Hesitant Thoughts on White Privilege

Assalamu alaikum, I was initially going to do a voice post, because I was too lazy to write. Well, after doing about 5 (or was it 6?) or so rambling, what I deemed to be incoherent posts, I decided that I’d do a written post anyway. Anyway, my initial thesis was that while I’m a white person, and thus have experienced white privilege, whether I wanted it or not, whether I asked for it or not, that having white privilege can have a fluidity depending on the situation that you are in. Examples I gave were access to employment, education, and socioeconomic advancement that, had I been sighted, I’d have had more access to. However, a comment via Yusuf’s blog caused the figurative “ehhhh!” buzzer to go off in my head, and all of the arguments I was going to present, to further my point all seem hopelessly filled with the “white privilege” that I say I don’t have.

One statement/example that stuck out for me via the Resist Racism blog was: “14. I’m a person of color myself and …

variant a. I’m white, but I’m a member of a minority group and have faced discrimination …”

Oops, well, there went my whole argument. Although I’m trying to find the “privilege” in having the police called on me because I got lost, or being outright told that I wasn’t going to be hired for a job because I had a dog, or because I was blind, etc. So yes, I’m blind, and I’m white and a woman, etc., and I have been discriminated against, and while I by no means want to use that as an excuse to negate any white privilege I have, or to discount the fact that racism does indeed exist, well… It seems that perhaps I’m doing the very thing that I don’t want to do, i.e., the “white privilege” seems to be spewing forth from me in ways that I do not always realize. However, getting the idea that your discrimination/prejudice is worse than mine is a bit angering. And maybe as a white blind person I’m not allowed to say that. I suppose the next time a neighbor calls the police because I simply got lost, or the next time I’m denied access to an establishment because of my dog, or the next time a crime is committed against me (God forbid) and the perpetrator is found not guilty not because I didn’t know who he was or couldn’t identify him, but simply because I couldn’t identify him by sight, the “dominant” and “preferred” way of identifying your attacker (because that’s what he was in my case), I’ll be grateful because Gosh darn it, I’m white and I have white privilege, so I guess I should just get over myself already. Or… The next time airport security decides to select me for “special screening”, I’ll not mind the humiliation of having my person searched, wanded, patted down, etc. Not only because I’m a “Muslim” and doing so makes the non-Muslim among us feel safer, but, oh, yeah, I’m white, and if I wanted to, I could just rip off the hijab and other “Islamic” atire, and walk through the same airport tomorrow in a halter top, low rise jeans, and stoletto heels.

As a blind white Muslim, I just plain give up in trying to understand how I’m supposed to navigate the complex world of race, disability and religion, because no matter what I do or say, it’s always going to be viewed through the fact that I’m white, and thus everything else is seemingly minimized and seen as an attempt by me to gain some kinda street cred with POC, because “hey I’ve been discriminated just like you”, when that wasn’t even my intention, and I wouldn’t even try to say as much! Because the fact that I had to testify in a court of law to being sexually assaulted, or the fact that I had to give a detailed deposition regarding employment discrimination, or the fact that there are certain websites that are not accessible to me has nothing to do with race, and is a completely different type of discrimination altogether. Yes, I experience white privilege, and I’m sure I do so in ways I don’t realize. However, I don’t think other forms of discrimination should be passed off as nothing, though at the same time, I don’t think that they should be held up as ways that whites “understand” people of color. I’d not go so far as to say that. Because I’ll tell you right now that sighted people will never understand what it’s like to be blind. So as a white person, I can’t tell you what it’s like to be black, or anything else for that matter. All I can tell you is what it’s like to be a blind white Muslim who benefits from white privilege but doesn’t always understand how. And I’m struggling with that. This whole race thing is hard for me to understand, I’m white but I don’t know what that means, only what society tells me it means. I’m supposed to have some kinda privilege, I’m supposed to be on the upper echelons of my society but I don’t feel like it most of the time. Most of the time I feel less than, second best, not as good as. I’m made to feel that I have to work twice as hard, go twice as far, do twice as much. But oh, I’m white, so I’m supposed to have some kind of privilege. And maybe I do, it’s just hard for me to realize what or where that privilege lies.

Maybe it was the privilege of not being more prone to being labeled a trouble maker at school, or being “tracked” and thus deemed not college material, or not smart enough for “normal” classes. Maybe it was the assumption that I’d go to college, while other students were assumed to only be capable of doing vocational work. Maybe within the blindness community and the associated blindness field involved with the teaching/rehabilitation of the blind white privilege is alive and well and at work. However, when you get out into the wider society, that “privilege”, in my experience, goes away. Maybe if I knew what “whiteness” looked like, if I knew what white people looked like, could actually see with my own eyes how “white” is heled up as the standard for all things good, and for all things to aspire to, maybe then I’d finally get it. But for me, “color”, in any shape or form, is just an abstract concept to me, something that I think I understand, but can’t quite grasp, though I’m trying my best to understand.

As Safiya stated in her blog post, it’s a really thorny issue and perhaps I, while still having a knapsack to unpack, may just have a different bag to unpack than most other people. And I don’t care to share the contents of that knapsack with anyone, or to let them see what’s in it. I’m sure many have seen enough to formulate whatever opinions they have about me. And I’m not sure what else to say. There’s a lot more I could share but I’m already feeling vulnerable and on edge about this as it is. And this isn’t the type of struggle that I’d like to engage in online, in the open, for all to see. I will say that in addition to whatever white privilege I possess, I can tell you that I’m oversensitive, emotional, impatient, have self-esteem issues, sometimes have a lack of will power and self-discipline, have a penchant for self-pity that I will be honest with you and say that I’m currently struggling with as I’m writing this, sometimes take things too seriously, sometimes don’t have a sense of humor, and if Pepsi were an alcoholic beverage and chocolate were an intoxicating drug, I’d be in real trouble. What I’m trying to say is that darn it, I’ve got issues! And a lot of ‘em… And I’m working on it, really I am… I’m just not sure I wanna do it on a public blog, in front of everyone, for anyone to critique. And just to bring this back on topic, the fact that I have a hard time seeing how I benefit from white privilege probably goes more to show how I benefit from said privilege than anything else I could say or write. And no, I don’t want any pats on the back for being “the other”, as a matter of fact, I think I just wanna be left alone, to try to deal with these issues on my own. In fact, the idea crossed my mind to back out of this carnival, however, I’d already said I’d do it, so I didn’t want to back out now. But the thing is, everything I wanted to say, how I have always felt like “the other”, by virtue of being blind, and that I never felt a loss of privilege on becoming a Muslim because I never felt as though I had it to begin with, and in fact, being totally blind, seems to have lowered my status, because in my experience, having a disability is a defect, something to be corrected, something “bad”. And that no amount of white privilege is going to erase the stigma of being blind (something that a study I saw once stated that the majority of people feared worse than death, and that they’d rather die than to be blind). It all seems rather mute now, based on the reading I’ve been doing and the recent reactions by some to this line of thought.

I’m just not sure I agree with the implicit idea I’ve been seing that being white would just magicly wash any other issues away, such as say, accessibility, or disability discrimination, or access to jobs, etc. Oh if it were so easy and simple, however, I have found that dealing with multiple minority statuses, whether or not you “choose” them or not, is neither simple or easy.

I’m not sure if this made any sense, it probably didn’t. The thing is, I have a lot of thoughts flying around in my head, and as I said, I think this is one of many things best kept to myself. I just wish that I’d have realized this before agreeing to participate in the blog carnival. Because I don’t think I had anything to add, and upon re-reading Brooke’s post, I’m not sure that I was going in the direction she’d intended. So on that note, I’m going to leave things as they are. And try to deal with these issues offline/privately.

Guide Dogs Inspire Paula Abdul to Join Campaign

Assalamu alaikum, while this can’t obviously be a bad thing, and while my first reaction was “wow, that’s pretty cool”. My next reaction was kinda like “meh”. I have a strange, I’m not sure how to explain it, I guess you could say I get kinda prickly when celebreties decide to champion a cause. Perhaps I’m just being a party pooper, maybe it’s the latent bitterness at the “sighted world” rearing its ugly head, I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out myself as I am writing this.

I mean, are we educating people on the training and the use of dog guides, or is it just a “wow that’s really cool” kinda thing. Because unfortunately many people out there could use some educating. And if Paula Abdul somehow uses Amiercan Idol to do it, I think it could be a good thing. But if it’s somehow parading a foster puppy raiser in front of the TV or, worse for me anyway, parading a blind person and their dog in a “oh look how cool that is” kinda way, that’d be what I’d have a problem with. I guess my question would be, are we going to educate people or just make a spectacle out of them, and further infuse stereotypes of what the blind, and in this case, their guides can do?

Also, I’m wondering how much having a blind contestant on the show affected this decision? Again, not that that’s a bad thing, I’m just musing. And on that note, I’m off to get ready for work for the day. Just thought I’dpost this before running along.

On Blindisms: What Are They and Do I Display Them?

Assalamu alaikum, talk about being put in my place…

I was watching the “We Are One” concert on HBO, and Stevie Wonder and Shakira (who imho sounded awful) were performing the song Higher Ground together. I went to ask my husband if Stevie was displaying, what we in the blind community refer to as “blindisms”. These consist of things like rocking back and forth, taking our fingers and pushing on our eyes, and rapidly moving our heads back and forth (the blindism that Stevie Wonder is well-known for displaying). I asked my husband if he was doing that, my husband said he was, and I said, in a tone of disgust and derision, “Oh how embarrasing”. To which my husband replied, when I asked, “do I do that?” “yes you do, and most blind people do”. I was shocked! Talk about deflating my ego!

I know I tend to move my head around, in fact, I’m doing it now. I notice I do it when I’m writing. I’ll cock my head to the side, then I’ll hold my head back, and then I’ll move it forward. But it’s kind of in a slow motion, not in a rapid, back-and-forth movement. Or at least, I didn’t think I did that.

Now I’m like, “oh my” what other blindisms am I doing in public that I don’t know about? Am I rocking back and forth (I used to do that when I was a child, especially when I was listening to music, I’d rock to the beat of the song). And hopefully, I don’t do the horrid flipping your hands about in the air… Oh boy… Now I’m thinking I look like a freak or something!

But I think most of this sort of thing is limited to blind people who’ve been blind their whole lives. I don’t know of any people who lost their vision later in life exhibiting this kind of behavior. I’d also be interested in knowing if any research has been done into why we do this? Because a lot of this is quite common among blind people.

Anyway, I’ve tried to stop my various blindisms, some I have, like rocking, but I still press on my eyes, and I do it without even thinking about it. When we were kids we were told that if we didn’t stop doing that, that it would change the whole structure of our faces, that we’d press our eyes all the way back into our sockets, and I think that’s happened to me. I know my eyes are further into my head than other people’s, and my forehead isn’t as rounded as other people’s. I mean, it’s not like my eyes are completely sunken in, but I do wonder what my adult facial features would have been like if I’d not been putting my fingers in my eyes as a child. And I remember being scolded about this for as long as I can remember! And no method that was ever tried ever broke the habit.

PETA’s Vice President: We don’t want to take your dog away (unless you’re blind and use a dog guide, in that case it’s abuse)

Assalamu alaikum,

Quoted from the article at the link below (or wherever you guys that can see actually see it).

There will never be a perfect world, but in the world we’re in now, we support some working dog situations and decry others. Hearing dog programs that pull dogs from animal shelters and ensure that they are in safe and loving homes have our stamp of approval; they live with the family for their entire life, they learn interesting things, enjoy life, and love helping. On the other hand, we oppose most seeing-eye-dog programs because the dogs are bred as if there are no equally intelligent dogs literally dying for homes in shelters, they are kept in harnesses almost 24/7, people are prohibited from petting or playing with them and they cannot romp and run and interact with other dogs; and their lives are repeatedly disrupted (they are trained for months in one home and bond, then sent to a second, and after years of bonding with the person they have “served,” they are whisked away again because they are old and no longer “useful”).

There are a lot of points here that I need to address, just in this first passage alone. Firstly, I don’t know why hearing ear dogs are taken from shelters (though I didn’t think they were exclusively taken from shelters, but I guess it depends on the particular program), but the reason, to my understanding, that most dog guide programs do not use rescue dogs (though some are used), is to insure that they know the dog’s medical history, temperament, etc., and it does not mean that dog guide schools don’t care about placing dog guides in so-called “loving homes”. The assumption is being made here that while the hearing-ear program is “compassionate to dogs” the programs for training and handling dog guides are somehow cruel to animals.

Secondly, while the dog has to bond with many people before being placed with a handler, this is something that is thoroughly addressed while you are in training with the dog, and there are no lasting affects to the dog as a result of having to bond with more than one person! And the implication is being made here that dogs in shelters and/or hearing ear dogs don’t have to go through having to bond with many different people, before they themselves are placed in a “loving home”, which I’m not sure anyone could say is necessarily true, given the fact that many people are probably interacting with the dog in the shelter environment before they are actually placed.

As far as the dog being made to be in a harness 24/7, the amount of time the dog spends in harness is dependent upon the time that their handler needs them to work. And it’s not normally “24/7″. And as far as not being able to romp and play, I don’t think any service dog, be they dog guides, hearing ear dogs, or any kind of service animal would be given free license to romp and play and to interact with other dogs at will. In fact, service dogs, no matter what kind they are, need to be on their best behavior in many situations and can’t just go off and play whenever they want as that could put both themselves and their handler in danger. Conversely, even dog guides get a chance to romp and play and interact with other dogs, every once in a while, at least, as long as such romping and playing and interacting with other dogs is not compromising their work and/or the safety of their handler. Also, to my knowledge, when the dog is retired, the handler can choose to keep them at home with them, or find another suitable home for the dog if keeping them at home is not an option. They’re not just “whisked away” to “bond with another person”. And even if they were, the insinuation is somehow being made that we humans are just heartless brutes who aren’t taking the feelings of our dogs/other animals into account when we have to do things like “whisk our dogs away to another home” when we presumably, according to this woman, have no further use for them anymore. And as someone who’s had to go through the pain and stress of retiring a dog (and possibly losing them soon due to illness), I really take offense to this woman’s comments and presumptions about dog guide handlers.

Speaking for myself, retiring my first dog (I gave her to my parents, as taking her with me when moving to Florida would have been harder on her healthwise than leaving her with them) was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Retiring her was painful for me as she’d been a faithful and trusted companion to me for ten years!

We have a member who is blind who actually moved states to avoid “returning” her beloved dog.

I really can’t speak on this, just sounds like anecdotal evidence that is being used to back up this woman’s argument, as the member, nor the school in question, are mentioned.

We feel that the human community should do more to support blind people, and give dogs a break.

And how does she suggest this happen? Have a sighted guide at your beck and call 24/7?

A deaf person can see if a dog has a medical issue such as blood in her urine, a blind person living alone cannot, and so on.

Ah haw! I think I see where Daphna Nachminovitch is going with this! Basically, that dog guides (unlike hearing ear dogs) are overworked, stressed, are being ripped from people they’ve bonded with, and oh, by the way, blind people just aren’t capable of taking care of their dogs anyway, so they just shouldn’t have them. Because ya know, a blind person wouldn’t be capable of knowing if their dog had a medical issue or not! In short, blind people shouldn’t have dogs because the use of dog guides (unlike the use of hearing ear dogs) is cruel to animals, and not only this, blind people, because they are blind, are not capable of taking care of their dogs!

So even if dog guide schools adapted the same model of acquiring dogs and training them as hearing-ear dogs are, according to her, acquired and trained, Ms. Nachminovitch would still, it seems, not be in favor of the blind using dog guides ostensibly because we’d not be able to “know whether or not the dog was having a medical issue”!

So not only is she ignorant of how the procurement, training, handling, and eventual retiring of a dog guide actually works, she also displays woeful ignorance of the capabilities of blind and visually impaired people as a whole!

Because she is applying a double standard by allowing the use of hearing-ear dogs, but being against the use of dog guides, as both work, both have to have good behavior, and both have to maintain conduct becoming of a service animal out in public. So is this really about cruelty to animals, or is it just about a continued perpetuation of negative stereotypes associated with the blind and their capabilities.

And btw, there are many other ways to tell if a dog is having a medical issue other than sight, namely, the smell of the urine, a sudden change in the dog’s bathroom habits, a change in the dog’s behavior, just to name but a few examples. However, if worse really came to worse, generally speaking, a blind person usually would have a sighted person, such as a friend or family member, to ask if they suspected a problem!

And at this point, I have nothing else to say, as I’m all “writed” out… Ms. Daphna Nachminovitch’s ignorance and assumptions about the use of dog guides, as well as how the blind function in everyday life are just, well, astounding!

And that’s all I have to say. Writing this has really exhausted me for some reason, and people’s ignorance really angers me!

PETA’s Vice President: We don’t want to take your dog away | L.A. Unleashed | Los Angeles Times

Abby’s Last Stand?

Assalamu alaikum, I received a call from my mom while I was on the way home from work. When my phone started ringing, and I saw it was my mom calling, my first thought was that something had happened to Abby, or that she wanted to talk about the election. It turned out to be a little of both.

At first, we talked about the lection, and that no matter who you supported, it was a historic night, and she stated that she prayed that the next President would do good for this country. I then mentioned to her that I thought she’d called because something had happened to Abby. She then said, “well, Abby’s not doing so well, she’s taken a real turn for the worse”. My mother then mentioned to me that she had to actually carry Abby outside to use the bathroom. How she was about to carry a 60 or so pound Labrador Retriever out to use the bathroom was beyond me. I asked her how she did it, and she said she didn’t know. She then mentioned that she had to hold Abby up so she could use the bathroom.

I then said that I’d hoped that Abby could hold on long enough for me to see her once I go home on Thanksgiving, and Mom said that she’d thought of that and that this was the only reason her and my dad had not euthanised her sooner, as they’d almost called the vet to have it done on Monday. However, Abby’s still eating and drinking, sorta.

I knew this would happen, I knew this time would come, but now that it has, or seems to be getting more eminent, it’s just, well, hard. And I know some of you might be saying “this is just a dog” or “all this over a dog”, however, Abby was, and is “not just a dog” to me. This was the dog that I traveled to West Africa with, who saved my life when my house caught fire. Who was so loyal and faithful and who was just such a wonderful companion.

Yes, I have Chloe, and this will soften the blow a bit. However, it’s still hard to think that I may not see Abby again. And when I do see her, she won’t be the same Abby I know and remember. She won’t be able to get up and run or walk over to me, wagging her tail, she won’t be stealing Chloe’s and the other dogs’ toys. She’ll probably be too uncomfortable to do that. And I’m sure it will shock me to see how far she’s deteriorated, just as it did when I saw her last year. When she could barely walk even then.

We’re all hoping that she will die naturally and no one has to make the agonizing decision to put her down. However, if she keeps going downhill, my parents may be forced to make that difficult choice, though I wish it could wait until I could see her one last time, to say goodbye. To tell her that it’s OK, we all love her and she can go now. I just want to give her a hug and say goodbye.
To Allah we belong and to Him is our Return, even for dogs.

BTW, Abby is my retired, and first, Leader Dog, Chloe is my current Leader Dog, and I love her! She’s got a wonderful personality and she loves everyone, almost to a fault I think. Just wanted to mention that in case anyone was wondering who “Abby” was.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

Assalamu alaikum / greetings, well now that I’ve hashed out my feelings (once again) on my experiences with blindness, and the attitudes of both the blind and sighted, the thought that’s been occurring most to me, during the past few days is, where do we go from here?

As far as the sighted dealing with the blind, I think the first step would be to admit that we may not truly be as advanced as a society in dealing with the disabled, as we think we are. And that our attitudes toward the disabled may not be all that “liberated” either. Just as racism and sexism is still an issue, ableism is still an issue also. The first step is for people to truly be honest with themselves as regards their own attitudes toward the disabled, i.e., whether the disabled can hold down a full-time job, raise a family, and/or otherwise lead a full and productive life as their non-disabled peers would.

If you don’t think that the disabled are capable people, can’t or shouldn’t be allowed to do things like work, have children, etc., why is that? If you were educated to the abilities of those who are blind, for example, would that change your mind? Would “education” actually help? The thing is, I had a recent conversation that made me wonder if, just as people don’t want to face their prejudices regarding race, that they may not want to face their prejudices regarding disability either.

So the first step is to deal with whatever prejudices people might have and then we can move forward from there. Also, blind people need to be honest with themselves as well, i.e., do they like their “condition”, would they change it if they could, is being sighted “better” than bieng blind, would being sighted make them more of a “normal” person, does being blind make you less of a person?

Because I’ve struggled with self-esteem issues for years, and I still struggle with issues of self-esteem and self-worth. And for years, I was not honest enough with myself to admit that. I told myself that I was just as good as anyone else, that I was capable, independent, all of that. I was intelligent, fun to be around, well-liked. But then, sometimes I wondered, did people talk to me just because they felt sorry for me. Did people really care about what I had to say or were they just telling me so so as not to hurt my feelings. I often wondered was I stupid, pretty, smart intelligent, ugly, nerdy, how did I look to other people.

I didn’t face my self-esteem issues until after I’d gotten divorced from my first husband, and I felt I had to face them, or else I’d probably end up in another abusive relationship and I definitely didn’t want that.

I think you tend to attract the people who kind of fulfill what you truly feel about yourself, when they tell you you’re stupid, you say in the back of your mind, yeah, I must be stupid, something must be wrong with me for me to end up in this situation.

It’s only when you recognize the issues that you have, that you say, wait, it’s not me that is stupid, or whatever, it’s *them* who has the problem. I try not to get too upset when a sighted person makes a stupid comment or when people decide that I can’t do something. Because it’s not me who has the problem, I have nothing to prove to anyone…

Because I’m doin’ it, I have a job, I participate in my community as best I can, I do pretty much everything else a sighted person does, and even if I didn’t, I’d still not be less of a person because of that. If I chose to live iwth my parents, or to not work, that would be OK, I think the issue is not what society decides is best for you, or what some blindness organization or training program decides is best for you, it’s what you decide is best for you. Whatever makes you happy, fulfilled, content.

And Alhamdulillah that I got to this point.

Daily Kos: Court: Paper Money Discriminates Against Blind

Daily Kos: Court: Paper Money Discriminates Against Blind

Some More Thoughts on Blindness, Race, and Bitterness…

Assalamu alaikum, just a few more thoughts on my previous post. I guess it should go without saying that I don’t think that all white people are prejudiced, nor all sighted people ignorant about the capability and competency of the disabled, etc., I mean, I don’t think it’s “willful” ignorance or prejudice, at least and until the facts are brought before people and they still continue to languish in their own denial.

Let’s talk about race firstly. Most white people are good, kind people who want the best for everyone, and the same could be said of course for all people, however, after 500 years or so of colonization and enslavement of people occupying huge chunks of the world, there is a “privilege” that has emerged out of that, a “privelege” that has emerged from ending up at the top of the heap. I have often talked about how “I don’t understand color and thus don’t understand what the big deal is”, etc., etc., on this blog and in my offline dealings with people. I admittedly like to say this because it allows me to sit here and talk about how my lack of knowledge and understanding of color has made me a more open-minded person, and in my own mind “not like most white people”. I have had moments where in the back of my mind, I’d thought that this deserved some sort of commendation of me from people of color kind of like a “oh look at her, she’s white and not like most white people, isn’t that wonderful?”

However, when I think of that, when I think of the idea that I should somehow be commended for “not being like most white people”, I feel horrified, because it’s occurred to me that my “white privilege” has allowed me to “not be able to understand what color is”. If I were black, or brown, or, well, a person of color, I’d know all too well “what this color thing means”, and especially so if I were a black man. Because some white policeman would be all to happy to “explain” it to me via a barrel of a gun or a knightstick or a tazer. I’d “understand color” even if I couldn’t see it, I’d at least have an understanding of what this “color thing means”.

But my whiteness shields me from “this color thing” and allows me to “continue to try to sort this thing out”, and I’m saddened by this. My blindness also shields me from some things. I’m almost sure if I were sighted, I’d get more problems at the airport, more people yelling anti-Muslim slurs out of their car windows at me while I’m on the street. However, as I’m blind, and that is readily apparent, my blindness trumps my “Muslimness”. And also admittedly, my whiteness trumps it too. Not that I’d do this, but the hard fact is, if I wanted to, I could throw off my hijab and modest clothes, throw on a miniskirt, run back home and go back to “the person I was before I was a Muslim”. I could do this and probably no one would be the worse for it, except well, me, for running from the truth.

So when I talk about the “oppression of Muslims” or the fear and apprehension I have as a Muslim living in the US, I say this knowing that for some my “fear and apprehension” would not be considered legitimate because I “chose” this path. I wasn’t “born” this way, it’s not like color where you can just throw it off and instantly become someone else? So, is my “fear and apprehension” OK, legitimate, does it deserve to be given more or less consideration as others’ fear and apprehension? This is what I’m wrestling with.

Let me say here unequivocally that there is no god but God, that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger, that Islam is my religion, and that I’ll not abandon it for anything in this world! Just because times get hard, or because Islam and Muslims are being portrayed badly, or whatever! However, some would not look at it this way, they would still see it as a “choice” to be oppressed a “choice” to be treated badly, because if I didn’t “choose” to be a Muslim, then this wouldn’t happen to me.

Regarding blindness, people usually are ignorant and harbor stereotypes about what they don’t know. And as regards blindness, they try to imagine what they would do, if they were blind, they would think that they’d not be able to do things for themselves or to live independently if they were totally blind or visually impaired in some way. However, what they don’t take into account is that many blind people, whether born so or losing their vision later in life, have usually had a long time to master living in a sighted world without sight.

What I wanted to say is that there are many white people who recognize their privilege and who are struggling with that, and who are also trying to irradicate racism and prejudice both within themselves and others. And there are sighted and non-disabled people who are not only cognissant of the fact that blind and disabled people are quite capable and intelligent people, but they are also campaigning tirelessly for the rights and dignity of the disabled to live as full, equal, and independent citizens.

Regarding Obama, I support him but I don’t feel he is a “Messiah” or anything, he’s a politician first and foremost and out of the viable candidates that we have, he’s the least harmful or appears to be so, among the three, himself, McCain and Clinton. However, assuming he gets the Democratic nomination, I’m not sure if he’ll get the Presidency in November. And if Hillary gets the nomination, well, I couldn’t in good conscience vote for her, and again, she’d lose the election to McCain anyway, because she’s got so many negatives going for her.

So anyway, hopefully this clarifies some things. Time to get outside and enjoy the day!