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(2008 WaPo) 60-70% of France's Prison Inmates are Muslim, 12% of Population

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This is obviously dated but I saw it on twitter and though it was informative regarding integration and discrimination in France. This is more disproportionate than the US's rate with African Americans.

SEQUEDIN, France -- Samia El Alaoui Talibi walks her beat in a cream-colored head scarf and an ink-black robe with sunset-orange piping, an outfit she picked up at a yard sale.

After passing a bulletproof window, El Alaoui Talibi trudges through half a dozen heavy, locked doors to reach the Muslim faithful to whom she ministers in the women's cellblock of the Lille-Sequedin Detention Center in far northern France.

It took her years to earn this access, said El Alaoui Talibi, one of only four Muslim holy women allowed to work in French prisons. "Everyone has the same prejudices and negative image of Muslims and Islam," said Moroccan-born El Alaoui Talibi, 47, the mother of seven children. "When some guards see you, they see an Arab; they see you the same as if you were a prisoner."

This prison is majority Muslim -- as is virtually every house of incarceration in France. About 60 to 70 percent of all inmates in the country's prison system are Muslim, according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers, though Muslims make up only about 12 percent of the country's population.

On a continent where immigrants and the children of immigrants are disproportionately represented in almost every prison system, the French figures are the most marked, according to researchers, criminologists and Muslim leaders.

"The high percentage of Muslims in prisons is a direct consequence of the failure of the integration of minorities in France," said Moussa Khedimellah, a sociologist who has spent several years conducting research on Muslims in the French penal system.

In Britain, 11 percent of prisoners are Muslim in contrast to about 3 percent of all inhabitants, according to the Justice Ministry. Research by the Open Society Institute, an advocacy organization, shows that in the Netherlands 20 percent of adult prisoners and 26 percent of all juvenile offenders are Muslim; the country is about 5.5 percent Muslim. In Belgium, Muslims from Morocco and Turkey make up at least 16 percent of the prison population, compared with 2 percent of the general populace, the research found.

Sociologists and Muslim leaders say the French prison system reflects the deep social and ethnic divides roiling France and its European neighbors as immigrants and a new generation of their children alter the demographic and cultural landscape of the continent.

French prison officials blame the high numbers on the poverty of people who have moved here from North African and other Islamic countries in recent decades. "Many immigrants arrive in France in difficult financial situations, which make delinquency more frequent," said Jeanne Sautière, director of integration and religious groups for the French prison system. "The most important thing is to say there is no correlation between Islam and delinquency."

But Muslim leaders, sociologists and human rights activists argue that more than in most other European countries, government social policies in France have served to isolate Muslims in impoverished suburbs that have high unemployment, inferior schools and substandard housing. This has helped create a generation of French-born children with little hope of social advancement and even less respect for French authority.

"The question of discrimination and justice is one of the key political questions of our society, and still, it is not given much importance," said Sebastian Roche, who has studied judicial discrimination as research director for the French National Center for Scientific Research. "We can't blame a state if its companies discriminate; however, we can blame the state if its justice system and its police discriminate."

As a matter of policy, the French government does not collect data on race, religion or ethnicity on its citizens in any capacity, making it difficult to obtain precise figures on the makeup of prison populations. But demographers, sociologists and Muslim leaders have compiled generally accepted estimates showing Muslim inmate populations nationwide averaging between 60 and 70 percent.

The figures fluctuate from region to region: They are higher in areas with large concentrations of Muslims, including suburban Paris, Marseille in the south and Lille in the north.

Inside the prisons, El Alaoui Talibi and her husband, Hassan -- a rare husband-wife Islamic clerical team -- are struggling to win for Muslim prisoners the same religious rights accorded to their minority-Christian counterparts. Hassan is an imam. Samia has received religious training and can counsel the faithful, but under Islamic practices she cannot become an imam. The prison system has only 100 Muslim clerics for the country's 200 prisons, compared with about 480 Catholic, 250 Protestant and 50 Jewish chaplains, even though Muslim inmates vastly outnumber prisoners of all other religions. "It is true that we haven't attained full equality among religions in prisons yet," said Sautière, the national prison official. "It is a matter of time."

In recent years, the French government's primary concern with its Muslim inmate population has been political. French national security officials warned prison authorities in 2005 that they should work to prevent radical Muslims from inciting fellow prisoners. A year later, the French Senate approved a bill giving the country's national intelligence agency broad authority to monitor Muslim inmates as part of counterterrorism efforts.

Prison authorities began allowing carefully vetted moderate imams into prisons in hopes of "balancing the radical elements," said Aurélie Leclerq, 33, director of the Lille-Sequedin Detention Center.

Hassan El Alaoui Talibi, 52, who moved to France from Morocco as a student, is the national head of France's prison imams and typical of the kind of moderate Muslim figure the French government seeks for its prison system.

El Alaoui Talibi delivers his Friday sermons with carefully chosen words, he says. He avoids politics and other subjects that might seem remotely inflammatory. He sticks to counseling convicted drug dealers, murderers and illegal immigrants in matters of faith and respect.

But not all the Muslims at Lille-Sequedin share those moderate views. Last year a disgruntled inmate blared a taped religious sermon into the prison courtyard. Prison officials deemed its message inflammatory and sent the prisoner to solitary confinement.

El Alaoui Talibi described years of struggle to win even modest concessions from prison directors. He recalled the first prison visit he made, a decade ago: He was forced to wait an hour and a half to meet with inmates. "If I hadn't been patient, I would have left," said the soft-spoken former high school teacher who became a prison imam after seeing so many of his students get in trouble with the law for petty offenses and end up hard-core criminals after prison stints.

Today, working in France's newest prison -- the sprawling, three-year-old Lille-Sequedin center -- the El Alaoui Talibis say they are more accepted than some Muslim colleagues at other prisons. Prison officials rejected requests by The Washington Post to visit some of the system's older, more troubled prisons.

On a recent Friday, Hassan El Alaoui Talibi, a man with soulful eyes and a beard with the first hints of gray, made his way with a reporter through the men's wings, collecting prisoners' notes from mailboxes shared with Catholic and Protestant chaplains. At one point, several new inmates returning from sports practice surrounded him, requesting personal visits. He scribbled their names and cell numbers on a scrap of paper.

Many of the Muslim inmates in this prison just west of Lille are the children and grandchildren of immigrants who were brought to the northern region decades ago to work in its coal mines.

El Alaoui Talibi moved on to a small room overlooking a tiny garden courtyard and tugged at prayer mats stacked in a closet beside a rough-hewn wooden cross. Every other Friday, he transforms the room into a mosque for some of the male Muslim faithful of the prison. One of his most frequent sermon topics is food.

"He tells us not to throw away prison food just because it isn't halal," or compliant with Islamic dietary law, said a 33-year-old former civil servant, a man of Algerian descent who attends the twice-monthly prayer meetings. French prison rules prohibit journalists from identifying inmates by name or disclosing their crimes.

The refusal of prison officials to provide halal food, particularly meat products, is one of the biggest complaints of Muslim inmates across France and has occasionally led to cellblock protests.

For many years, prisons have allowed Muslim prisoners to forgo pork products -- and statistics tracking prisoners who refuse pork is an accurate barometer of the Muslim population in a prison, according to researchers. But cutting out pork is a long way from the full halal regimen. Only recently, did the prisons stop using pork grease to cook vegetables and other dishes.

"If you want to comply with your religion, you don't have a choice -- you have to become vegetarian," said the convicted civil servant, a compact man who works in the prison library. "We have access to a prison store with two halal products: halal sausage and a can of ravioli."

Prison officials say it is too expensive to provide halal meals. "We'd like to buy fresh meat, but we can't," said Leclerq, whose prison office is decorated with plush bears.

Muslim inmates said they sense other religious snubs. Christians are allowed packages containing gifts and special treats from their families at Christmas, but Muslims do not receive the same privilege for the Ramadan holy days. "We're careful not to call them Christmas packages because Muslims would ask for Ramadan packages," Leclerq said. "We call them end-of-the-year packages. We can't use a religious term or some people get tense."

Hassan El Alaoui Talibi said the French prison system has made progress since he began his ministry a decade ago. Last year the government set guidelines for all prisons to follow on religious practices, rather than allowing directors to arbitrarily set their own rules.

Prison imams met with Justice Minister Rachida Dati last month with a list of continuing requests, including more imams and training for prison guards to help them better understand religious differences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/28/AR2008042802560_pf.html

If there has been substantial change in this since the articles posting I'd welcome the update.
 

Lamel

Banned
Why do they deny halal meat if they are the majority at this point?

Also this reminds me of the french movie "a prophet"


El Alaoui Talibi described years of struggle to win even modest concessions from prison directors. He recalled the first prison visit he made, a decade ago: He was forced to wait an hour and a half to meet with inmates. "If I hadn't been patient, I would have left," said the soft-spoken former high school teacher who became a prison imam after seeing so many of his students get in trouble with the law for petty offenses and end up hard-core criminals after prison stints.

Damn respect for this dude...
 

Laekon

Member
Guess this is why the Republican Party has becomes supporters of France lately.

How are all these people immigrating? Is 10% of the population illegal immigrants? It's not like there are huge job opportunities.
 
Why do they deny halal meat if they are the majority at this point?

Oh don't worry. Racism is alive and well in France. Like England, mass-integration is impossible. Society has troubles accomadating many of them at the same time.

I think that is why statistically, Asian immigrants have been doing better in most European nations. Their immigration happened more slowly, and this allowed for better integration, and less chance of seclusion among "their own". Makes them more inclined to be absorbed into the culture.
France like other colonial nations took in a massive amounts of people from ex-french colonies. It's been difficult. Many people remember the fierce protests in 2005.
 

Kite

Member
I think that is why statistically, Asian immigrants have been doing better in most European nations. Their immigration happened more slowly
Could you explain this? Are the Muslims immigrants mostly war refugees and the Asians.. willing immigrants coming to better their lives?
 

Piecake

Member
Funny I remember a number of people claiming in that one 15k Islam protest thread that it wasnt about racism at all. It was culture, and anyone who believed it was racism was a silly American.

Yea...
 

Syriel

Member
Why do they deny halal meat if they are the majority at this point?

Also this reminds me of the french movie "a prophet"




Damn respect for this dude...

Simple answer is that halal meat is generally more expensive (like kosher meat) and France is rabidly secular as far as the government is concerned.

As an aside, if you ever fly and get an airline meal, always request the kosher meal option. It'll always be better than the default generic option.
 
Bullshit.

"according to Muslim leaders, (insert semblance of authority)..."

That's her answer, presented by the writer as a supposed fact. Or at the very least questionably presented to imply "factness".

Looking at what comes up on Google, there are no actual official stats (France takes secularism very seriously, which I imagine is why the religion of inmates is considered irrelevant. Veil of ignorance and all that), and to boot the guesses are 30 to 70% meaning nobody fucking knows.

I took offence at the mention of sociologists, sue me.
 

Piecake

Member
Simple answer is that halal meat is generally more expensive (like kosher meat) and France is rabidly secular as far as the government is concerned.

As an aside, if you ever fly and get an airline meal, always request the kosher meal option. It'll always be better than the default generic option.

They seem to be quite willing to bend rules for Christians going by the 'end of the year' packages
 

markot

Banned
All large immigrant groups face this sort of thing initially. It happened to the Irish in America, the Greeks in Australia.

Its not uncommon for large groups of economic immigrants to be on the 'lower rung' of society for generation or so.

Obviously discrimination plays a part, but many of the immigrants who came to europe were unskilled labour to do jobs that were going begging. Those jobs arent really there anymore.
 
Bullshit.

"according to Muslim leaders, (insert semblance of authority)..."

That's her answer, presented by the writer as a supposed fact. Or at the very least questionably presented to imply "factness".

Looking at what comes up on Google, there are no actual official stats (France takes secularism very seriously, which I imagine is why the religion of inmates is considered irrelevant. Veil of ignorance and all that), and to boot the guesses are 30 to 70% meaning nobody fucking knows.

I took offence at the mention of sociologists, sue me.

Too convenient its seems. And they don't seem to take secularism seriously when it comes to christmas.

'France takes secularism seriously' seems a rephrasing of 'I don't see color' as diffusion of responsibility for rate of incarersation that seems either only because Muslims are more criminal or racism and a justice system which impressions them at higher rates than non-muslims.
 

Wiktor

Member
Don't they actually commit far more crimes proportionally? Usually the poorest groups commit the most crimes and I imagine it';s hard to find a group more poor (on average at least) than muslim immigrants.
 
Don't they actually commit far more crimes proportionally? Usually the poorest groups commit the most crimes and I imagine it';s hard to find a group more poor (on average at least) than muslim immigrants.

60 to 70 percent of crimes aren't committed by Muslims, same as the US system either the system looks the other way at non-muslim criminals or targets crimes that muslims tend to commit. Its racism and oppression 101. I hear bull connor teaches a class.
 

Zoned

Actively hates charity
Don't they actually commit far more crimes proportionally? Usually the poorest groups commit the most crimes and I imagine it';s hard to find a group more poor (on average at least) than muslim immigrants.
Makes sense. Economy isn't doing good either.
 

Piecake

Member
Don't they actually commit far more crimes proportionally? Usually the poorest groups commit the most crimes and I imagine it';s hard to find a group more poor (on average at least) than muslim immigrants.

More arrests and convictions of French Muslims does not necessarily mean that they commit proportionately far more crimes. It simply means that they are arrested, charged and convicted at a much higher rate. This is basically the situation in America with minorities. The easiest statistic to see this is drug crime, where all race groups use and deal at the same rates but minorities make up the large bulk of the convicted drug criminals.

This is also why data is incredibly important because how the hell can you prove institutional racism exists without statistics? It would be damn hard.
 
I'm Dutch Turkish Muslim and I have been discriminated many times. Even tho my Dutch is perfect and I have many Dutch friends.

One time I heard a business owner say: "why do you take foreigners in to work for you if you can hire real Dutch people?"

Still, I got a nice education and a job, but I can imagine how soul crushing it can be when you don't have any perspective and also get discriminated against.
 

Alx

Member
Oh don't worry. Racism is alive and well in France. Like England, mass-integration is impossible. Society has troubles accomadating many of them at the same time.

I think that is why statistically, Asian immigrants have been doing better in most European nations. Their immigration happened more slowly, and this allowed for better integration, and less chance of seclusion among "their own". Makes them more inclined to be absorbed into the culture.
France like other colonial nations took in a massive amounts of people from ex-french colonies. It's been difficult. Many people remember the fierce protests in 2005.

Well among its colonies, France had Asian countries too. There was a massive amount of people coming from Vietnam in the 50s and 60s, and the development of the Asian district in Paris happened in the 70s. That's more or less in line with the flows from Algeria after the war.
 
Race and religion demographic stats are illegal in France (which seems incredibly stupid).

it's really not, but I'm guessing from the replies nobody is interested in why that is, so I'm not going to bother explaining.

just so everyone understand THIS at least:

secularism applies to how the STATE relates to its CITIZENS, meaning the relationship of any citizen towards the concepts that the state controls, cannot be influenced by secondary qualities or even identities.
It has nothing to do with stuff citizens do among themselves, like religious holidays.
 

Laekon

Member
Too convenient its seems. And they don't seem to take secularism seriously when it comes to christmas.

'France takes secularism seriously' seems a rephrasing of 'I don't see color' as diffusion of responsibility for rate of incarersation that seems either only because Muslims are more criminal or racism and a justice system which impressions them at higher rates than non-muslims.
Is Christmas really a religious holiday anymore in western Europe?

I think this is probably more race than religion.
 

Arksy

Member
I'm Dutch Turkish Muslim and I have been discriminated many times. Even tho my Dutch is perfect and I have many Dutch friends.

One time I heard a business owner say: "why do you take foreigners in to work for you if you can hire real Dutch people?"

Still, I got a nice education and a job, but I can imagine how soul crushing it can be when you don't have any perspective and also get discriminated against.

God that sucks. As an Australian with parents who are Turkish (I don't consider myself Turkish despite having dual citizenship), I've never been on the end of any sort of real discrimination or racism (aside from friends having a joke). I hear this is common in Europe where third generation Turkish children in Germany are still considered foreigners.
 

Piecake

Member
it's really not, but I'm guessing from the replies nobody is interested in why that is, so I'm not going to bother explaining.

Having a persecution complex about this is pretty pathetic. If you have contrary facts then post them. Just don't say bullshit, its not true. Who the hell would find that convincing?

As for demographic stats, that is what I got from google. And that the census law makes it very difficult to collect information about race and religious demographics in France. If you know something different, then please let me know.
 

Lamel

Banned
it's really not, but I'm guessing from the replies nobody is interested in why that is, so I'm not going to bother explaining.

just so everyone understand THIS at least:

secularism applies to how the STATE relates to its CITIZENS, meaning the relationship of any citizen towards the concepts that the state controls, cannot be influenced by secondary qualities or even identities.
It has nothing to do with stuff citizens do among themselves, like religious holidays.

Wouldn't having those stats at least help for data purposes...?
 
Definitely. Especially after some of the double standards seen from people defending the work from Charlie H.

The denial of halal meat is funny when they are the majority of the prison population tells you how they feel.
The reasons for denying the halal meat are silly if vegetarian meals are allowed. Halal is a dietary choice, denying one because it has it origins in religious teachings is really silly since many people are vegetarian for similar moralistic reasons but their beliefs are acquiesced to.
 

Aselith

Member
Having a persecution complex about this is pretty pathetic. If you have contrary facts then post them. Just don't say bullshit, its not true. Who the hell would find that convincing?

As for demographic stats, that is what I got from google. And that the census law makes it very difficult to collect information about race and religious demographics in France. If you know something different, then please let me know.

Does this other person have facts though? Seems like the writer took statistics from an uneducated guess and then people in this thread ran with it because the French justice system is probably racist because things.

"according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers" What a source! Used more than twice in the article though so you KNOW they come correct.
 

Piecake

Member
Does this other person have facts though? Seems like the writer took statistics from an uneducated guess and then people in this thread ran with it because the French justice system is probably racist because things.

"according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers" What a source!

researchers arent a good source? If you want hard numbers, blame the French government because apparently it is illegal for the govt to collect that sort of information.
 
Does this other person have facts though? Seems like the writer took statistics from an uneducated guess and then people in this thread ran with it because the French justice system is probably racist because things.

"according to Muslim leaders, sociologists and researchers" What a source! Used twice in the article though so you KNOW they come correct.

The NYT reported similar figures in 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/08/international/europe/08prisons.html

Reuters two years ago

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/07/us-france-radicalisation-insight-idUSBRE9460OQ20130507

They quote

Farhad Khosrokhavar who is the Director of Research at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in France, a very prestigious school. This isn't some no name or made up facts. This is coming from the top scholars in this subject.
 

Aselith

Member
researchers arent a good source? If you want hard numbers, blame the French government because apparently it is illegal for the govt to collect that sort of information.

Researchers who are identified and have published work for sure are. Unnamed researchers with no report specified, not so much.
 
Researchers who are identified and have published work for sure are. Unnamed researchers with no report specified, not so much.

look above

If you want to read his work

http://www.amazon.fr/dp/2715814933/


here is an interview with him

http://www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/l-islam-majoritaire-dans-les-prisons_819458.html

Specifically how he arrives at his numbers

Elle oscille entre 50% et 80% dans les établissements proches des quartiers sensibles. Nous n'avons pas de statistiques officielles, puisqu'il est interdit de distinguer les gens selon leur confession, mais nous disposons d'indices: le fait de manger du porc, le prénom, la pratique du ramadan. Indices que l'on peut croiser avec le nombre d'enfants nés de père maghrébin, qui ont de fortes chances d'être musulmans. Ces détenus sont environ dix fois plus nombreux que les autres. Il s'agit essentiellement d'hommes jeunes, entre 18 et 35 ans, issus des banlieues.

Basically he knows their names, where they came from, if they celebrate ramadan, eat pork, all of which are great predictors of Islam, especially if were viewing it as a ethnic group.
 
Well among its colonies, France had Asian countries too. There was a massive amount of people coming from Vietnam in the 50s and 60s, and the development of the Asian district in Paris happened in the 70s. That's more or less in line with the flows from Algeria after the war.

Really? huh! I had no idea it was that many!
 
@piecake: that applied to the 'stupid' remark, not the rest.

Wouldn't having those stats at least help for data purposes...?

The theoretical position would be that using them in that way is just another way of segregating citizens through the back door. There is no such thing as a neutral model or data collection, so you're really just segregating people before you've even asked them what their crime is.

The French have a radical position on this, but it is strictly speaking how the separation of church and state is supposed to be implemented (if only because they invented it). No other country actually does that though. Which leads to other countries claiming something they don't really do.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
Oh don't worry. Racism is alive and well in France. Like England, mass-integration is impossible. Society has troubles accomadating many of them at the same time.

I think that is why statistically, Asian immigrants have been doing better in most European nations. Their immigration happened more slowly, and this allowed for better integration, and less chance of seclusion among "their own". Makes them more inclined to be absorbed into the culture.
France like other colonial nations took in a massive amounts of people from ex-french colonies. It's been difficult. Many people remember the fierce protests in 2005.

this is exactly what happens in every single country to various degrees. cultures don't mix well. when you get a massive influx of 1 type, they setup their own group, nobody likes them, they're poor by nature of having to relocate -> crime.

after that the downward spiral begins as poorer people do more crime and then get even poorer as a result, leading to more crime. Or in the case of really poor muslims, terrorism, apparently.
 

Piecake

Member
@piecake: that applied to the 'stupid' remark, not the rest.



The theoretical position would be that using them in that way is just another way of segregating citizens through the back door. There is no such thing as a neutral model or data collection, so you're really just segregating people before you've even asked them what their crime is.

The French have a radical position on this, but it is strictly speaking how the separation of church and state is supposed to be implemented (if only because they invented it). No other country actually does that though. Which leads to other countries claiming something they don't really do.

I think it is stupid because without data it makes it incredibly difficult to learn if your nation has a problem with institutional racism and what steps you should take to correct it. I mean, without data, how do you even identify if you have a problem and the specific nature of that problem?

It is pretty clear that America's judicial system is rife with institutionalized racism. How do we know? Data. France? We aren't even sure how many Muslims are in French prisons... I mean, christ...
 
this is exactly what happens in every single country to various degrees. cultures don't mix well. when you get a massive influx of 1 type, they setup their own group, nobody likes them, they're poor by nature of having to relocate -> crime.

after that the downward spiral begins as poorer people do more crime and then get even poorer as a result, leading to more crime. Or in the case of really poor muslims, terrorism, apparently.

to various degrees is quite the understatement.

white immigrates to America didn't face the same things that blacks and Asians have in the US for example. What about Irish immigrants to the UK? Poles to other EU countries? of course its not easy but 'various degrees' downplays the extreme scenario certain people tend to face. the idea that this happens everywhere is just an tacit admission of the prevalence of racism.
 

Kathian

Banned
Suggests Muslims can give gifts at Christmas and Halal is just far too expensive. The article does not give much info regarding the background other than being Muslims or great info regarding convictions.

Not really enough info but France is partly to blame for that.
 
this is exactly what happens in every single country to various degrees. cultures don't mix well. when you get a massive influx of 1 type, they setup their own group, nobody likes them, they're poor by nature of having to relocate -> crime.

after that the downward spiral begins as poorer people do more crime and then get even poorer as a result, leading to more crime. Or in the case of really poor muslims, terrorism, apparently.

But then why the hell have asians been doing so well, mate?

When vietnam refugees came to scandinavia, people were waving flags at airports to welcome them their new homes.

Could it be that their religious beliefs don't conflict as much with western individualism as muslim religion does?


In france - the burka, halal meat, black people being discriminated against in the job market, and that entire thing france has had about it being difficult to fire people. I forgot the details but when they were burning Seine-Saint-Denis in 2005, I don't think it was a coincidence that it's also the place with the most immigrants.

Last time I was in paris, I saw black people who worked in McDonalds and still were homeless. the cost of the price of living is pushing out people, and people who live in ghetto neighborhoods with notorious area codes, are fucked. there is little point in even applying for a job for these people. It sounds really messed up.
 

neorej

ERMYGERD!
I'm Dutch Turkish Muslim and I have been discriminated many times. Even tho my Dutch is perfect and I have many Dutch friends.

One time I heard a business owner say: "why do you take foreigners in to work for you if you can hire real Dutch people?"

Still, I got a nice education and a job, but I can imagine how soul crushing it can be when you don't have any perspective and also get discriminated against.

Glad I'm not the only one who has experienced this. When I started applying for my first summer job, all I heard was that they didn't like the color of my skin and it wouldn't sit right with their customers.

I'm a white dude, grew up in a Muslim neighborhood. Racism works both ways.
 
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