“What are the challenges and what are the opportunities we face in a time when some people are saying that if a black man can be elected president we have become a post-racial society? How do we encourage white people to take responsibility for challenging specific forms of white privilege built around issues of land, labor, education, housing, and self-identity? Let’s move beyond generalities about racism and white privilege and move into responsibility for addressing concrete issues of racial justice.”
-Paul Kiven, educator, writer, activist
My Story
I didn’t realize it then, but when I was playing basketball with kids one to two years older than me in middle school, they weren’t impressed and hooting because of my younger age when I scored a few shots. It was because of my race.
I’m Asian. Stereotypically, I wasn’t supposed to be good at basketball. Heck, I wasn’t even supposed to be athletic under conventional views, perhaps with the exception of martial arts and ping pong (both of which I played and practiced).
So when that convention is broken, it’s much like business. You become an anomaly. If it’s a negative stereotype, and you managed to overcome it, that makes it positive. And vice versa.
Asians are supposed to be smart. I lived up to that.
Asians are supposed to be bad drivers. Luckily, I moved to a different community, one in which the minority became the majority, so that racial imprint was rendered mute.
That doesn’t mean I had it easy though.
Minority vs Minority
Surprisingly, from my personal experience, it was those who are subjugated to racial prejudice throughout history that disparaged against me the most. Although I admit that white Americans did not comprise of the majority of the demographic makeup of my middle school, it’s interesting that they have never made any racial slurs. Now I can’t say they didn’t have a certain perception of me, whether it’s positive or negative, but I never heard anything that was supposed to elevate or degrade me because of my race.
(My English teacher claims that we’re inherently all somewhat racist. We may be uncomfortable around a specific demographic of people, although there is no logic rationale behind this.)
Hispanics and black Americans, on the other hand, were a different story. Perhaps it is their culture to be liberal and transparent in their thoughts, regardless of what others may think. Maybe it’s instilled in white American culture to be somewhat conservative with projecting your views, which is something that has recently experienced a pervasive influx for what’s deemed politically correct or not.
(Now as a quick side note, I am not, by any means, trying to label any body as a whole. I’m a human being; I make assumptions and observations. And I know plenty of people, of many races, who break all stereotypes typically associated with them.)
I remember distinctly, a Hispanic student taunting me, dragging his eyes into slits to mock me because I’m Asian.
I retorted that my eyes were bigger than his.
Today, I wonder if I could’ve approached that differently. Of course, I don’t have the wisdom and self-awareness I have today, but I never wondered what caused him to act in that manner? It couldn’t have been to look cool around his friends, because there was nobody nearby. He must have learned such behavior elsewhere, but where? Parents may instill certain views on other races in their kids, but they won’t (or at least, I hope not) encourage them to publicly degrade others due to their races. There’s no decency in that.
Of course, it’s easy to say that kids are influenced by other kids, which then begs the question, where does it all began?
I’m not sure there is an answer. It’s one of the mysteries of social dynamics, akin to one of the greatest mysteries in physics, which is what exactly causes everything? In fact, some theoretical physicists like Sean Carroll, author of The Big Picture, actually prefer to forgo the causal thinking altogether, and view everything in the form of a timeline, where time is the only differentiating factor, and every moment is just one snapshot after the other.
Of course, there’s no convenient answers to such questions, and we may have to accept the phenomenons within life as it is.
The Insecurity Argument
What I did conclude though, from that incident, is that those of a minority that degrade other minorities do so because they want to feel in power, in control for once. It’s insecurity, a great human flaw. Historically, whites have been raised on a pedestal, and has become the international iconic race everyone looks up to. Eastern cultures purposively use skin products that could make themselves paler, like whites. America is the hub of technological advances and progress that others attempt to mimic. The term “Americanized” has been instilled in society, and it’s not just to assimilate, to fit in, and not be ostracized.
Whites, by some cultures, are viewed as superior. Yet, even after attempt these days to destruct such barriers of projected inequity, there are still those who relentlessly seek to underscore the differences amongst ourselves.
I have two responses.
First is that pure equality will never be achieved. Everyone has a different history, a different background, and a different set of beliefs. We’re never going to be the same. We’re individuals. We mate with others different than ourselves, so the human race may progress. We value diversity of thought for it encompasses all perspectives, any one of them which may be right.
Those who are naturally built like an athlete have a better chance of pursuing professional sports than those who aren’t. Those who naturally smarter may have an advantage, but they may allow their intelligence to get the better of themselves and become lazy. In the end, the determined win; the lethargic lose.
One adamant belief I have is regardless of how dire your circumstances are, everyone has the potential to achieve success and greatness. Perhaps others may have an edge, but oftentimes, they fail to have that same innate motivation and drive.
Life’s not fair. Demanding fairness is futile. We live in a capitalist society.
Moreover, as UCR philosophy professor, Eric Schwitzgebel, posited in an article:
‘The kids who always talk about being fair and sharing,’ I recall him saying, ‘mostly just want you to be fair to them and share with them.’
This stems back to the insecurity argument.
The Superiority Argument
Second, I do believe that regarding others in a superior fashion is very much a mental construct. Of course, our environment has a huge influence on our upbringing, but a continual belief that another is somehow objectively better than you is just a continued manifestation of the mind. It’s the ability to ignore all the positives and center on the negatives, of which it would be incredibly easy then to place the blame on others.
Humans have developed this wonderful neocortex that can do calculations and conduct rationale that other animals could only dream of. Yet, it can be treacherous. We have this innate ability to justify anything, that something evil is good, that something immoral is moral, that something bad is good. And vice versa.
The argument of supposed superiority is a problem of mindset. Without fixing it, only the negative emotions of frustration, anger, incompetence, and hatred emerge.
Another interesting note is that perhaps environment has a larger impact than we care to admit. Certain cultures like Eastern ones embrace the white culture and aspire to be them. Regardless of whether they view whites as superior, there is positive relationship in place. White culture remains an aspiration, a goal.
On the other hand, other demographics, such as blacks, may vouch for the polar opposite. (Again, I say ‘may’ because this is a sensitive topic.) There’s an extreme focus on the negatives: how white culture are implementing tidbits of culture that are historically black, or how historically whites have undermined blacks and their potential.
That is not to undermine history, as it is very dark, but Asians were exploited to toil and construct railroads too, most of which aren’t even used anymore.
Acceptance
In either case, the focus of others over oneself is a phenomenon not centered just to race, but across other mediums too. A prime example is keeping up with the Joneses, augmented by our increasing adoption of social media. Yet, at its core, it’s just an insult and lack of respect of oneself to aspire to live, have, or be like others.
Something that self-help gurus preach is that you will never be a first-rate version of someone else. You will always be second. So you might as well be yourself.
This is analogous to ancient philosopher Plato’s three beds. The first bed is the original, all others are manifestations that seek to emulate the former. Yet, it’ll never be the former.
Just like how whites can’t be black, blacks can’t be Hispanics, Hispanics can’t be Asian, etc…
Although we’re not quite in a post-racial era yet, it’s about time we own it to ourselves and everyone and take a leap of faith, not as individual races, but as humanity. We must make peace with our our nature. We all want to be someone else, but ourselves because we only see the positives in others and not ourselves.
We won’t be exactly content, but we can be accepting. Because the moment we decide to be great, we’ll never be content. Because we could always be greater and be better. We will always have that gnawing sense that things can be better. We hate complacency.
But then again, the process is always sweeter than the pinnacle.
