How can I combat Islamaphobic accusations about use of public space?

January 16, 2016 5:09 PM

Neighbours of family have been alleging bizarre behaviour from "Muslims" and I'm trying to figure out if this is observer bias, cross-cultural misunderstanding, or what? The specific allegations are public defecation in a park (a long narrow park, where the anyone can be seen from the road and the houses on the other side of the road), and use of other people's private property (specifically lawn furniture/patio furniture). The second one I think may be a misunderstanding, but the first one baffles me. More context:

A description of the area may be important:
I have family who live in a small town that has become joined to a nearby small city which is a major tourist hotspot. The town is right on the other side of a major attraction from the rest of the city, on a pretty river, which is crossed by/perpendicular to a bridge and the main street (lets call it Main Street) in the town. Main Street leads directly to/from that major attraction. There is also a street running parallel to the river (lets call is River Street). A park runs along the river on one side Main Street; on the other side the first maybe 15 meters are still park, and then the river front is private property leased by the people with houses on the other side of River Street. In other words, there is a beautiful (but very public) park a short drive from a major tourist attraction, and pretty close to a bunch of others, so it's common for tourists to come through and to picnic or eat take-out in the park.

The neighbours of my family insist that "Muslim" families--by which I assume they mean families in which one or more women are wearing a head scarf, but they may well mean families they are categorizing as "Muslims" based on skin tone (so could be South Asian, Middle Eastern, North African, Latino, who knows)--defecate in the park and leave it there. They claim to have repeatedly come upon evidence of this (meaning people poop) when walking dogs, etc, and even to have sort-of witnessed it. It's not clear whether they mean just the children, or adults too. There are public washrooms and a nearby fast food restaurant, so bathrooms are available. Since this is borderline crazy behaviour in any event, but in particular I would think it's against cleanliness rules in Islam, can anyone explain what these neighbours of my family think they are seeing? Is there some other public-pooper and the locals are just assuming that the people doing it are the ones that look the most "foreign"?

The other issue is that the place where the park turns into private property isn't demarcated that well. Families, also identified as "Muslims" (so who knows, see above) apparently regularly use the private areas, where the people leasing the land have set up little groups of patio furniture in front of their houses. It's obvious (to me, anyway) that the furniture belongs to people and not to a park, but not obvious that the park land doesn't continue. So is this a case of people using what they think is still part of the park, people assuming that the owners of the private furniture wouldn't leave it out like that if they had a problem with people using it, or an actual lack of respect for private property?

I am tired of putting up with variations on the theme that this is "proof" that "Muslims" are dirty and have no respect for private property, which is not only untrue (and the opposite of what I have ever experienced from Muslim colleagues and acquaintances in particular and visible minorities/people of colour in general), but also is a back door to even worse stereotypes and racism. I have tried explaining that much, and just get "I know what I've seen". In the faint hope of not writing off all of these people as weirdly and incurably racist, is there some other explanation I can give them to help convince them that there's another explanation for what they think is happening?

posted by sarahkeebs to Society & Culture (12 answers total)

You could do a stake out and catch whichever of your neighbors is pooping the false flag in the park.
posted by bongo_x at 5:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [8 favorites]

Clearly, those neighbors are being racist. Right now they're focused on their prejudices, which are completely bullshit, but will be hard to change and probably something your family can't fix on their own, sadly. It's also distracting from the heart of the issue: the parks' boundaries are unclear and tourists (regardless of race, etc.) are not using the park properly. The neighborhood could speak to the town council about marking boundaries more clearly, having Park and Rec reassess park usage and needs, and request law enforcement patrol the area more often. You could even talk to town council about how great it is that the area is becoming more popular with tourists but that also the town needs to make sure residents' needs are being met, too.

I hope that these neighbors eventually become more open-minded. For now though, I'd try to focus on the tangible things that can be improved. Fewer problems will lead to less stress for everyone involved. Good luck!
posted by smorgasbord at 5:29 PM on January 16, 2016

1. It's dog/raccoon/possum/goose (seriously, have you ever seen gooseshit? It's the worst) shit. Somebody said they saw a "Muslim" do it and nobody questions it because it supports their worldview. I heard the same thing, but with black people, in the '80s, and Indians in the '90s. This is an old reliable racist standby.
2. Local high/drunk teens are the main consumers of private public furniture in my experience, but it's just as likely no one is using them. If you believe them others are shitting in the park, then of course they're also abusing local furniture, these people have no respect!
posted by rodlymight at 5:46 PM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]

Information that may be useful:

FWIW, I frequently see Muslim (I can reliably confirm they are likely Muslim) families eating in the public parks in my area. I see Muslims in the park far more than I see them anywhere else (supermarket, kid events), but that is likely coincidental.

I know as someone that does almost all of my fieldwork in a Muslim country, that many Muslims have different attitudes toward bathrooms and cleanliness than North Americans do. In my experience, Muslims are much more concerned about hygiene and washing up than North Americans. This involves butt washers and far greater concern for handwashing, especially before meals. In my experience, "two-second-rule" for food that dropped doesn't happen. When I pick up and wipe off a fork that fell on the floor and then use it, my dining mates are in shock. Many people do not believe that dishwashers do a good enough job at cleaning dishes. I've never been to a Muslim's home that wasn't extremely clean.

I also know that lots of culture that are not the WASPy North American one I grew up in have different ways that children are taught to use the bathroom and I've seen first hand more "public" pooing abroad than I have in the US (and I have a small child). Also diapers are expensive.

But yeah, I think that these people are probably just being assholes.
posted by k8t at 5:54 PM on January 16, 2016 [7 favorites]

Concrete suggestions:

Those with little patios on the line of the park should make a nice sign that says "private property" and put it up near their little patio area or maybe specifically on the table/chairs that says something like "private property for owners only, please use the park tables located ->". They chose (I assume) to live near this park and this must have been within the range of possible outcomes. This is also how I feel about people that complain about living near an elementary school - you know that traffic is going to be insane twice a day September-June, and you sure like using their basketball courts, huh?

If these people really are concerned about public pooping in the park (P^3), they should contact the relevant authorities to investigate and let it go. You can instruct them that they really have no idea as to the identity of the pooper.
posted by k8t at 6:04 PM on January 16, 2016

I can very easily imagine that there are homeless people or people sleeping rough in your park who wear beards and don't have access to toilets.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 7:18 PM on January 16, 2016 [10 favorites]

LAPD just did a sweepout of homeless encampments on the river; they took out 18.5 tons of waste, which includes 150 pounds of feces and urine. In other words: public pooping is a thing, but I suspect that there's a great deal less of it happening than these folks are perceiving.
posted by SMPA at 9:18 PM on January 16, 2016

This is racism plus urban legend and nothing more. Tell them to stop being asshats, and stop believing what other asshats say without concrete proof.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:25 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

"You have got to be fucking joking," and forcefully changing the subject might be an approach.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:26 PM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]

Some members of my family once got their panties in a twist about supposed Indian immigrants who were supposedly building a huge multi-million dollar mansion compound to house their copious relatives they were bringing over to ruin everything and steal everyone's jobs. My reaction was "that doesn't sound right" with a side of "well I guess if that's what they want to do." I changed the subject and never heard about it again. I never found out if it was "true" or not, though it doesn't matter, because who cares.

Getting involved in the mystery is just going to reinforce that this is actually a thing. Ignoring it implies that it's dumb and racist and they are being dumb by getting het up about it.
posted by Sara C. at 11:53 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

All of these people are weird and incurably racist. Tell them to fvck off.
posted by LarryC at 12:35 AM on January 17, 2016 [3 favorites]

I wanted to follow up with this: I had read the original post as two separate questions, what to do about 1) neighbors being racist and 2) a park being misused. If your family isn't concerned about the park (what my previous advice was focused on) and just wondering how to deal with the racist neighbors, I agree with LarryC here: just tell them to buzz off!
posted by smorgasbord at 8:58 AM on January 17, 2016