On Real Time with Bill Maher this weekend, the “titan of late night” both denied that profiling was responsible for the arrest of Ahmed Mohamed, and claimed that Ahmed’s school would have been justified in profiling Muslim-Americans because “over the last 30 years, it’s been one culture that has been been blowing shit up over and over again.”
In a conversation with panelists Jorge Ramos, Chris Matthews, Mark Cuban, and former Governor George Pataki, Maher—who has been accused of Islamophobia in the past—claimed that Ahmed’s clock looked “exactly like a fucking bomb,” and that the #IStandWithAhmed hashtag demonstrated a lack of “perspective.”
Conversations like this one are exactly why more diversity is needed in late night television. If (like me) you’re a white person who’s never been profiled based on your race, religion, or culture before, then you’re not qualified to lead a conversation about what it felt like for a 14-year-old Muslim-American to be arrested for doing a science project.
If you’ve never had to consider that police, teachers, or other authority figures might be a threat to you, then you’re probably the one whose perspective on #IStandWithAhmed needs examining—especially if most of the people you choose to discuss Ahmed’s arrest with have experiences and a viewpoint very similar to your own.
Would Maher be as eager to profile white male teenagers as mass shooters as he is to claim that Ahmed’s arrest was justified? I highly doubt it, and real perspective would be applying that same level of rational thought to everyone.
(via Daily Dot)
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