Far too many people out there buy into the hype that white people simply don’t like brown people. It’s not difficult to see why. At every turn, opposition to some prominent minority is sloughed off as racism. It then comes as a shock to learn that it’s simply not as pervasive as it’s presented. A college student from Canada decided to don traditional Muslim garb to see just how racist people at her university are. She was taken aback at the fact that, not only wasn’t she treated disparately, she was treated nicer.
(DailyMail) — A Canadian college student recently conducted a social experiment to see if people treated her differently if she wore a hijab – a traditional Muslim veil that covers a woman’s head and chest – and what she discovered was a bit unexpected.
[…]
According to [Anisa] Rawhani – who conducted the experiment to see if people in her community were racist towards minority groups – she noticed that people actually treated her more kindly and with more respect than when she didn’t wear the hijab.
Rawhani, who is not Muslim, wrote about her experience wearing traditional Muslim clothing in the March edition of the Queen’s Journal, where she works as a copy editor – the article is titled ‘Overt to Covert.’
‘At first I thought I was just imagining things. There’s no way this is actually happening,’ Rawhani told the Whig.com.
‘I went with my hijab and people were very nice, people were polite, parents would shake my hand, so the experience was all across the board in Kingston.’
In some cases, she says, she would go out with friends who weren’t wearing any identifying religious symbols and she was treated much nicer than they were.
‘There was this excess (of niceness) that I would experience that I couldn’t account for,’ she said. ‘Like really going the extra mile like smiling broadly and being so so polite, which I’ve never experienced before. It was a stark contrast that was going on that threw me for a loop.’
Rawhani attempts to rationalize this kindness away as racists not wanting to blow their cover. But I’m inclined to believe that people avoid those they don’t like, or employ a civil politeness.
Sifting Reality 
Your’e comparing apples to oranges, Canada to the US.
Why is it that it’s always white, middle class men, who are so consistently trying to claim that racism is gone?
The pattern just on this blog is quite telling.
This “experiment” is narrow, anecdotal and performed by a brown person.
Because I know lots of brown people who confirm my contentions.
I don’t of anyone, white or otherwise, who tries to claim that racism is gone.
1. I’m glad this person had positive results.
2. It would be my guess that blatant racism is a small minority of people and “casual” racism/prejudice is a minority of people.
3. It would be my guess that college campuses would tend to be less likely to exhibit prejudice or racism than the population at large, and this would tend to support that guess.
~Dan
The overall point is that a common enough impression is that there is significant amounts of people who would be rude and discriminatory that she was surprised when it didnt happen.
There is a distinct faction of our population that seems unable to bear the thought that racism is not what it once was. Some people really seem to need to fight that beast, and the thought of the beast being less aggressive provokes a less than celebratory response. Counseling is required, but they don’t see their own problem. To bolster their sense that they are champions of the oppressed, they will suppose there are those who believe racism no longer exists at all and go to great lengths to prove otherwise, as if it really needs to be proven. The last post at my blog, and the third and fourth previous to that one, contains comments from one such sorry person. (Not really a shameless plug as it provides support for my comments here.)
Marshal, you can post links to your site here, especially if it makes a point.