I was angry when I read the story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, an Irving Tx., teen who was arrested at school after police said a clock he built resembled a hoax bomb.
My anger didn’t spring from the fact that this boy is Muslim. I do not, after all share his faith. I wasn’t angry because he was interrogated, handcuffed and taken to a detention center where he was fingerprinted before being released.
I was angry, quite frankly, because I have a son, and like young Ahmed, my son is statistically more likely to face harsh treatment for a minor school infraction, because he is a boy of color.
Last year, the Dept. of Education released a study that showed that black students are three times more likely than white students to be suspended. And the Justice Department found that black children were “subjected to harsher treatment because of their race” in the St. Louis County Family Court system.
Mohamed faced the same type of discrimination that springs from racism, because in places like Irving, Tx., Muslim is the new black.
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