Wednesday, September 07, 2005

I just had to take a government required survey at my job for the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity). I remember in grade school always being confused at what to mark on these things since it seemed every official test we took required our ethnicity. There was never a space for Middle Eastern. I thought "should I choose Asian or should I choose Caucasian?" The Middle East is technically on the continent of Asia .... but I'm not really what they mean by 'Asian'. And I'm not just white. I can't be. They wouldn't call me sand-nigger or camel-jockey if I was. They wouldn't say my dad was a terrorist and I wouldn't wish he really was so he could blow up their house.

It's just weird to me that 20 years later I'm still a little incredulous as to why the only choices on a goverment required survey is Black, White or Mexican. You realize if Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden lived in America and took this survey they would mark themselves as white? The Ayatollah Khomeini would have to mark himself as white? Sorry to use them as examples but they're the only positive role models I've had growing up as a Middle-Eastern American.

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