Here's how the Indy introduces an article about the perils of being mistaken for a suicide bomber on the streets of London:
"Rajesh Thind faced harassment after growing facial hair to test social changes in the wake of the London bombings."
So what did the harassment amount to, according to his own account? Thind (who's not a Muslim) was stopped by two policemen while strolling "near Downing Street" (how near is not explained), and passengers on the Tube made a point of not sitting near him. That's it. I haven't yet seen his BBC3 documentary, Travels With My Beard, so maybe he has more details to reveal. But there's an irritatingly smug and disingenuous tone to the newspaper piece.
At a time when many of the second and third generations of Asian immigrants to this country are exploring their cultural and religious roots with a new- found confidence and curiosity, and a healthy lack of shame, being made to feel under suspicion is a dangerous, illiberal path...
Look at the photo in the paper, and you see that not only is he sporting a thick beard, but he's carrying a rucksack and wearing dark glasses.What on earth did he expect at a time like that? I don't have a beard, and I have a very light complexion, but just after 7/7 I felt slightly uneasy walking around with a carrier bag in Oxford Street. At Stansted Airport, in a rush to get to the car park, I even caught myself stopping running as I passed a queue of people in the terminal. I thought they were looking at me strangely. On reflection, they probably weren't. Yet if they had been, I can't honestly say I would have felt offended. Hurt, yes. But that's a different thing.
Huh, I wouldn't sit next to him. Baseball cap!
Posted by: dearieme | Saturday, February 04, 2006 at 04:19 AM
This reminds me: wasn't there a similar stunt in New York, possibly for the New York Times, when a black journalist deliberately acted aggressively towards white people in order to test their racism?
The whole idea seems to me to be built on a fallacy: that it doesn't root out underlying racism or islamo-yada yada - but instead proves that people respond with caution and also fear to a hostile stimulus - a scenario common to all life forms. Frankly, I hope he gets smacked in the mouth for his crappy, untimely stunt.
Posted by: oliver | Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 01:02 PM
That NY experiment sounds vaguely familiar. I hope Thind's programme gets a repeat soon.
Posted by: Clive D | Tuesday, February 07, 2006 at 03:59 PM