I am reminded of one of the earliest episodes of the American-version of The Office, where Michael Scott see a Sikh IT guy in the parking lot of Dunder Mifflin, heading for the building, and immediately freaks out because...terrorists!
It was in a pencil case, wasn't it? If it were attached to a propane tank or a pressure cooker, this would make a lot more sense to confuse it with a bomb. (Propane tanks routinely explode. I saw that in movies.) Expel the kid. If it were an airport, detain that whole family. In an airport, it is not the appropriate place to bring your mystery electronics.
This Ahmed fellow isn't even a particularly intimidating kid, so you can't Michael Brown him. The boy is about 90 pounds soaking wet. He has no history of anti-Americanism or any apparent disciplinary problems. Respectfully, the bespeckled guy is clearly a nerd of some kind. He did not ask for trouble; trouble came to him. Because he was an Arab, so many Texans thought "bomb," not "science project."
Plus since it was Texas, any idiot could buy or steal a firearm, and kill considerably more people than a bomb. Texas has more guns and more murder than just about any other state in the union. There is no connection. It's a total mystery why Texas has so many murders and so many legal gunowners. Have we checked the water?
Those who are attempting to ignore the racism and deprive Muslims of appearing discriminated against, point out the numerous cases where kids have gotten in trouble for pointing objects at people as if they were guns and gotten suspended/expelled. However, pointing a chicken finger at someone and saying "bang," does constitute a death threat. However, nearly all the other cases involved students with a history of disciplinary problems. However, very few were cuffed--these cases were handled administratively. Ahmed literally did not encourage people to believe this was a bomb. This was not a bomb-effigy. People saw an Arab kid with a clock and assumed he was up to no good. This is Trayvon Martin standing on a street, not threatening anyone. Rather than blaming a hoodie, they're blaming the clock.
Some of you are trying to blame CAIR for this. Americans can't possibly be this stupid, so many conservatives feel. Rightwing Americans are really geniuses, and this was a scheme of the Muslims to make Americans look foolish. Well, if this were a CAIR test, Americans failed. Americans now look exactly as racist as Muslim extremists say we are. CAIR, for all its faults, is not responsible for your stupidity, no.
When shit like this happens, the terrorists have won. They did not turn anyone into a Muslim, but they showed the world how ass-backwards non-Muslims can be. Like the Iraq war, civilized Christian men are just not too smart. We start with a biased view, then we work backwards to prove our bias. This is the ultimate stupidity because it does not aspire for betterment.
Now conservatives are enraged that Obama is inviting the boy to the White House--never mind that Obama is now trying to smooth things over, which would benefit all of us. Americans are not racist, and we don't hate Muslims. (Yeah, we kinda are--and we kinda do--but that's not good politics.) So, shut up, conservatives. We can't ignore racism and hope it goes away. Racism would still there; we would just be ignoring it.
Bristol Palin tweeted a snarky joke regarding this incident and Obama's attempt to cover-up the damage done by the state of Texas. Bristol Palin. As if a poorly designed science project were the worst mistake a teen could make. (To clarify, Bristol Palin has two illegitimate children with two different men and she's under 25--talkin' about that.) If anything Ahmed was trying to do the right thing, and Bristol has probably done a lot of wrong things. Plus Bristol is too damn old to be fighting with high schoolers. Her time has come and gone.
