Example of racism - Mariella Aumann - Politics 10b

Mariella Aumann
POLITICS - 10b
Example of racism – a short text
Task: Choose ONE example in which you see racism, describe it (to me) and analyse why this
is racism and which type of racism.
When I scrolled through the social media network “TikTok“ today, I saw a video of a
Kurdish Muslim woman, called “Dana“. As a consequence of her religious beliefs, she
is wearing a hijab. Within her video, she talks about a degrading situation that she
experienced in a local gym. According to her report, she went to a new gym for the
first time with the innocent intention of working out and above all, signing a contract
for a membership. As she arrived, everything went pretty well: She introduced herself
to an employee and signed in. When everything was settled, she started working out
on her own. After finishing her exercises and being excited to return back the next
time, the same employee came up to her. The woman explained that Danas contract
was refused because the boss did not want to have any “Assis“ in his gym. While
delivering the bad news, the employee pointed at Danas hijab to convey her the
reason for the rejection. She justified her bosses decision by explaining that they try
the best possible to keep their reputation pure. Understandably, Dana felt humiliated
and started blaming the gym for being racist when dealing with Muslims.
I assume that everyone should recognize a racist motive in this situation. Otherwise,
your perception of racism might be disturbed. In class, we defined racism as an
ideology of inequality which includes the ranking of ethnic or national groups. This
“ranking“ is based on different negative characteristics, attributed by “superior
groups“ and addressed to the ones who are “of less worth and dignity“. In Danas
example, the owner of the gym attacks her cultural identity by referring to images
and prejudices against Muslims that our society has created. It is a typical example of
anti-Muslim racism. In this case, he perceives his culture and religion as more
dignified than the Muslims religion and the associated customs. Consequently, the
owner considers Muslims as not good enough and as a danger that “superior groups“
should avoid. He denotes her as an “Assi“, a term, which is usually associated with
something negative such as inappropriate behaviour.
This consideration helps us to decide which specific kind of racism is depicted in
Dana’s story.
First of all, this type of discrimination represents cultural racism, due to the fact that
someone else has assigned negative character traits of a certain group to Dana
without ever having spoken to her before. In this case, the gym’s owner is convinced
of the bad stereotypes and prejudices about Muslims that he is confronted with in his
everyday life. Furthermore, he judged Dana as a consequence of her outward
appearance and for the belief that her hijab symbolizes. However, I assume that the
experience mainly shows individual racism because the boss considers Dana, based
on his prejudices, as less disciplined and balanced than people who do not follow the

Mariella Aumann
POLITICS - 10b
ideas of the Islam. In addition, the employee gives her feelings of inferiority by saying
that they want to keep their reputation “pure“. Assuming that someone could ruin
the reputation of a whole gym just because they wear a hijab is inconceivably and
insulting. Moreover, she is excluded from visiting a public gym where usually
everyone who can pay the fees, is legally allowed to become a member.
Luckily, Dana stayed strong and raised her voice. She spread her story with the help
of magazines and social media around the country. Her courageous behaviour
showed that she - as a proud Muslim - acts completely different from the stereotype
that she has to deal with in her everyday life. The best thing about her action is that
on the one hand, it encouraged others to share their experiences with racism too and
on the other hand, it destroyed the gyms “pure reputation“.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSTPkFpT/