White House Racism? Seema Jilani Claims Racism For Being Muslim at White House Correspondents Dinner
The White House has come under fire after Dr. Seema Jilani, a physician and freelance journalist accused security guards for being racist to her when she attended the White House Correspondents dinner last month.
Jiliani said she attended the glamorous event on April 28 with her husband who is a journalist for a newspaper. She didn't have tickets to the main ballroom party like her husband, but had access to the cocktail party.
The physician has recalled in her blog via the Huffington Post her accounts of being treated unfairly at the event.
After the one-hour long cocktail hour, Jilani prepared herself to leave and walk back to her car, when she realized that her husband who had already gone into the main ballroom, still had her keys.
Attempting to enter the ballroom, she said "externally contracted security representatives" when she asked security guards if she could meet her husband to obtain her keys.
"You can't go down without a ticket," a security guard responded. Jiliani said she explained her situation and that she only wanted to get her keys from her husband. She tried to reach her husband for an hour, but he did not answer. Standing outside the ballroom, and being unable to reach her husband on his for an hour, Jilani said she watched as security allow "countless other women through, all Caucasian, without even asking to see their tickets."
When she questioned and confronted the security guards about the women without tickets, one responded: "Well, now we are checking tickets."
She became extremely upset when one of the guards said: "We have to be extra careful with you all after the Boston bombings."
According to her profile, Jilani has worked in overseas in places like Israel, Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt and the Balkans. She has been freelancing as a journalist for Pacifica Radio for eight years.
