The leaf

The chalk

The fertilizer

MOGETA

The snow

A few weeks ago when school was ending I told a teacher of mine that I wanted to act on Broadway, that being in the theater life for the rest of my life was my dream.

You know what happened?

They looked me straight in the eye and said that I’d need to change my last name. Why? Because I have an Arab / Middle-Eastern last name.

They recommended I changed my last name and try not to be open about my heritage because Broadway and theater in general isn’t very nice to Arabs / Middle-Easterners.

THE FACT THAT THE BANDS VISIT SWEPT THE TONYS LIKE THEY DID MADE ME BAWL LIKE A BABY.

A wicked grin split across my face and the gates of Hell opened up behind me, releasing a gust of hot wind that whipped my apron around my body and forced the woman to shield her face. Demons came forth, dancing around in flames with songs of, “She wants to speak to a manager. Did you hear that? She wants to speak to a manager!” before erupting into earsplitting shrieks of laughter, none louder than my own cackling.

I took in the woman’s look of utter horror before my eyes rolled back into my head and I growled,

Good Friday has historically been a time where (mainly white European) people’s anti-semitism would come out and shine. During medieval times, Holy Week became a time where priests would deliver homilies during the mass condemning the “perfidis Judæis” - the infidel Jews- and Holy Week also became a time where Jews would face violence.

While the Church has mended its anti-semitic ways, many people still hold this sentiment with the added bonus of Islamophobia and xenophobia now. Despite the fact that blaming Jews for killing Jesus is theologically absurd since Christian doctrine dictates that Jesus was destined to die to fulfill prophecies, let’s look at it from a different lens.

If today a brown Middle Eastern man who opposed capitalistic greed, and believed in giving women dignity rather than slut-shaming them, were to be persecuted by the oppressive state government of his land, how many “good Christians” would stand against that?

If Christ were in his homeland today in the Middle East, he would face state oppression, and people like Trump would be the Pontius Pilates, and right wing Christians would be the crowd shouting for Barabass to be freed rather than Jesus.

YPG