Rocking the Karakul!
Yesterday was the Pakistan Day Parade in New York City, celebrating Pakistan’s culture, heritage and independence. New York City’s heritage parades span the globe, from the ubiquitous St Patrick’s Day to the esoteric Hare Krishna Parade. I am working on photographing every cultural parade in the City, which could take years given their number.
Yesterday, however, I found myself with sense of discomfort. It was difficult to find the rhythm of the shoot and finding out why took some time. Eventually, I discovered my problem: I was afraid in a crowd of Muslims. Not something I like admitting, yet true.
The feeling started when I notice the NYPD Bomb Dog team sweeping the parade vehicle:
NYPD Explosive Detector Dog sweeping the parade route.
I’ve done dozens of parades over the past five years, this is the first time I’ve seen a dog team checking the area. (As a former Explosive Detector Dog Handler myself, I knew the patterns of his search, it was definitely explosive detection.)
Now, combine thirty years of television news footage of Muslim people waving flags and shouting stretching back to Iran in the late 1970’s. Where I should see Americans celebrating their heritage from their adopted country, I could only see Arabic letters and foreign flags. My brain, filled with decades of fear baiting and sensationalist rhetoric reacted with the same unease I experience upon seeing a clown: a small nagging fear.
Once I owned that bias, faced my irrational discomfort, I was able to stop seeing the good people around me as a faceless entity and recognize them as Americans. Waving the flag of Pakistan is no different from waving Ireland, Italy, Germany or Korea, just to name a few of the ethnic parades I’ve photographed. When we stop seeing a people through the lens of prejudice surrender our primitive xenophobia and turn off the damn television feed in our memory, we only see others as people.
This is the face of an American.
People with cool hats and hijabs.