JONATHAN CHAIT SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
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[Guest Post by Isaac Chotiner]
A few weeks ago, conservative wit Jonah Goldberg wrote a column about discrimination in America. According to Goldberg, there was "no anti-Muslim climate" in the country, and those who thought such a climate existed were politically correct fools.
He added:
If you watch TV or movies, or read, say, the op-ed page of the New York Times — never mind left-wing blogs — you’ll hear much more open bigotry toward evangelical Christians (in blogspeak, the “Taliban wing of the Republican party”) than you will toward Muslims.
Now this, from The New York Times:
At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.
Such complaints were increasing even before frictions erupted over the planned Islamic center in Lower Manhattan, with Muslim workers filing a record 803 such claims in the year ended Sept. 30, 2009. That was up 20 percent from the previous year and up nearly 60 percent from 2005, according to federal data.
Finally:
Although Muslims make up less than 2 percent of the United States population, they accounted for about one-quarter of the 3,386 religious discrimination claims filed with the E.E.O.C. last year. Complaints filed by Jews rose slightly in fiscal 2009, while complaints filed by Catholics, Protestants, Sikhs and Seventh-day Adventists declined. Claims of race, sex and age discrimination also fell.
10 comments
The preposterous Jonah Goldberg never lets facts get in the way of his opinions. This summer I watched a Bloggingheads conversation between him and David Frum. When Frum raised the term "epistemic closure," Goldberg said that he didn't find it helpful. But of course not. He is definitely a part of the epistemically closed right and that locution hits far too close to home. And just days ago, I viewed another Bloggingheads exchange between Goldberg and Robert Wright, a former editor of TNR. At one point in the conversation, Goldberg said that he didn't find it particularly helpful when partisans find the worst motivations in their opponents that they possibly can. Wright brought up Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism in response. Goldberg is unintentionally hilarious. My daily paper, The Seattle Times, carried his column for a few years until a couple of years back. I don't know why they did; his columns were pathetic.
- liberal reformer
September 23, 2010 at 6:46pm
I have my own &c choice: People, you must read the review by Paul Krugman and his wife, Robin Wells, in The New York Review of Books concerning the genesis of the financial collapse and the punishing recession. It is superb. Simply google that august publication and click on the current issue and scroll down.
- liberal reformer
September 23, 2010 at 7:23pm
Huh, I didn't know you were a Seattlite too lib ref. Small(ish) world.
- Simon Greenwood
September 23, 2010 at 8:32pm
I don't suppose you live in Greenwood, do you, Simon? That would be too funny. My wife and I live in West Seattle.
- liberal reformer
September 23, 2010 at 8:44pm
"Claims of race, sex and age discrimination also fell" because those groups already know it is hopeless to file a complaint, and not worth the retaliation. Chotiner missed the complaint by the woman at Disneyworld whose complaint was her demand to wear a hijab (Burkhas for Barbie?) memo to Muslims: get used to it and assimilate or relocate. victimhood is so pathetic.
- K2K
September 23, 2010 at 9:52pm
He woke up, stepped outside, looked down the street:"I don't see any Muslim discrimination. Nope. Okay. I'm ready. Bring me my keyboard."
- Nusholtz
September 23, 2010 at 10:01pm
>>memo to Muslims: get used to it and assimilate or relocate. victimhood is so pathetic.<< Look what crawled out of the Spinesewer, as if on cue, to confirm the official statistics.
- DC Spence
September 23, 2010 at 10:31pm
We need to see more analysis of the complaints before simply accepting all of them at face value. Why are they happening now more than in the years immediately following the 9/11 attack? How much are employers required to accommodate head scarves or prayer breaks or make other religious accommodations? Head scarves may not be safe on some jobs. Or suitable in positions facing the public. Prayer breaks may disrupt the work schedule or entail favoritism to one group over others.
- amidut
September 23, 2010 at 10:56pm
Invite him over, libref!
- W_Bombay
September 24, 2010 at 11:27am
DC Spence:"Look what crawled out of the Spinesewer, as if on cue, to confirm the official statistics." K2K>>memo to Muslims: get used to it and assimilate or relocate. victimhood is so pathetic.<< was solely based on reading the more than 240 attached comments, a surprising majority of which, from American Muslims and/or employers, espoused "assimilate or relocate". and the key point that, just because an offended person files EEOC complaints, does not mean the complaints have any merit, "official statistics" of complaints filed thus rendered meaningless.
- K2K
September 25, 2010 at 10:34am