Debbie Almontaser was fired from her job in 2007  heading a school to teach Arabic in New York City. The idea of speaking Arabic has taken on greater relevance especially after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The idea being that maybe Americans should stop guessing and using stereotypes and racism to make judgments about the Arab World and instead use their brains is unique when it comes to addressing Middle East issues. So the school made sense.

What didn't make sense was the outrageous assault that was directed against Ms. Almontaser when an anti-Arab reporter at the New York Post singled Ms. Almontaser out for attack in a clearly distorted and biased article. Again, what else is new in New York City, the capitol of hate and bigotry when it comes to American Arabs?

The reporter cast Almontaser as a "jihadist," something that the media often does to American Arabs who dare to challenge the hatred and bias in this country. She was fired from her job and every civil rights activist in the American Jewish community, pro-Israel community, post-9/11 activists and just plain old average "Amerkans" came out and applauded her firing. After all, she was "Arab" and didn't ALL ARABS attack America on Sept. 11, 2001?

Almontaser filed a law suit and complaint with the EEOC and guess what? She won. The New York EEOC ruled that in fact Almontaser was the victim of discrimination. They even went so far as to chastise the New York Post and the reporter for taking her words out of context - distorting her comments to make her appear to be a Jihadist.

Like that doesn't happen every day in American newspapers when it comes to American Arabs? Like New York City isn't one of the most racist, hateful cities in America? Like the New York Post is somehow the only newspaper that engages in anti-Arab practices, routinely denying jobs to American Arabs and slanting stories at almost every level to cast American Arabs in a negative light.

And of course, organizations like the Society of Professional Journalists have a hard time addressing that kind of problem. Oh, they love us to join and they take our money and we have minor roles and they give us this one blog - which has come under attack by a few past presidents and SPJ board members for daring to embrace the journalism cynicism that American journalism seems to have lost.

Click here to read the New York Times story on the Ugly Post, the racism and the decision of the EEOC that many in New York are now brushing off by saying, well, that's the EEOC's job to find discrimination where it doesn't exist.

At least read this section and weep for the condemnation of the New York Post's role in this sordid journalism inspired witch hunt:

Nonetheless, in response to mounting inquiries about the shirts, the Department of Education pressured her to give an interview to The New York Post, she said. In that interview, with a department employee listening in, she explained that the root of the word intifada meant "shaking off," but that it had acquired other connotations because of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle.

 The next day, The Post published the article under the headline "City Principal Is 'Revolting' - Tied to 'Intifada NYC' Tee Shirts," stating that Ms. Almontaser had "downplayed the significance" of the T-shirts. (Federal judges later issued a ruling - related to a lawsuit brought by Ms. Almontaser - stating that The Post had reported her words "incorrectly and misleadingly.")

 It was The Post's article, the commission wrote in its letter this week, that prompted the Department of Education to force Ms. Almontaser to resign. (City officials have said that she resigned voluntarily.)

"Significantly, it was not her actual remarks, but their elaboration by the reporter - creating waves of explicit anti-Muslim bias from several extremist sources - that caused D.O.E. to act," the commission's letter said.

This country is still so ugly when it comes to race and New York City and the Post and other newspapers there are even uglier.

Not that anyone in American Journalism cares about practicing what they preach. It's so much easier to be racist in society and in American mainstream journalism.

Congratulations Debbie Almontaser for standing up for your rights in a forum packed with bigots, racists and worse, unprofessional journalism - don't expect the SPJ or other major journalism associations to stand by your side, though. It might cost them members, over principle.

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