Danish/American, what is rotten in Denmark?

Submitted by Adib Farakish (Sweden), Apr 11, 2006 at 17:21

Danish/American: "About 15 years ago, one of my cousins, who was about 7 years old at the time, went to buy a magazine because one of those pop 'boy bands' was in it. My uncle gave her the money and she ran into the magazine/newspaper store. She quickly ran back out and when my uncle asked her what was wrong, she said "One of those people is working, I don't want to go in there". There had to be a reason for her to be scared of 'those' people. At her age, I cannot imagine what, but she was fightened. I am sure you can blame your discrimination on years of 'those' people breaking the law and the economy of Denmark."


Danish/American, you cannot judge the 1.2 billion people from a 7-year old child's behaviour. Chidren they are scared of throlls, they believe in Santa Claus, they love little mermaid- this doesnot prove the existence of such creatures.

Since you've told your story of your little cousin scared of 'those people', let me also tell you the story of my younger sister when she was 5 or 6 years old. We were on a river cruise in my country and there in the ship my sister met a white lady. The lady tried to be friendly with my sister and wanted to shake hands with her. But my sister run away from her, shouting, 'I can't touch you, you white people do not wash yourselves after using toilet, you're dirty, you smell bad!!' We were all embarrassed, and my parents apologised to the lady. Later we found out that my sister learnt those thing from an adult relative of ours who, for personal reasons, had little respect for European people. I still remember that my parents asked us not mix with that relative.

So Danish/American, what children say or believe, is what the adults teach them. Your counsin's behaviour speaks of what she had been taught by the adults in the family or in the school. If this is what your children are learning then there's no doubt that something is actually rotten in the state of Denmark!

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".