Reynesha X

Comedy Central recently re-ran the Reno 911 episode where Reynesha (the black female cop) converted to Islam (the Nation of Islam, of course) and threw the whole department in a tizzy. She spent the majority of the show berating the white people she came across as 'the devil.'

I TiVo'd it cuz I hadn't seen the whole thing, but I was interested because you *never* see African-American Muslims (NOI or otherwise) on television. Ever. It's almost like we don't exist. I watched it the other day and wanted to share my thoughts.

Now "Reno 911" is definitely not the place for enlightenment or insight or anything other than low-brow humor (tho it is funny at times). The end of the show revealed that she "converted" in order to get the entire month of Ramadan off (I wish!). She wanted to go to Las Vegas (notice the irony?).

I have to admit that I *loved* the way she wore her hijab(if you click the link there's a video). I'm *extremely* hijab illiterate, unfortunately. One (somewhat unexpected) storyline was that the black male cop thought she was sexy and decided to "convert" so he could date her.

Basically the show was a distilling of white American fears of Islam: it's a 'foreign' religion for black and brown people who want to kill white folks.

The characters (including the supposed convert) revealed their ignorance of Islam througout the show. The show was (sort of) making fun of their ignorance, but mostly making fun of the strange requirements of that weird religion. It's instructional because it reveals a basic and complete misunderstanding of even the fundamental tenets of Islam. It never occurs to anyone to find out more or even to question the 'convert.'

One of the subtexts is, of course, that Reynesha chose Islam because it strikes fear into the hearts of white folks and they don't know enough (and are afraid) to question her about it. One of the best gags in the show comes in the beginning when she is sitting fully veiled at the morning police officers' briefing and no one wants to say anything to her about it.

I know I shouldn't be, but I'm still amazed at how little people really know about Islam. This show really brought that home for me.