8/15/2009

Rant Time: Twittering

so it's rant time. A Bollywood star was held for hours at Newark airport, apparently because of his name. That's bad, obviously, and it shouldn't happen. He had to call the Indian Consulate to get them to vouch for him. He had just done some filming in the US on a movie called "My Name is Khan" about racial profiling against Muslims.

However, what made me mad was the response mentioned in the news article from another Bollywood actress, Priyanka Chopra: "Shocking,disturbing n downright disgraceful.Its such behavior that fuels hatred n racism.SRK's a world figure for Gods sake.GET REAL!!" Yes, it's shocking and unfortunate, but this guy is not a world figure. I've never heard of him. Get real? That Americans don't know a Bollywood star famous for mainly Hindi movies in India?

Obviously this sort of racial profiling is bad, but who knows the whole story? I don't and Priyanka Chopra doesn't. I guess Twitter is sort of a way to respond instantly, but sometimes you need to wait. Maybe he had the same name as somebody on the terror watch list, or maybe he was doing something to arouse suspicion. Then again, maybe it was just a dumb guard who saw the name "Khan," which is what Khan said. Nobody knows, for God's sake. The end.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bollywood films are watched by more people world-wide than Hollywood films. Just because you've never heard of him, doesn't mean he's not popular in another part of the world.

Andrew W said...

That may be, but they're complaining that he's a "world figure" and yet he's not known in the US. Why would he be? The movies aren't shown here much.

Anonymous said...

exactly. there are americans held because of their names. innocent people because of extra breast milk in their carry-on or hand sanitizer. it's ridiculous, but i've still never seen a bollywood film myself.

henry young said...

That's terrible, when will we put a stop to this nonsense. Yes, I understand that we need to protect our country, but if he says he's a STAR, then let him go by w/o any hassles. What will he think of we as Americans?

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