Friday, October 16, 2009

Hatred

There was an article in a local newspaper about our Fulbright professor Reham Othman who teaches Arabic at our department. The article is very good and informative and you can see it here. What was truly shocking to me, though, is that the very first comment that appeared on the article was incredibly hateful: "Unfortuantely I cannot attend but I would really appreciate if someone would ask why they behead "infidels", shoot women in the back of the head for "crimes against Islam" (including being seen in public with a man not related to her), behead any woman in the royal families who have relations with a commoner and take control of a child from the woman at around age two to instill hatred in them against the west. Maybe THEY should come to classes on AMERICAN culture?" The comment is signed "Bill Jamison."

Apparently, this is not the only class that Bill hasn't been able to attend, since spelling the word "unfortunately" and constructing a grammatically correct sentence in his first and obviously only language has proven to be completely beyond his meagre intellectual capacities. What is sad about this comment is that a mere mention of a class in Arabic being offered to college students has provoked so much rage from this individual. It is depressing that often this is precisely the side of American culture that the rest of the world gets to see. Shame on you, Bill Jamison, for being a racist fool.

31 comments:

KT said...

Thank you, Clarissa!

Anonymous said...

I didn't believe that this comment was actually posted. So I went and checked and yes it was. This is so horrible that I have no words. I can't believe anybody could be so hateful and racist!!!

Anonymous said...

Kola Tubosun, I've been wondering where does the picture in your avatar come from.

KT said...

It's a picture of the workshop shed in my Ibadan house backyard, taken on one summer day in 2008.

Anonymous said...

You are from Nigeria, then?

Clarissa said...

Kola is a colleague of mine and he also has a great blog:

http://www.ktravula.com/

KT said...

Yep, all the two metres of me.

Clarissa said...

It's so nice to see somebody use metres and Centigrade instead of feet and Fahrenheit. I would never know whether it's cold or not outside, if you didn't so kindly provide the Centigrade temperature on your blog, Kola. :-)

KT said...

:)
Actually, I am used to writing my height in feet, and only occasionally in metres. I am just getting used to the Fahrenheit system.
I put the temperature on the blog so that those at home can know how cold I am. :) But I'm glad you find it useful as well as I also sometime do when I want to know how cold/hot it is.

KT said...

@Anonymous.
Where are you from?

Anonymous said...

Quebec, Canada. :-)

Clarissa said...

Oh, how great, somebody from my lovely province here!!!

It's great how this topic is bringing all of us together. :-)

Natalee said...

Hello to my fellow Canadians from Toronto. :-)

KT said...

So I ask, why do we get such hateful, ignorant comments from student of this prestigious University? I don't understand it. The last time a story on Maya Angelou was posted on the Alestle, there were some ignorant, hateful responses as well.
These days, it's the first thing I look for after ANY youtube video.
There is always somebody spewing shit out of their mouth. But we can forgive YouTube - it's everyone's forum. One would expect something different from a University environment. What am I missing?

Clarissa said...

This is the most conservativve part of the state, Kola. I have a student who is white and married to a black man. So her family disowned her for that. Can you believe this? She cries every time she talks about it.

Thank god I didn't see the horrible comments on Maya Angelou. That would have made me too angry.

RBKING said...

It's our job to educate our students to be more tolerant, open-minded and open to other cultures, languages, races, and experiences. Otherwise, this crap will continue.

KT said...

That explains it then.

The Maya news is here:
http://media.www.alestlelive.com/media/storage/paper351/news/2009/09/03/Ae/Iconic.Writer.Returns.To.Siue-3761828.shtml

KT said...

@Natalee and Anonymous: How's the Canadian landscape today? ;)

Clarissa said...

Canada is beautiful. My family is in Montreal and it's the best city in North America. It's so beautiful and so much fun, especially in summer. :-) I miss it so much...

Anonymous said...

The landscape is good but gee it's so cold ALREADY!

KT said...

Sounds nice!
I've never been there before, but I'd like to see it someday.

Clarissa said...

Montreal has a jazz festival, a comedy festival, an international film festival, and fireworks festival in summer. And most of the events are free.

KT said...

I've now found out that it's the same "Bill Jamison" who's spewing hate on Maya Angelou as well.

Natalee said...

I just read the comments on Maya Angelou. It's so weird that instead of being happy and proud that such important cultural events are taking place in one's community, this guy would be spewing hatred and feeling so enraged by her visit.

KT said...

It sounds like Canada is a place to be then?
Not that I have any problem whatsoever with where I am at the moment. I just love to see new places when I can. I'm sure it'd be fun.

Clarissa said...

While I lived in Montreal, I was sure that racism was almost non-existent any more in North America. And then I moved to New Haven, CT, where racism is rampant.

In this sense, Canada is a lot more progressive.

Also, university education is extremely cheap in Quebbec and medical care is free for everybody.

But the taxes are extremely high. So everything has its price, I guess.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that the bars are open until 3 a.m. :-)

Clarissa said...

Believe me, my friend, that's one thing I will never forget! :-) :-)

Anonymous said...

Ohmigod, I just noticed "the second love of your life" there on the right. This is hilarious!!! I hope "the first love of your life" wasn't upset by that!

Clarissa said...

It's ok, he's known this for a while now. :-) And he has a sense of humor too. :-)

Anonymous said...

Your Amazon search box is now showing books on and by "Bill Jamison." :-)

I'd have thought it would react to Maya Angelou instead.