We are now sadly familiar with incidents where white people tell others that they do not belong in the US and should leave. But that sense of arrogant entitlement seems to be contagious and I recently came across two incidents of immigrants attacking other immigrants and telling them they don’t belong here. Here is the first case.
Another day, another racist incident from somewhere in America caught on tape. This time it is a incredibly offensive gesture and commentary from a female driver in Fremont, California.
In the video, the woman starts pulling her eyes back and saying “This is not your fucking country” and “This is my country, this is not a Chinese. Oh my god, Chinese ugly.”
The other driver, James Ahn, is a Korean-American member of the Air Force Reserve. He posted the video on Facebook and reported that he was driving the speed limit, a reasonable 35 MPH. Apparently the other driver felt that she was entitled to go faster, though, and decided to show her displeasure at his decision to follow the law by launching a racist assault on him.
The woman was (of course) later identified by Twitter users from the video as Suraya E Entezam, apparently from Iran. So, a woman from a country currently demonized in the US is telling a Korean-American that he does not belong here.
The second video was of an Asian man going on a rant against a Hispanic woman, again saying that she does not belong here and that she should ‘go back to your country’.
I have long been disabused of the quaint notion that people who have been discriminated against because of their identity would not discriminate against others because of their identity. But it seems like some people enjoy kicking down even as others kick down on them.
Acting racist in a country full of racists is how you blend in.
I wish reporters didn’t use the word ‘assault’ for verbal tirades.
Did you hear about Ving Rhames, watching sports ball on TV? Apparently he’d gone out to the store -- one source said he’d done some yard work on his own house (a millionaire who does his own yard work is nice), then drove to the store to pick up some beer, but I don’t particularly trust the source b/c it was a facebook post (tweeted to me, I don’t have FB). Upon coming home, he used his keys to open his door while wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt, which led some white woman across the street with a view of Rhames’ house to call 911.
The cops showed up with guns out. Despite being just an awesomely cool movie star for decades and the 2nd most memorable character (and 2nd most highly paid actor) in the Mission Impossible franchise, NONE of the cops recognized him. He was getting seriously hassled until the captain on duty entered the house (they take home invasion seriously). Turns out the captain on duty didn’t recognize Rhames as a movie star, but their sons had played some kind of sportsball against each other as they went to neighboring high schools and the two parents had somehow met at one or more games (details are slight). It didn’t seem like they actually knew each other well, but the captain’s opinion of the other-team-dad must have been good and friendly, because things deescalated quickly after that.
Once it was all straightened out, the captain and Rhames crossed the street to talk to the person who called 911. Despite the records -- including her voice on a digital recording -- she denied it and wouldn’t talk to them and closed the door. Rhames wanted her (and probably the cops) to appreciate that if it had been his son and he’d been holding a video game controller that looked a little too much like a gun, having cops show up at the door with their firearms drawn and aimed could have ended way too fucking badly way too quickly to stop.
I can’t remember where I first read about it, but it was recent, and Wonkette, I think, had an article on it.
Anyway, yeah. If you do your yard work in shorts and a t-shirt b/c you live somewhere hot (Rhames lives in California), apparently letting yourself in the front door of your own house with your keys is suspicious.
If you’re black, I mean.