedy by people who have such intense hate for the nation, then we need to make it known that we don’t hate them. That we are willing to work with the non-extremists to create a positive relationship in the Middle East instead of what we’ve been doing. That we will not treat our citizens who happen to be Muslim any different from those who are Christian or Jewish or atheists or of any other faith. Instead, we’ve reacted to an attempt at that kind of relationship building with violence, disgust, and hatred. If we really and truly want to fix our relations with the Middle East we cannot keep acting like every Muslim is a terrorist (or even that every terrorist is Muslim). We just can’t keep doing the same old song and dance and expect different results. It’s a dangerous path we’re on, and seeing all of this controversy really makes me ask what direction this country is heading and not sure if I actually want to know the answer to that question.

            I hold the belief that if people see an injustice that doesn’t directly affect them they should speak up anyway. Whether I am able to apply this thinking to my own life as much as I would hope is a different story entirely (and something that I am working on), but I still believe that it is up to those who are not necessarily marginalized to stand up for those that aren’t because those that are pushed to the fringes of democracy are not given the voice they deserve. Slavery would have never ended if there were not white men and women who stood up for those enslaved. Women would have never gotten the right to vote if it weren’t for the men who assisted their campaigns and those in Congress who voted to pass the amendment. Audre Lorde says “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” but as much as I love Lorde, I have to disagree. Real change can never happen until those in power recognize their privilege and do something about it. That’s why I appreciate men who call themselves feminists so much (love you, AJ!). It’s why I think that straight people who support gay rights (particularly those who are very active in the movement) are such rock stars. And men who are pro-choice, and obviously those are just a few examples. Of course it has to start, and be led by, the oppressed and not the oppressor, but social change simply cannot happen with support from those who are not directly a part of the group that is demanding change for themselves. So that is why I am writing this post. And make my opinion known when discussing this issue. And educate myself on issues that are happening hundreds or many thousands of miles away. And blog. And just care in general. Because when it comes to issues that affect me in a similar way, I can only hope that there are people out there who would do the same for me.

On Native Exploitation

            Note: this is getting posted a few days after writing it as I am currently writing it from a condo in Hawaii that does not have wireless :(

            First, some context for this post: I am currently in Hawaii (Waikiki to be exact) with my mom, aunt, and grandparents. The main reason for us being here is because the USC football team is currently playing against University of Hawaii, and I’m just along for the ride, because I mean, am I honestly going to say no to a free trip to Hawaii? So there’s the main reason for this post. Also, in my women studies class fall quarter, we read a few articles on this topic that I am now reminded of. I wish I had them with me so that I could reread them before writing this, but oh well.

            But anyway, my point (or what little of one I have): the main, if not whole, appeal of Hawaii’s tourist industry is exploitation of native culture. I mean, yes, there is some fantastic scenery, and the weather is by no means anything to complain about, but vacation in Hawaii is drastically different than vacationing anywhere else in the United States. In Hawaii, you can “get away” and see the exotic, but not have to fear leaving the safe little bubble of the U.S. And once you get here, everything you see is based on consumption of native Hawaiian culture. It starts before you even get here. Hawaiian Airlines has all of their employees decked out in Hawaiian shirts and saying Aloha and Mahalo all over the place. It’s part of the appeal – an “authentic” Hawaii experience. Once here, there are little shops where you can buy Hawaiian shirts, and dresses, and necklaces, and stickers, and shot glasses, and lighters, and pens, and cups, and towels, and the list goes on and on and on.

            It begs the question: how much of this is the actual Hawaiian expression of culture, the way they want to portray themselves to the millions of tourists that come visit every year, and how much of it is them putting on a show, smiling and going along with the act because the economy of the state depends on those millions of tourists that come each year to attend Luaus and buy leis and watch people surf. Do the people who live here year round honestly want to spend their lives catering to the whims of people who come here on vacation, or do they do it because that’s just the role they’ve been pushed into because of the years of tourism that has come to define the state.

            What I wonder is if Hawaii had stayed independent from the United States would they still have this massive tourism industry that they have now, or would they just be a small island nation (or collection of nations?) that quietly minds their own business and does their own thing without foreign people constantly coming in and out.

            I just can’t help but feel, as I walk around and buy in to the appeal of Hawaii that I am contributing to the stifling of a culture that has been molded to fit the needs to those in power to the point where it is no longer an authentic culture, but rather a show for those who can afford to see it. I think that Hawaii is the most obvious example how the United States treats those that are native to it, since when people come to Hawaii they come to see that native culture, rather than when they are at home on the mainland, we mostly try to push Native American issues under the rug and try to ignore them as much as possible. Which is worse off – the culture that is used to entertain tourists, or the one that, for the most part, is ignored entirely.