Today, my wife was mistaken for a Muslim.
https://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/today-my-wife-was-mistaken-for-a-muslim/The Blunt and Crankies are on our way home from a vacation with wonderful friends in warm, sunny places. As we stopped for the night in Whereverthehell Kentucky, she wrapped a scarf around her head because, well, it’s f***ing cold outside. Looked a bit like a hijab, but who cares when you’ve come from the Florida coast to Freezerville in 36 hours, right?
Wrong. The woman who was misguided enough to marry your humble correspondent is of Irish/Shawnee/Syrian descent, and is frequently taken as a local in whatever country or region in which we are at a given moment. Be it in Central America, Scotland, on a Reservation or so on, people associate her with their ethnic preconceptions. So, when the locals saw her with the scarf wrapped tightly around her head, they projected their image of a Middle Eastern woman upon her. Disturbingly.
Women looked at her with a condescending mixture of pity and disdain. They looked at me as if I were a wife-abusing terrorist. Men looked at us like we were both worthy of being shot by Chris f***ing Kyle.
All because a "white" woman was chilly and covered her head.
America, you are SO f***ing f***ed. Surprised nobody shot us based on their idiotic, bigoted, stupid-assed ideas.
Je suis Chapel Hill.
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'senior' as am I, so 2 of us graying. Not sure he's dark enough to be recognized as such, wears gringo gear. Was born in India, in location that later became Pakistan. Has been in U.S. around 60 years. 
"Go Back to Nazi Germany!" It usually shuts them the fuck up! (Works also for those telling you to "Go to Cuba!" or "Go to Iraq!" or "Go back to Russia!"
Some people are so damned stupid it hurts.
With a screen name like yuiyoshida?
jeez, at least the ignorant, bigoted morons could get the country right..
Oh, wait, you probably don't use that name elsewhere. eh..
Well, not unbelievable because I certainly believe it. Just staggering in its stupidity.
It's a shame that darker women can't wear head coverings like that anymore because a segment of the population is so bigoted. I was raised at a time when women took wearing scarves over their heads as fashion. My daughter especially, looks gorgeous and exotic wearing her shawls over her head. She can't do it. Some asshole might blow her away. 
i think that's called a khaffiya. It was in a Vampire Weekend song and i had to figure out what he was saying...
We have are such a stew mix where I live that head coverings are nothing over here.
On the other hand, one couple in my neighborhood goes for almost daily walks, and he wears shorts and a t-shirt, while she is covered from top to ground. UGH UGH UGH So much fun in Houston's hot and humid weather. 
I swim laps daily. I usually only swim during the "adult lap swim only" times but the other week I got stuck at work and didn't get there til well into " family open swim" areas.
There were three women in long coats with hijabs tied so close around their heads they had no peripheral vision sitting on the bleachers in the hot, humid indoor pool bleachers. In the pool were their husbands in Speedos and their kids all playing and splashing. I spent an hour swimming my laps watching them feeling pretty unhappy about it all.
one of these days this summer when it is 98 degrees outside and the humidity is so thick you can cut it with a knife...sigh....I'm afraid I'm going to say something.
The poor woman is covered head to toe in a white garment which is just thin enough that is is apparent that she is wearing clothing underneath, as well. What infuriates me is the fabric of the hijab is somewhat plentiful wrapped around her face and neck, so I get hot just looking at her.
Thankfully, it does seem that most of the women here wear veils more loosely around their face. In fact, you can often see a bit of hair, and frequently look so beautiful I wish that I could carry off that look. 
I guess they are not as strict, though.
Hilariously ironic....
There are more aging hippies there than any place I know.
People around here tend to strive for a civil society. Part of that entails treating others in a public place as you would want them to treat you and your family.
This has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with common decency.
Since my wife was mistaken for a Moslem, it follows that she is NOT of that faith.
Thus her religion was not disrespected. Read before commenting next time.
and then I walked into a store, and right in the front of the door was the checkout, and there was a woman there in a Muslim headscarf, and her eyes lit up when she saw me. Then she realized I was just bundled up from the cold, and looked disappointed.
How dare she assume I was Muslim! How dare she project her image of a Middle Eastern woman on me! What a bigot! How disturbing!
Or something. 
in Life Magazine about a restaurant owner in (I think it was ) Maryland who refused service to a member of the diplomatic corps of some Middle Eastern country. I honestly don't recall what country. Possibly Israel. Maybe Syria Perhaps Egypt. In any case, the person who refused service defended that refusal as he didn't serve N*****s, and as far as he was concerned, that diplomat was a N****r.
Ahh, prejudice.
ever. Or it wouldn't be fodder for his blog.
So what group of people in the US are virtually guaranteed to be free from suspicion by strangers?
It sure as hell isn't a black or transgender guy...
Furthermore he's expressing his problem with his wife getting a dirty look but I can tell you most gay folks experience their spouse getting dirty looks daily. Probably multiple times per day. Black couples are similarly not immune and I'd hazard a guess that in whereverthefuckKentucky, a black couple checking into that hotel would hazard a similar reaction.
I'm pretty sure from such observations a reasonable deduction can be made.
If you want to read "projection" into that then fine.
For my part, my experience with bigots and racists informs my opinion.
Based on your skin color, sexual orientation, gender etc.
Otherwise you'd know exactly what I'm saying instead of accusing me of "projection".
Have at it and feel free to have the last word on this. It's Valentines Day and I'm in the mood for loving, not arguing.
He has stories...
We can sub-caterigize forever but parsing things too finely makes a mockery of general societal norms.
We're talking about the OP. Not outliers.
Always glad when I encounter people who believe in true equality. 
Are they going to bother random white people just in case? When they find out that some muslims don't wear scarves or beards, or even have much of a "muslim look" at all then what?
People mistook me for a "dirty brown muslim" every day for a while during the Bush years. It got so bad that my mom made me wear a cross around my neck and we all put American flags and rosaries in our cars and stayed home every anniversary of that horrible day for safety reasons. My parents still got heckled in line for voting for "your secretly muslim" president the last 2 elections.
And yes, there are some people who have seen us in church and Sunday school for decades who are sure that we are probably muslims who definitely changed our names for nefarious reasons.
I could start a whole other thread on employment discrimination.
je suis American as apple pie
You know the kind I'm talking about:
They were all the rage in the late 80's, early 90's.
Nice and wooly warm, I have 2 of them and damn, but they look good on me!
With my mixed "black Irish," Cherokee and all the other stuff blood, I too get mistaken for whatever ethnic type people want to project onto me.
When I had facial hair, and would wear one of those hats, well, I suppose I looked kinda like this guy:
A couple of months after 9/11, I went to visit my parents in their small, upper-middle class suburban New Jersey town. A town about 45 minutes from the World Trade Center. A town that, sadly, lost 11 of its residents on 9/11. I took the bus, and walked the 7 or 8 blocks from the bus stop to my folks' house. (I grew up in that house!) I guess I wasn't really thinking, and since it was chilly, I wore one of those hats that day.
About a block or two away from my parent's place, and there was a little girl, maybe 9 or 10 years old playing in her yard. She sees me and starts screaming! She runs into her house "Daddy, Daddy!!! THERE'S A TERRORIST OUTSIDE!!!" Her father comes running outside and sees me, and we both just kinda waved at each other and rolled our eyes. He sorted mouthed "sorry about that" and went back inside to his daughter.
Not as bad as the story described above, but I've never worn either of those hats since then...
He's darker-skinned, has nearly black hair and brown eyes. After 911 I was always telling him to be careful and aware of his situation, because just by looking at him you wouldn't know that he's just an ordinary American kid with family going back to the 1600s on both sides.
We have lots of Native America blood on both sides of my family -- and probably on his father's side, though he doesn't want to consider the possibility (he's a fundie freak) -- but are mostly Scottish and German. My father is fairly dark-skinned, but has light eyes, and my mother's sisters are dark-skinned. They look more Native American than she does.By "dark-skinned" I mean darker than the usual Caucasian pale white.
I remember when we used to wear scarves all the time. For warmth, to protect our hair from the wind and sun... It was fashionable for women to cover their hair. I've taken to putting this fleece remnant I've had for years over my head/neck/shoulders when I'm sitting at the computer. I have it tucked under my chin, covering me pretty much all from my waist up. We keep the heat down, and I get cold. 
Anyway, my sons would give me a funny look, and one of them joked once about had I become a Muslim. I laughed and explained that no, it was just warm, but I knew I couldn't wear it outside. It's got USAF stuff on it, so I would hope nobody would mistake it for hijab.
Around here, we have Amish, Mennonites, some weird Christian group that practices modest dress, and Hindus, and I've seen a few women with head scarves that I assume are Muslim. I go to Chapel Hill/Carrboro on occasion, so I've probably seen lots more than this, and just never paid them any mind. I don't like that women are forced to be covered up, but it's not my business unless someone tries to force it on me.
Maybe we should have a hijab flash session, with everybody all over the country suddenly pulling out scarves and wrapping ourselves up? It could draw attention to how stupid people are for worrying about stuff like that.