The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld
September 21, 2015 Victor El-Khouri 8 Comments
New Yorkers have a reputation — earned, I might add — for sneering at the rest of the country. My own grandmother used to refer to my cousins from out of town as “farmers.” She probably said the same thing about me when I went home to Ohio.
So it is that I read this week’s news out of Texas, and rolled my eyes with no surprise whatsoever. It is just more of the same.
Is it surprising that the state whose Board of Education requires textbooks to be politically correct by conservative standards is so uninterested in nurturing curiosity and creativity in it’s student body? No.
Is it surprising that a school would bring in the police to inhibit curiosity and creativity? Well, yeah. Ahmed Mohamed is a 14 year-old with an interest in science and engineering. He built a digital clock and was so pleased with it that he brought it to school to show his teacher. Naturally, since he’s swarthy and his last name is Mohamed, the school freaked out and called the cops, who came and arrested him.
In case you think the school was just being cautious, there is plenty of reason to believe that no one really thought there was a bomb. No one evacuated the school. No one called in the bomb squad. No, instead they just put a 14 year old boy in handcuffs so he would know his place.
Luckily, we live in a world with an Internet, so the story got out and Ahmed found some justice. He was released, with charges dropped. Mark Zuckerberg, Barack Obama, and many many others praised his initiative and invited him to visit.
Naturally, the right wing couldn’t stand it. An immigrant kid with a Muslim heritage wrongfully accused by white Christian people? That’s can’t be. The reactions ranged from the truly paranoid to the merely stupid. What I notice about both of these reactions is that they assume that somehow, all Muslims work together to mind-fuck the rest of us. I’ve heard similar theories about Jews, Asians, African-Americans, queer people and every other minority group, usually to justify discrimination against said group.
Which brings us to this. A Texas man beat his transgender girlfriend (of more than a year and a half) to death and managed to avoid a jail sentence. Instead, he’ll get ten years of probation. He spent some time in a cell while getting bail together, but that’s it.
I mean, it’s not as if he made a clock or anything.
Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, didn’t see any of the Republican debate on Wednesday and is glad of it.
Howard Cruse
September 21, 2015 - 7:55 am
An odd contraption with wires and a timing component possibly merited a moment or two of scrutiny, whatever the skin color, namer, or ethnic background of the inventor. But HANDCUFFS and an ARREST??!!! Not in a million years. A public commendation for ingenuity and creativity should obviously have been Ahmed’s reward. The insult and stupidity can’t be undone, but maybe praise from the President and Mark Zuckerberg will soothe the wound somewhat.
Neil C.
September 21, 2015 - 7:55 am
Good column. My favorite comparison of the week is how Obama talks to this kid, yet won’t say anything when police officers get killed, which is kind of apples and oranges.
Martha Thomases
September 21, 2015 - 8:19 am
And Obama does mourn and say things when police officers get killed. So it’s a false analogy all the way around.
George Haberberger
September 21, 2015 - 12:51 pm
Apparently this clock was sold at Radio Shack in the 1980s. He took it apart and reassembled it in a pencil box. Is that something to be invited to the White House for?
http://www.newsoxy.com/science/richard-dawkins-clock-4-184004.html
tom brucker
September 21, 2015 - 8:11 pm
Everyone knows terror bombs are triggered by cell phones. Does Ahmed have a cell phone too?
Absolute case of racism and institutional racisms (plural). Please do not second guess the responses from both Washingtons. Ahmed is a kid. Acts like these will break the cycles which perpetuate racism.
R. Maheras
September 22, 2015 - 7:03 am
From a non-aligned standpoint, there’s industrial-strength irony in this whole fiasco. Before any facts were known, the Left immediately branded the sometimes reactionary Right as being reactionary in this instance, and then piling on with usual charges of racism, xenophobia, etc., etc.
In short, the Left was guilty of the exact same thing they were blaming the Right for.
I was aircraft electronics technician for 13 years, and I worked on five different aircraft (the A-10, SR-71, U-2, RC-135 and C-5). In addition, I was an electronics tinkerer for at least a decade before that — including a stint in a Lane Technical High School electronics shop class where I built several simple electronic devices when I was roughly the same age as Ahmed. So when I see people who don’t know squat about electronics parroting all of these authoritative statements, each more grandiosely embellished with each re-telling than the last, about what an amazing electronics genius Ahmed was, it makes me want to puke.
I hate it when politics trumps critical thinking.
The Left’s whole narrative about this issue reeked with suspicion from the very outset, and started falling apart almost immediately as pictures of the device started popping up.
It was clear to me in just a few seconds that the kid didn’t build the device from scratch. He may have taken an existing device and made some modifications, of course — which would have been impressive. But even that was unlikely, as everything about the device looked like commercial manufacturing. Even more weird was the fact that it wasn’t mounted at all like a clock. It looked like a tangle of commercial electronics components thrown in a briefcase. And someone with a much higher level of electronics expertise confirmed what I intuitively suspected: The kid took the guts out of an old digital clock and passed it off as his own work.
So basically, the Left’s martyr du jour is a phony.
But he is a genius in one sense, I guess. He fooled some of the Left’s smartest folks simply by playing to their preconceptions.
Party of science? Yeah, right.
Martha Thomases
September 22, 2015 - 7:23 am
I didn’t say he made it from scratch. I didn’t say he was a genius inventor. I said he was a kid with an enthusiasm for science and machines, which is a good thing.
Lots of kids his age like to make stuff from kits and show it off. Hell, as a knitter, sometimes I like to make things from kits (out of yarn, but still) and show it off.
No one has ever put me in handcuffs for my enthusiasm.
He doesn’t have to be the world’s most brilliant human for me to think he should not have been in handcuffs.
R. Maheras
September 22, 2015 - 7:43 am
Martha — I agree about the handcuffs, but only to a point. None of us were there and heard what transpired. The kid may have intentionally goaded his teacher, or the cops, in some way. I was a smart-assed kid, and I once had the cops bring me home to my parents — not in cuffs, but back then, before litigation against cops was the norm, protocols were different. Why would the kid goad anyone? Well, like I said, the whole thing was suspicious, the “home-built” clock a fake, and the kid’s dad is a bit of an anti-Islamophobe activist — something few media outlets have bothered exploring. This street-wise kid smells a setup all the way.
One more thing. I didn’t say YOU said some of those things, but many, many people of the Left, in fact, have. And you seem to sympathize with the kid in much the same way.
Martha Thomases
September 22, 2015 - 8:29 am
I sympathize with the kid because I was a dorky 14 year old with awkward social skills (which I guess is implicit in “dorky”) who was one of a handful of Jews in a school full of Christians, called upon to represent my entire people.
It’s exhausting.
I one got in trouble for muttering “Jesus Christ” in frustration. A teacher heard me, and quoted the Ten Commandments at me: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Part of the reason we send 14 year olds to school is that they are not adults and don’t know how to act in adult situations. School is supposed to teach them.
Also, anti-Islamophobe? Someone who is against bigotry towards Muslims? That would include me.
R. Maheras
September 22, 2015 - 10:20 am
The key word is not anti-Islamophobe, it’s ACTIVIST. The dad is already entering his posturing mode, which makes my bullshit radar ping even more.
By the way, I’d had Islamic in-laws since the mid-1970s, so I’ve been sensitive to the issue longer than most.
Rene
September 22, 2015 - 6:43 pm
And, of course, whether the kid is a electronic genius or merely a kid cutting corners in a project, has zero importance. Absolutely zero importance. He should not merit more sympathy for the unjust way he was treated just for being more talented. To spend so much time “debunking” this part of the story smells of pettiness.
However, that is to be expected of the right in the US. Nothing that the Left defends can be good. Ever.
But there is one point where the right-wing surprised me positively in this story. At least they’re treating the kid as a kid in their narratives. Usually, minors that are not white are treated as adults by them. White transgressor? A kid with problems. Black transgressor? A criminal in the making, a thug, scary and stronger than his age indicated, etc. It’s like black people have their childhood disregarded.
Rene
September 22, 2015 - 6:49 pm
And Richard Dawkins… sometimes I wonder. Is that man capable of opening his mouth without coming across as a dick?
I was going to say that the Left also has their own assholes, but I’m not sure I’d even consider Dawkins as a Leftist. Being a militant Atheist has cachet with the Left, but on the other hand the guy is sort of a Social Darwinist in many of his views.
R. Maheras
September 23, 2015 - 6:10 am
Rene — Aw, cut the US bashing. As I recall, you’re from Brazil, which has its own crime/law enforcement problems. The reason the kid was cuffed is because we are in an era of constant litigation against cops, schools, and any other organization or business with relatively deep financial pockets that can be picked by legal profession opportunists (I swear, I’ll scream if I see another television commercial about mesothelioma and the $30 billion asbestos fund “you may be eligible for”).
In the past, people wouldn’t be punished for using common sense to defuse a situation. Now, strict LEGAL protocols are established for everyone, and everyone is paranoid about deviating, lest they lose their job or get sued.
For my minor transgression as a teen mentioned above, there’s no doubt in my mind if it occurred today, I would have been cuffed.
Lawyers… bah, humbug.
George Haberberger
September 23, 2015 - 8:59 am
Martha said: “Lots of kids his age like to make stuff from kits and show it off. Hell, as a knitter, sometimes I like to make things from kits (out of yarn, but still) and show it off.
No one has ever put me in handcuffs for my enthusiasm.
Seriously? Has there ever been a yarn bomb? This is hardly a realistic comparison.
And Rene doubting that Hitchens should be considered a leftist is kind of like blacks declaring Clarence Thomas in not black because they don’t like his political views.
Rene
September 23, 2015 - 5:37 pm
Russ –
Well, I have sadly lost my belief that Brazil is some sort of racial utopia some time ago. Actually, with a current ressurgence among Brazilian Conservatives that are nostalgic about the way things were in the military right-wing dictatorship we had here from 1964-1985, I have the opportunity to get angry at Conservatives from my own country too. 🙂
But your answer made me realize again a certain disconnect I have. Here in Brazil, I’m not such a Leftist guy, at least in matters regarding law enforcement. The typical Brazilian Leftist would be considered a Bolshevique in the US. Also, when violent crime is as widespread as it is here in Brazil, and when cops earn such pitful wages as Brazilian cops, one is inclined to be almost… tolerant of police brutality. Or at least more understanding. I think more people get killed in Brazilian slums than in Iraq. So Brazilian cops live in a hell that American cops can’t imagine.
George –
Well, skin color is skin color (except in the case of Michael Jackson), so Clarence Thomas race isn’t open to discussion. But political views are more complex.
And aren’t you confusing Dawkins with the late Hitchens? Yes, Hitchens was pretty much a Leftie, except perhaps for his being a lot more anti-Islam than Lefties usually are. But we’re talking about Dawkins. He inhabits some hard-to-categorize area. For instance, he was in favor of aborting all Down Syndrome fetuses. Pro-abortion? Leftie. Pro-eugenics? I know you will dispute it, but that has been a right-wing position.
In any case, if you want to call Dawkins a Leftist, go ahead. I think he is still an asshole. And so was Hitchens.
George Haberberger
September 24, 2015 - 4:13 am
Rene,
Yes, it was Dawkins I meant to refer to in my last post. That was whom you doubted was a real leftist since I used a link from him about doubting the clock boy’s story. Sorry for mixing those two up.
Pro-eugenics? I know you will dispute it, but that has been a right-wing position.
Yes you’re right about me disputing it. I don’t know of anyone on the right who is pro-eugenics. If you have an example, I like to know who it is.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood was famously pro-eugenics. But I wouldn’t call her a right-wing standard bearer. And of course her legacy is supported and celebrated by the Democrats. Adolf Hitler no doubt was pro-eugenics but since the Nazi Party advocated big government control and NAZI actually stood for National SOCIALIST Workers Party, he’s much more left than right.
Rene
September 26, 2015 - 7:49 am
And North Korea actual name is DEMOCRATIC People’s REPUBLIC of Korea. So North Korea is a democratic republic!
And East Germany actual name was German DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. So East Germany was a democratic republic too!
And 1984’s Oceania had the Ministry of Peace, and the Ministry of Truth, so it was actually a country very peaceful and truthful!
But okay man, okay. Everything bad that ever was belongs to the Left. Stalin and Pol Pot were Leftists, something we accept. You want the Left to accept Hitler as one of their own too? Okay. That is actually better. Let us Lefties answer for all the sins of mankind. Let you Right-Wing guys be stainless and pure and perfect. It’s far better to carry a legacy of mistakes so that we reflect before we act, so we don’t repeat them. People who think they’re stainless and pure and perfect are the ones liable to commit and justify attrocities. Like the Nazis.
George Haberberger
September 27, 2015 - 1:08 pm
“But okay man, okay. Everything bad that ever was belongs to the Left.”
Good! Glad you’re finally coming around. 🙂
So I assume Nazi Germany was going to be your example? But seriously, I agree that the name people choose to call themselves often has no basis in reality. North Korea is not Democratic. East Germany was not Democratic. Pro-Choice is all about denying choices to the unborn.
That is my point. Names really mean little. It is our actions that define us. Nazi Germany was pro-eugenics and the epitome of large, centralized, national government control. That is the opposite of what the right wing in the United States wants today.
And I noticed you didn’t challenge me on the Margaret Sanger example.