A racist driver screamed, “learn to drive, f*cking P*ki” at a Muslim woman after she hesitated at a junction.
She described how the racist abuse caused her to ‘freeze’, adding that the man was “ferocious and angry”, which left her unable to recall any details about the vehicle he drove.
The woman, who wears the hijab, and is not South Asian, felt that the perpetrator had made a racist assumption because of her headscarf.
The racialisation of Muslims, which concerns “cultural factors in addition to traditional, physical markers of race and ethnicity”, has impacted other faith groups, including Sikhs, who have been racialised as “Arabs” in a post-9/11 and post-7/7 environment, due to the ‘othering’ and delegitimising of their non-Western faiths, according to some academics.
Other academics contend that placing the concept of racialisation within a differential model helps to explain how exclusionary behaviours and practises (structural or otherwise) stem from essientalising forms of cultural difference.
Following the incident on May 13, she pulled over and spoke to their daughter about the racist abuse.
She declined, however, to report the incident to Staffordshire Police, feeling that no action would be taken, given how she could not recall details of the vehicle and described the perpetrator as being a white male in his forties.
The woman has not returned to the area has gained a new job in another city and consented for Tell MAMA to report the incident to Staffordshire Police for intelligence.
Tell MAMA verified 58 incidents (7 per cent) in 2017 which involved cars or other vehicles.
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