Evlyone's a Ritter Bit Lacist!

The muppets got it right. The Avenue Q muppets, that is. Check out the little excerpt below from one of the songs they sing...

Evlyone's a ritter bit lacist! (sung by the Asian muppet)

"Everyone's a little bit racist
Sometimes.
Doesn't mean we go
Around committing hate crimes.
Look around and you will find
No one's really color blind.
Maybe it's a fact
We all should face
Everyone makes judgments
Based on race...."



Avenue Q is a hilarious musical and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone. This song in particular has been humming in the back of my mind the past week and a half as I've been constantly confronted by small acts of racism that people I know have been enduring. Fortunately, I myself have not been the target of these attacks, but, in a way, when anyone is attacked, we should all as a community be hurt, offended, and horrified.

I'm shocked. And not in a good way. I know I can be naive, but admittedly I'm guilty of thinking we've moved beyond random statements like, "Go back to China!" Actually, this happened to me once. Over ten years ago, I was walking through Covent Garden in London during my junior year abroad in college and I passed by an elderly gentleman in a suit and tie holding a briefcase who said to me in a normal tone of voice without ever looking me in the face, "Go back to Japan." I took a few more steps, disbelieving my ears, came to a faltering halt and turned around. He was already far away and it certainly wasn't worth it to run back to him and ask him what in the hell he meant by that. I know what he meant and it's not like I was going to fundamentally change his attitude towards me or my race (I'm Korean, by the way) that day. So I continued on, bemused by the events of the day, never to see or hear from him, or anyone like him, again.

That may have been ten years ago, but trust me, it still happens today.
And now, here I'm going to admit my own prejudice. When I think of racism, I think of Tennessee, West Virginia, Arizona, Italy, and random rural towns. I don't usually think of the North East or big cities or university campuses. I assume that educated folks aren't so ignorant, but here's where my bias is wrong and I truly apologize for it. It happens everyday, everywhere, which is why we can't afford to stop being vigilant. We have to continue to bring it up, continue to voice our concerns and objections, and force others to acknowledge that though their words are not the equivalent perhaps of a hate crime, it doesn't mean that it's no less racist or no less offensive. I'm reminded of the controversy over the building of the Islamic Center in lower Manhattan. Isn't New York City supposed to be the melting pot? When you walk around NYC, one of the things that is most apparent is the enormous diversity of the population. Being from New York, I've always liked that no matter what you may look like, you pretty much fit in because noone really cares too much. And yet, look at what's happening? I understand that many people were traumatized by the events of 9/11, I don't think I'll ever forget that day. The images, repeated over and over, of the collapse of the twin towers, is forever ingrained in my memory. But I can't allow that horrific event to take away a fundamental piece of myself - that of openness and acceptance. (I don't like the word tolerance, I "tolerate" mosquitoes in the summer but it doesn't mean that if I had the ability I wouldn't want to eradicate them from the face of the earth!)

When I was in grad school, one of the books we had to read was called, "Overcoming Unintentional Racism." Basically, it meant the same thing as the musical. The assumption is that everyone is at least a little bit racist. The trick is figuring it out and making efforts to overcome reactions or responses that have been deeply ingrained in our psyche. Oh, and let me also be the first to acknowledge on behalf of my ethnicity that Koreans are definitely very ethnocentric and racist. There's no two ways about it. In May this year, French president Sarkozy passed a law that bans full-face veils worn by Muslim women, imposing a $185 fine if they are caught in violation of the ban! Balotelli, born in Italy and of Ghanaian ethnic heritage, is a soccer player for Inter Milan in Italy, and his own countrymen boo him everytime he touches the ball! When he walks into the stadium he is confronted with grafitti reading, "You are not a true Italian, you are a black African." Shocked yet?

So what can we do about it? We can continue to bring it up, to call each other out on it, to respectfully agree and yet say we still have a ways to go when someone says that society has come so far. We can choose not to roll our eyes when others bring up issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation. We can teach our children and lead by example. We should also be aware of our own limitations and be kind to ourselves when we feel powerless. We can make a concerted effort to diversify our circle of friends. And we can admit to ourselves and to others when we note our own small prejudices and work to make a change starting from within.