For the second US oriented post today, I wanted to refer to a great article by a Sikh man who dressed up as Captain America and walked around in public. We writes about his experiences in a piece published on-line in Salon. He talks about his motivation to dress up as Captain America in a turban after the massacre of Sikhs at a temple last year. The lessons he says he learned are worth reading, including:
If you stereotype people, then you have fallen victim of the malady itself. To all the people who have given me advice to stay away from white Republican places like Jersey, Florida, Texas and the South, let me say this. If I had stereotyped the world the way it may see me in my turban and beard, I would never have walked out as Captain America. ….. Thanks to the Army officer, Haitian American mother, woman who remembered her brief childhood encounter at a dance event with a turbaned boy in Detroit, woman from San Francisco who was inspired to dress herself and her boyfriend as Captain America, countless others who shared with me their memories, insecurities and moving encounters. Together we create super-heroic worlds.