A woman dressed in traditional Muslim garb comes to the counter of a roadside bakery to pay for her purchase, and the man at the cash register snaps, ""Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from. You got that towel on your head. I don't know what's underneath your dress. Just please take your business and go elsewhere with it."
"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," the woman says, and looks around for help from the other customers.
No one meets her eyes. She approaches a customer directly, saying, "Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here."
The man moves away without answering.
Later, interviewed by ABC News about the incident, the man says, "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," to which the ABC commentator responds in his narration:
Oh, yeah, right--forgot to tell you. Both the Muslim woman and the prejudiced sales clerk are actors following a script.
It's a script designed to make average Americans look like either heartless bigots or cowards unwilling to take a stand for the rights of unpopular minorities.
The logic here is so flawed, and the premise so Orwellian that I'm at a loss for words.
OK, not really.
This is not Ashton Kutcher punking somebody, this is a major (Disney-owned) TV network filming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not because Americans are insensitive to Muslims, but because the average person standing in line at a bakery is not looking for, is not prepared for, a major social confrontation.
If I took the time to intervene in every incident of rudeness I encounter every day, not only would I never get anything done, I'd finally make it home at night with a black eye and some broken bones....
What ABC News has not done is establish the credibility of its basic script. Instead of asking what you would do if somebody started calling Muslims ragheads in public places, why not address the question of whether or not this behavior actually happens on any regular basis.
Which is a subject, strangely enough, that the mainstream media has been silent on.
Thanks to Atlas Shrugged for that notice.
"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," the woman says, and looks around for help from the other customers.
No one meets her eyes. She approaches a customer directly, saying, "Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here."
The man moves away without answering.
Later, interviewed by ABC News about the incident, the man says, "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," to which the ABC commentator responds in his narration:
In fact, it is illegal for public establishments to deny service based on someone's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Regardless, this man was not the only customer to defend our sales clerk's "right" to discriminate.
Oh, yeah, right--forgot to tell you. Both the Muslim woman and the prejudiced sales clerk are actors following a script.
It's a script designed to make average Americans look like either heartless bigots or cowards unwilling to take a stand for the rights of unpopular minorities.
The logic here is so flawed, and the premise so Orwellian that I'm at a loss for words.
OK, not really.
This is not Ashton Kutcher punking somebody, this is a major (Disney-owned) TV network filming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Not because Americans are insensitive to Muslims, but because the average person standing in line at a bakery is not looking for, is not prepared for, a major social confrontation.
If I took the time to intervene in every incident of rudeness I encounter every day, not only would I never get anything done, I'd finally make it home at night with a black eye and some broken bones....
What ABC News has not done is establish the credibility of its basic script. Instead of asking what you would do if somebody started calling Muslims ragheads in public places, why not address the question of whether or not this behavior actually happens on any regular basis.
Which is a subject, strangely enough, that the mainstream media has been silent on.
Thanks to Atlas Shrugged for that notice.
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