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The Many Faces of America
This is a continuation of my previous blog entry. As I said then, the contrast between the reactions of the individuals responding to the treatment of the Muslim woman by the store clerk was fascinating.The lack of response by the majority of the customers is not praiseworthy, but forgivable. The woman wasn’t in physical danger, and engaging strangers in a provocative situation can be dangerous, with the cost at least in the case at hand having the potential to vastly outweigh the benefit.
The customers who praised the clerk’s outlandish behavior were the most fascinating by far. Not for what they did, but for the way they reacted when the camera crew and reporter revealed the setup. While not backing down, they were clearly aware that their support of the clerk was socially unacceptable. They uttered a few terse words before making a quick exit. There was an unfathomable foreignness to them. They seem to love America, but certainly not for the reasons I love it. It’s as though they have some weird understanding of the Bill of Rights wherein it is somehow implicit that the freedoms it confers apply only to white, conservative Christians.
Fortunately they were outnumbered two to one by souls who bravely came to the woman’s defense. From the outraged man who gave the clerk a blistering dressing down, to the tearful father of a soldier fighting in Iraq only to have his values betrayed at home by the bigoted clerk, it was heartening to see their deep uncompromising pride in their values when they were interviewed afterwards.
It was a powerful lesson about America in microcosm. Protecting freedom from those who would pervert it is a never ending battle, and people from all walks of life are out there ready to enter the fray.
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