(Captain Rattan on right)
This morning I read about US Army Captain Tejdeep Singh Rattan, the first Sikh allowed to complete basic officer training while wearing a full beard and turban since the Army first allowed Sikh enlistees to keep this traditional attire in 1984. Captain Rattan’s promotion reminded me of a trip to Disney World about 3 years ago where I saw a large Sikh family enjoying themselves. The men in this family group were wearing their customary beards and turbans. The oldest man, who I imagined was the patriarch, possessed a magnificent, silver handlebar mustache and sported a turban with a US flag pattern. This fashion choice touched me deeply because I was unsure whether the patriarch’s patriotic display meant that he was showing pride in our country or letting the world know that he was patriotic or perhaps both at once.
A large part of the reason I found this encounter so moving was because I had seen another eastern family, while on a previous trip to Orlando, whose traditional dress had also triggered an unexpected strong reaction. On that trip, in 2004, I was visiting Universal Studios when I passed an Arab family. As they walked toward me, I was suddenly gripped with a sense of fear. I immediately felt an equally great sorrow because on a rational level I was, and am, opposed to racial profiling and had been deeply disturbed by the way darker-skinned eastern people were being indiscriminately mistreated and subjected to civil rights abuses after September 11th, 2001. I believed then as now that fear can never justify the erosion and violation of civil rights and that no one should be judged based on appearances.
Yet anxiety arose uncontrollably like a malevolent cloud from my subconscious at the sight of this Middle-Eastern family; two men in thawbs and bishts wearing keffiyehs on their heads, two abaya-clad women, two young children, and a baby in a stroller. I made a conscious effort to smile at them because I thought that perhaps they didn’t always get a friendly response from others and might appreciate it, especially if other Americans were having the kind of inadvertent reaction to them that I had. This group was most likely a couple with their adult child and son or daughter-in-law and their grandchildren and just like the Sikh family in Disney World and so many other families visiting Orlando that day and every day before or since, having a once-in-a-lifetime vacation that centered around the children. I felt shame at my reaction and it brought tears to my eyes because I felt like I had been somehow corrupted by the culture of fear that arose after 9/11. September 11th had damaged me, too, and I hadn’t even known it until that moment.
Seeing that red, white, and blue turban three years later was somehow redemptive and I wanted very much to take a picture but I was shy about asking permission and I thought it would be rude to sneak a photo. I carry the picture in my mind and think about it often whenever I think about prejudice and fear and their emotional consequences. Captain Rattan’s promotion is especially inspiring because it seems to me to be an action taken against that subconscious cloud of fear of the “other” that dwells in the human mind, which I now recognize within myself. Dr. King’s concept of judging based on the content of a person’s character is always a sure fire way to keep that dark cloud in check. I am glad that we allow citizens the freedom to wear traditional dress and still serve our nation. Increasing our national acceptance of diversity can only make our nation stronger.
Picture from http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/sikh-coalition/28503-second-us-army-victory-captain-tejdeep.html. Accessed 3/24/10.
