This was forwarded to a large group last month. I don't know if the paper published it or not:
Subject: Letter to the editor of the Minnesota Women's Press Please feel free to publish this: � Thought about a Name Change? To the Editor of the Minnesota Women's Press, Recently,�I was interviewed as a Profile piece by Kelly Westhoff.� At first, I was honored to be interviewed, and felt that this would be a great boost to my candidacy for Mayor of Minneapolis. I met Kelly at a coffee shop in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood. When she arrived, she introduced herself, and sat down and asked me four questions: �How do you spell you name?�: F-A-R-H-E-E-N H-A-K-E-E-M �How old are you?�: 29 years old �Where are you from?� : I�m a native of Chicago and have lived in Minneapolis for 5 years �Where are you originally from?� : Originally from? To this, I responded, �What do you mean?� Kelly responded, �Like your ethnic background.� I responded, �Why is that necessary for the story?� Her response was people would be curious to know. I told her that she could write that I am Asian-American. Let�s examine what happened here. First of all, would Kelly have asked me this question if I was white? Would there be a need to discuss my perceived racial background for a story about a mayoral candidate if I was white? And why is my race needed to satisfy the �curiosity� in people. Is it so that people can open up the rolodex of stereotypes in their head and pull it out before they actually read the story? So the definition of racism that I know is Race, Prejudice and Power. Let�s see; race is here because there is a need to know what my supposed race is. Kelly phrases it to be �curiosity� while I think it is more �comfort�. I have this ambiguous brown Muslim look, and I like it. I like the fact that people can�t guess my racial background right away, and that they have to be uncomfortable about it. It is a growing experience for them. There is never an issue of race, looking different, or being �originally� from somewhere for a white person. Why should it be different for me? Prejudice: So Kelly sees that racial background is basic information about a person. Why is that? I always associated racial background with family background which is personal information. When voting for white candidates, I don�t care if a candidate is part German, and part Irish, and part Czech. So�reporting my racial background enables the audience to �pre-judge� me. In addition, it gave Kelly information about how to ask her questions. Power: Oh yeah, that is definitely here. Kelly gets to pick and choose what information is relevent, and what is not. This is based on her knowledge of Islam, Arabs, Asians, and people of color. This is the reason why I fell for the racist trap. I gave her an answer that would make her comfortable because she had the power. She could write anything she wanted about me and has the power to give the audience any impression of me. The interview after that was pretty uncomfortable for me. She kept focusing on the work I do for the Girl Scouts instead of the campaign. She kept asking me if it is hard to �educate� Muslim communities about the Girls Scouts. I tried to explain to her that Muslim Communities do not need �educating�, and that many Muslim parents know of Girls Scouts and a lot of were Girls Scouts themselves, and that Muslims communities are very committed to girls programming and raising Muslim girls to becoming strong women. Kelly, I believe, did not write that part down. Kelly also asked, �How do Muslim people feel about other communities after Sept. 11th?� So, when did the transition from Mayoral candidate seeking Green Party endorsement change to spokesperson and champion to all Muslims in Minnesota?� Am I the only Muslim person she has ever interviewed? What is more interesting is that Kelly had recently wrote an article about how difficult it is to find Women of Color to run for office because the focus is so much on the woman�s race instead of the political race she is running. And now Kelly is doing that exact same thing!� She never asked me about my platforms, my work in the community, nor my experience. Kelly used her power as a white person (which I believe was unintentional), and the power of the white supremacist society to satisfy the �curiosity� of the readers and the writer of the paper. Her focus toward me, as a Muslim woman, instead of me, as a Mayoral Candidate, shows this. So, I was wondering, have you ever thought changing the name of �Minnesota Women�s Press� to �Minnesota White Women�s Press�. I think this would be a better indication of who you write for, and who your writers are. Thanks, Farheen Hakeem� your token Muslim woman interviewee for the issue. � Rachel Joyce East Isles on 5/12/05 2:56 PM, Jim Bernstein at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Muslim American??? Are we now to become Catholic Americans or > Protestant Americans, Christian Americans, Jewish Americans, Mormon > Americans, Buddhist Americans, etc.? > > I hope either Ms. Hakeem or the Minnesota Women's Press will insist on > stopping this nonsense before it spreads! > > Jim Bernstein > Fulton > > REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 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