Iranians in America, dealing with bias, firsthand accounts by Peter Khan Zendran

The problem was I got too comfortable there. Some people were surprised that I knew Sergei Khrushchev from events at Brown’s Watson Institute that were sponsored by the Middle East Studies Department. Some Brown students knew me from protests I had helped organize and lead at Brown. Some didn’t know right away that I had an Iranian last name and that I was half-Asian, my long blond hair throwing them off. I would soon find out that some people there had a problem with my being offended whenever I heard someone telling a Middle Eastern joke. I soon found myself in trouble with the company’s President, Frank Lennon, over an irate customer I had at the store, the only time I ever had trouble at the store. On November 3, right after I opened up, some man claiming to know a friend of mine walked in and began running his mouth about how the whole Middle East should be bombed and that everyone there was a terrorist. Needless to say I did not put up with that man and after an argument with him he left. On the following Saturday Frank e-mailed me telling me that man had called him about me. I noticed in his e-mail to me that half the stuff that man said about me were lies, but Frank still told me not to return to work until I had spoken with him. I met with him the next Saturday at the K-77. He told me that if I had an irate customer like that again I was to put up with them. I told Frank I would not put up with offensive and inflammatory language from anybody and after arguing with him for well over 30 minutes Frank told me that if I would not put up with people like that then I could not work with the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation in a public capacity. I made arrangements with him to pick up some things I had left at the store, including a commissioning
program of the USS Rhode Island commissioning in 1994 which I had saved since I had attended that event and had put there on display as a loan.

I then left the K-77 office.

Was the fact that I am half-Asian who has an Iranian last name a factor? It might not be considered as one except for the fact that few people of Asian/ Middle Eastern origin had worked with the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation for a long period of time. More telling was the fact that my dismissal was based on a lone complaint and I had helped pick up business for that organization while doing something I enjoyed while having very few problems with the people that worked there. However, when all was said and done the fact that I was a half-Asian man with an Iranian last name was a factor. Whether or not is was an acknowledged factor is something for people to argue, but is is a factor still.

This kind of behavior I had experienced before. In March 1999, when I was only 20, I was made Treasurer and Board Member of Mental Health Consumer Advocates of Rhode Island, the youngest such executive in the state. When I was there I had began organizing that company’s first fundraiser and had helped advocate for consumers of mental health services who’s needs were neglected, even setting legal precedents in doing so. The only problems I had were finding people I could trust to work with, having other people take credit for my work and in some cases being lied about, and not getting proper recognition. Later that year I successfully nominated a friend of mine from Shiraz, Bijan, on my 21st birthday as a board member of that organization. I knew Bijan from a soup kitchen I had volunteered at. In 1997 while working there I had gotten some high school kids to stop picking on him because he was an immigrant, he in return helped me get out of state custody by the social workers who did not know my family well by giving them a little “cultural sensitivity” to Iranians, especially after the way I had been mistreated by the state. Since getting out of state custody in July 1998 I had done well for myself and when I heard Bijan was having some trouble I helped him out. My making him a board member of Mental Health Consumer Advocates of RI was my way of thanking him. Bijan and I each found ourselves complaining about similar things. For instance, when we each received our company appointment book we each complained that No Ruz was not listed along with other holidays. We also found it hard to find reliable people to work with and people were often taking credit for our work.

By having someone else who could complain about the same thing I would made me feel good since I knew I was not alone. Bijan and I would be wronged by MHCA-RI as well. For instance Bijan had brought his computer to MHCA-RI’s main location for his personal use after receiving permission to do so from the Director. Several months later the new Director Diane Cape stole his computer and would not return it when Bijan asked her to. That same Director used lies spread about me by other board members to convince MHCA-RI’s President to terminate my position as Finance Committee Chairman. Bijan’s response was to file a lawsuit against that Director, while mine was to complain to MHCA-RI’s funding source after I got my membership suspended in July 2000 which saw fit to terminate that Director. Curiously in October 2000 Bijan, Diane, and I were invited to meet Surgeon General David Satcher at the release of his report on Mental Health. The Surgeon General asked me about how people can simulate Mental Illnesses, Bijan got his picture taken with the Surgeon General, while Diane sat in the back watching.

With the situations that Bijan and I found ourselves in one thing is clear. That because we were of Iranian background people thought that we could be exploited. They thought wrong and it hurt, for us the exploited and the exploiters. Had I been the only target the role of biaq would be in question, but with Bijan and I being duly harassed it was clear that bias was a factor.

The two situations I just described are just examples of stuff that happens often. Bias does not just express itself at work. How many times have we as Iranians gotten angry and punched someone for telling a dune coon joke and have people say we overreacted while a Jew can have someone arrested for questioning the facts about the holocaust? Or how often have Iranians been called terrorists because most of us are Muslim? Or been rejected for a job for which you are overly qualified by a company who employees are of Iranian heritage, if they have any, can be counted on your fingers? Or been arrested or strip searched because you looked suspicious? If you think these actions are not based on whether or not you are of Iranian descent consider how often incidents like what I described happened before 1979 in America. If you still doubt it then ask yourself how would you react in any of the situations I described. Or if any of those situations ever happen to you then ask yourself was it because of something you had done or because you were of Iranian heritage.