Mistaken for an Iraqi, Local Store Owner Verbally, Financially Abused

I am not going to identify the town or the young man in this account because (a) I do not have the young man's permission to identify him and (b) there are still some Americans who are dangerous and the young man could be harmed.

In the beginning, when Bush attacked Iraq and many Americans were whipped up into a frenzy against anyone who even remotely looked like they might be from Iraq; it was not easy for a Middle Easterner to live in the United States. This particular young man owns a convenience store and often works alone. I knew that some of our more ignorant citizens were giving him a hard time when they could catch him alone in the store, so I never quit doing business with him. He had owned the store on that corner for several years and had always been nice to everyone he met.

One day, I asked if he was having difficulty staying open. He just smiled and said not to worry. He would be alright. Then, for some reason, I asked his nationality. He laughed out loud and said, "Mam, I'm Italian." I was stunned! I said, "You're joking!" He continued to laugh, probably at the look on my face, and said "No, Mam. I'm not joking. Born and raised right outside of Rome." As I stuttered and stammered, "but... but... but...," he continued on and told me that his grandparents had been brought to Italy, as children, from Syria when their parents emigrated. So he really is an Italian... born and raised in Italy, and has never been to the Middle East in his life. He doesn't even know anybody in the Middle East.

"But" I finally got out, "how did you get here?" He smiled again and tilted his head toward the Italian restaurant next door. The owners and their children go to Italy every summer, on a working vacation. They eat in good Italian restaurants so they can bring back new recipes and new ideas. This young man and their daughter began dating during one of their summer trips and the summer romance turned into marriage and three little boys in the suburbs of the United States.

I was speechless. First, the viciousness shown by Americans at the start of this war is inexcusable. Second, innocent people were beaten and killed on the streets of the United States because of American behavior that has no other adjectives for it but ignorant and evil. Finally, what in the world could a good little Italian Catholic young man have possibly done to anyone to have been verbally abused the way he was, as well as having his property vandalized and his business almost ruined? No one had ever thought to get to know him. He looks like he is from the Middle East and that's all it took.

Today, his customers have all come back. It didn't take long for word to get around that he is an Italian Catholic - but that shouldn't matter. He is a good person and it shouldn't matter even if he had been from Iraq. No one has apologized, but they all sit in the booths he has in his store, drinking coffee and talking about the way we got in this war, and about all the lies, and how we ought to take our boys and get them out of there right now today. To his credit, the owner of the convenience store has been nothing but nice to them all. Yet, he never joins in their conversations. He doesn't trust them... as well he shouldn't. He has seen what they are capable of and there was nothing redeemable in it.