Friday, March 10, 2006

Racism and....

I've been reading two postings that came out at the same time on Rollertrain and Hiromi_X, both regarding racism. Rollertrain is a white chick from the States and Hiromi is Japanese-American, second generation, as best I can tell.

Coincidentally, they did postings yesterday on racism, with the difference that Rollertrain (or Chagres, as she calls herself) was into the I'm white, therefore I'm guilty, mode of thinking on the subject, while Hiromi was into the chip on the shoulder, I'm Asian, therefore the injured party, mode.

The funny thing about these sorts of things is that you get articulate, smart people saying ignorant things and sometimes, just dumb things. I guess the good thing is that you've got a lot of people concerned about an important subject but aside from carrying a chip on their shoulder, as I say, I don't think any of them have really lived the racism thing for true.

Hiromi, for instance, talks about speaking English in Japan and freaking people out. But I don't think she's really run into the Japanese brand of racism, which sees people like her as mutant, racially impure folks who've been contaminated by western culture. She's got a lot learn, I'd say..

Chagres, on the other hand, seems to take the, "We're white, therefore racist", mode, albeit in a nice way...

Guys, really, give it a break, just be decent to people, call people on any overt racist actions/statements, etc., and please, please, please, stop generalizing/lumping people in set groups and/or presupposed modes of conduct. Anything to contrary, and well, you're just, uhm, prejudiced, at the least, if not racist yourself..

Like I say, give it a rest and be decent to all people with whom you deal, in the expectation that they will treat you likewise...

1 comment:

libby said...

werps - just found this post. thanks for being honest!