My wife had mentioned to my mother and sister those baby dolls who were pulled off the shelves because they say "Islam is the light!" I commented, wryly I thought, that I bet no one would have complained if they had said "Jesus is the light!" My father responded, saying, "They're complaining because we're having a problem with those people."
I was floored. I tried to talk about it with him, but he turned back to the football game instead. So I spent a couple days thinking about what to say and then wrote an e-mail.
Still, I don't like confronting my dad because, well, he's my dad, for one. He's also stubborn and argumentative and can become very upset when confronted or corrected (I think I've mentioned before the arguments and so forth we went through when I told him I wasn't Christian). But he's not a bad person and
Part of the problem these days, I believe, is that he watches too much
Regardless, following is the letter I wrote to him about his statement, trying to highlight the facts to him and get him thinking about what he said and what he thinks he knows, without my being angry or accusatory about it. (Thinking about it, this is honestly a letter much of America could stand to read and consider as well.)
I'll note I sent it after waffling for quite a bit, given my (hopefully, probably unfounded) apprehensions of setting fire to and burning bridges with it, because how often do you really want to tell off your dad, politely or not? And there's another human truth: dealing with family is difficult.
( ...text of letter follows... )
Well, that's it, glaring and serious grammatical errors, poorly relayed ideas and all. Hopefully it will go over in a positive manner.
ADDENDUM: it didn't (go over well). He bitched at me for inferring he was racist and pointed out how he has spent his life working with and for the rights and protection of minorities and the disadvantaged, including his being shot at and nearly killed on a number of occasions while delivering food and medical supplies by the people he was delivering them to, and how he kept going back anyways because it was the right thing to do. Which is all true.
And which makes his statement all the more aggravating. We must be careful not to advance stereotypes by using careless blanket statements in thought and speech, given that people will and do foolishly latch on to stereotypes as truths, whether they are the oppressor or the oppressed.
irritated