Acceptable racism

dynamic, Issue 7, Ivy Han, Ryan Inouye, Opinion - By Ivy Han on Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 03:26

Race is an extremely grave and sensitive topic. While people understand intellectually that racial discrimination is wrong, the subtle gradations of racism seem to escape most people’s minds.

No one would ever think of making racist slurs against African-American people and I believe no one ever should. The 200 years of slavery, the subsequent years of oppression and discrimination and the long hard fight for equality deserves such respect.

This sensitivity to racism also carries over to the Latino community as they seem to be facing similar hardships of supporting the American economy on their backs while getting horrible treatment and being underpaid for their services.
However, there are some forms of racism which, at first glance, do not seem like racism at all.

When a student asks me to be his tutor, it is flattering to know that they think I am smart enough to help him – until he lets me know that the subject he needs tutoring in is math.

It is in that awkward split-second that I have to let him know that I have never taken a single math class in the two and a half years I have attended Whittier College.

The assumption that all of the Asian people are good at math, that they all have small eyes, that they all drive badly… None of these stereotypes are that bad per se and some are even comical, but all of these are still forms of racism.

And while I understand that the Asian population in Whittier College is a little over 10 percent, we are not all simply “Asian.”

Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese are just a few ethnicities that are being forced into being “Pan-Asian.” The differences in our cultures, traditions and languages are completely disregarded and we become a single race – simply a group of people with black hair and pale skin.

Racism has been the root of a lot of evil in the world – the holocaust, slavery, and internment camps just to name a few. Racial superiority to me is a bunch of bovine scatology; it just does not exist.

As a person living in America, though, I can say I appreciate the racial and cultural diversity around me. I try to learn about different traditions from my Portuguese friends, my Vietnamese friends and my Polish friends.

Among different cultures, I suppose I know more about Chinese and Japanese cultures because they share many similarities to Korean cultures.

But here is some simple advice to the next person who wants to greet me with a cheerful “Konichiwa!” Please refrain yourself.