Seema Jilani of the Huffington Post attended the White House Correspondents Dinner with her journalist husband. On her way out Jilani an Afghan woman says she was the victim of White House Racism. Since Seema Jilani is the spouse of a journalist she was not allowed to attend the actual dinner only cocktail hour.
Only correspondents (and celebrities apparently) are allowed to attend the dinner. In her blog Seema writes that she realized her husband still had her keys when they parted ways. Walking over toward the escalators that led down to the ballroom Jilani asked security if she may be allowed to find her husband and get her keys.
It was at this point Seema Jilani a blogger and a doctor encountered what she calls White House Racism. Jilani writes in her blog the security guards refused to let her go down without a ticket.
"I explained my situation and that I just wanted my keys from my husband in the foyer and that I wouldn't need to enter in the ballroom," Jilani writes. "They refused to let me through. For the next half hour, they watched as I frantically called my husband but was unable to reach him."
Jilani explains how stunned she was when the guards began to allow a series of "Caucasian" women through without asking to see their tickets.
"I asked why they were allowing them to go freely when they had just told me that I needed a ticket. Their response? "Well, now we are checking tickets." He rolled his eyes and let another woman through, this time actually checking her ticket. His smug tone, enveloped in condescension, taunted, "See? That's what a ticket looks like."
Throughout her confrontation with security Jilani kept watching the guards allow women through without showing a ticket. When a tall blonde told the guard she lost her ticket the guard responded "I'd be happy to personally escort you down the escalators ma'am."
The extra kick in the pants for Dr. Jilani came when security threated to have the secret service throw her out because "We have to be careful with you all after the Boston Bombings."
Seema Jilani was "Shaking with rage," the victim of White House racism said in her blog, "We are all human beings and I only ask that you give me the same respect you give others. All I am asking is to be treating with a dignity and humanity. What you did is wrong." They stared straight ahead, arms crossed, and refused to even look at me. Up came the cruel, xenophobic, soundproof wall that I had seen in the eyes of so many after 9/11. Their eyes, flecked with disdain and hatred, looked through me."
It would be a fallacy to say that racism has been extinguished throughout the United States. People of all races will cling to the cultural stereotypes of others and use the actions of one to condemn all.
Seema Jilani ends her White House racism blog by saying,
"It's the little indignities that slowly devastate your soul. The ones where your guard is down, and you just expect to dress up, look pretty, and enjoy an evening... but instead end up humiliated and snubbed... This filthy, highly infectious plague is transforming our nation into one of unwarranted suspicion and anguish inflicted on disenfranchised, voiceless people of color. And now, it is no longer my job to enlighten you."
Jilani finishes by saying, "To quote what you so often tell ethnic communities, "It's time for you to step up to the plate, take responsibility, and stop taking what I have earned," my integrity, my dignity."
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