Racism in modern times

So here is something I wrote last September from my experiences — namely, my first month or so in college — in regards to racism:

I don’t think I ever realized how deep racial and cultural lines run even in present-time and in our generation. There seems to be an intrinsic tendency to stick to those of our own race and sometimes even ethnicity. If we don’t, it’s categorized as “uncomfortable” – not without justifiable reason, I suppose. But I guess I am just surprised at how strong this schism can be. Some avoid – or even try to escape from – others merely because they are a certain race. So where does this self-imposed racist perspective come from? Some say it’s the comfort of being able to identify with each other cultural backgrounds or parental upbringings. But honestly, when it comes down to it, does it really matter? I guess what we all look for is understanding from the others. But when this need for understanding interferes with our ability to befriend those who are not of our race/background, that is when it goes too far. And yet this is how it is these days. Asians hang out with Asians. Indians like to befriend other Indians. Blacks stick with blacks. And the stereotypes just go on.

It’s sad how people refuse to even try befriending those of the same race simply because they ARE Asian/black/Hispanic/etc. Someone once told me, “I don’t want to be friends with Asians.” And this person was Asian. And so by saying that, this person already mentally drew a line in his/her head between the Asians and non-Asians (or should I say, Asians vs. whites). But how does race define an individual? Since when did race play such a large part in deciding who our friends should be? It’s not quite something that we choose, I think, as much as it is something we don’t change if we don’t go about actively changing it.

In retrospect, I think what happened was in high school, I was accustomed to hanging out with Asians. And so when I got into college, I wanted to make a change and hang out with different types of people, because I felt like all my Asian friends were too similar to each other in their ideologies, etc. What I ended up doing is what I said precisely in my blog from a year ago, “it is something we don’t change if we don’t go about actively changing it”: I made an active effort to befriend and hang out with non-Asians. Now, that doesn’t mean I didn’t hang out with Asian people, but I didn’t just hang out with Asians and fall into my former zone of comfort.

I think, though, that my realization/effort of not just hanging out with Asians somehow instilled in my mind a tiny bit of the “anti-Asian” type of thought that I myself criticized {“And so by saying that, this person already mentally drew a line in his/her head between the Asians and non-Asians (or should I say, Asians vs. whites)}. Isn’t that funny how it turned out?

But I think my point is that after this past summer of my travel study program to Taiwan and hanging out/befriending many Asian people, I realized that I really no longer see people as “Asian” or “non-Asian” when deciding unconsciously whether or not I wanted to take the time to befriend them. I think that finally, I’ve stopped drawing that mental line; somewhere along the way, my mental barrier (or perhaps fear?) of Asian friends was torn down. Other people may have those barriers — and I think for quite a few, those barriers never really do go away — but their barriers should not hinder me from befriending them. At the end of the day, we’re just people, and for me, it’s really whatever that makes me like them as friends that matters, regardless it’s for their ideology, personality, or even superficial reasons. Whatever it takes (take this with a grain of salt..) to make us happier in our world, to feel less alone, no?

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