There are
some current events that I really want to react to, but I think it's best if I
stick with the plan. In a way, it does all relate.
There are
two thoughts that I left out of yesterday's post.
One is that
it is easy to be racist in Portland because there are so few people of
color, but that's not a very good excuse. I'm going to relate a different story
that I read about the same time as the BrownInPDX Tumblr, but I don't think it
was from there.
A black
woman had applied for a job and she thought she had done well on the interview,
but then she was told "I hired one of you before and she quit after a day,
so you can see why I'm reluctant."
I guess my
first response is to think of some of the horrible white employees I have seen,
but that's not really an answer. The difference is that you see enough
Caucasians that you know that it's not definitive. Shouldn't it be obvious then
that other skin colors are not definitive? That just because you have only met
a few black and brown people, it does not mean that there is not just as great
variety of personality and characteristics as white? That sounds obvious,
right?
So here are
the things that I want to point out. One is about the stereotyping that we do.
Yes there are often code words that are used, so we can pretend it's not about
skin color, but the racist roots are there. The purpose is to maintain a social
hierarchy where some people get to be on top, and people below them will defend
their right to be on top as long as they don't have to be on the bottom.
I just
finished One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest last night. In those terms, the
"pecking parties" may not be the point of "the Combine",
but they do help keep it functioning smoothly. I see the desire to be above
someone else manifest in a lot of different ways.
That is not
how we are supposed to be. Any satisfaction that comes from it is illusory, and
it produces real pain.
If the
issue is that people want to feel special, it is also completely unnecessary.
You are already special. I'm religious, so I will say that you're a child of
God, and that makes you special. If you don't like that, you're a human being.
You are capable of love and creativity. You can ask questions about and ponder
your own existence in a way that other species can't. You are special - not
more special than anyone else, but you don't need to be.
That leads
to the other important part. When people see an Asian woman walking by, and
assume she is Chinese, and greet her with "Ni hao", I believe there
is a brag in there. Look! I know a Chinese greeting!
You are
also reducing that woman to an audience for your great knowledge, and ignoring
the fact that if you are in the States that she has quite possibly lived her
entire life here, that even if her heritage is Chinese and not one of many
other possible countries of origin, she still may not even know Chinese, but
no, really, the important thing is that you know a word in another language. You
lived in Asia for a year, so you know you must
warn the Thai restaurant to not put any baby corn in your food even though it
is not mentioned on the menu and there is in fact none in the restaurant.
It would be
easy to go into tangents about street harassment now, or hair touching, or various
micro aggressions, but I'm not going to. There's already a lot out there. If
you are open to letting other people tell their stories, you can find it, and
if you're not, my repeating it will just annoy you.
What I can
say is that if you do know things, people tend to figure it out. Normal
interaction will let people know if you're intelligent. If you're ignorant,
that shows too.
That's why
it was appropriate that this set of posts started with a story about going
around L.A. with Steve and Jen. After a different trip with them (in Yellowstone), I wrote a post about humble
brags, and how they were so unnecessary. We could enjoy each others' company
and accomplishments, and it was good.
It's
important to remember how things can be when humans get it right.
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