So, I
haven't written much original material for this blog. I apologize.
It's been a bit of a hectic time for my Master's degree (or as I like
to spell it, Maester's degree) and I don't really have much time now
but I think that's a price I'm willing to pay. I'd like to write
about something that I haven't discussed much with anyone over the
last nine years, but I feel like it's something that is constantly
weighing on my mind.
I am
ethnic.
This
is not that unusual. As far as I understand it, we all have
ethnicities. I recently read this collection of essays called
'Half-Half' that I started eleven years ago and only just finished.
'Half-Half' is an anthology of authors writing about being biracial
or bicultural. I've never been that interested in race, ethnicity, or
heritage because to me, heritage is simply a geographical horoscope.
Rather than by simply being born at a certain point in time, you
happen to be born at a certain point in space- and for some reason,
we like to think that this can define us. I know there are huge
cultural and ethnographical arguments about why being born in one
culture can greatly influence who you turn out to be (I, for
instance, didn't have an arranged marriage or get into soccer at any
point) but I feel like in a globalized society, we begin to assert so
much precociousness into what is really not that big a deal. Should
we be proudly tolerating cries of “I'm half-Irish, and a
quarter-Jewish, and an eighth-Indian...” when you know that this
person is probably soporifically horrifically boring?
I
don't think so.
If
you live in a reasonably first-world comfortable society, there are
an infinite plurality of influences exerted daily, hourly, minutely,
into your consciousness. Not just different races, but cultures,
subcultures, even random acts of geography which are shaping the
fluid sense of self that we have. How could you say that your
ancestors had any real impact on you compared to the greatest friend
you ever had? Not a huge Walt Whitman fan but he did write those
famous words “I am large, I contain multitudes”.
Some
people would accuse me of acculturation at this point, and I would
reply with the fact that this accusation isn't totally baseless. I
have no love for the idea of preserving cultures for the sake of
posterity. There are plenty of cultures that we modern apes never
documented and they have been wiped from the Universe's sweet face of
existence. Was there really such a tragedy? “Those who forget their
history are doomed to repeat it” some jerks inevitably say. It's a
good thing we do teach history in schools, as we have gotten rid of
racism, sexism, war, terrorism, corruption, and religious dogma.
Thanks History.
Without
pussyfooting, I know I sound like a sourpuss. I am not
Anthropologist, merely a Media Scholar, but I would like to bring up
two concepts here- Eurocentricism, and invisibility. Eurocentricism
is the idea that those with European features fare better in a
society that was colonized by white people. To refuse this notion is
to ignore a subtle, but everpresent problem. I bear no ill will
towards white people, but I have to say, in proportion, white people
make up 90% of those who ask “where are you from?” An Australian
comedian (I'm sorry I don't remember your name and I'm not going to
be able to find you on the internet, but I remember you were on Rove
and you won some Snickers Comedy festival) phrased it perfectly- the
question “where are you from?” is really “why aren't you
white?!”
Look,
none of us chose to be non-white. Trust me, if I could I would. Being
ethnic offers me no real competitive advantages in a Western society.
“Passing” is something I do very well, and many white people have
said “oh, you could be a white person!” as if to say “if I
didn't know any better, I'd have said you were the normal colour a
human should be”. It's not a compliment; it's just about the worst
thing you don't realize you've said in a long time.
The
other problem is the systemic nature of being disadvantaged as an
ethnic minority, and I'm just going to leave two links on this at the
end because I'm not super-interested in giving the math of this
statement. Part of my problem with my ethnic identity is that I've
always felt like I don't really have one. I wouldn't identify as
anything, even now, not the place where my ancestors originated, nor
the country I lived in for eighteen years, or the country I was born
in. I am reluctantly content to just wave off the whole issue because
it's confusing. Should it be confusing? I wish it weren't.
The
other issue is invisibility- this idea that race is invisible to most
“colour-blind” people. These people are jerks. “Oh, but that
doesn't happen anymore” they might say, “I would never
discriminate against anybody”.
I don't think most people would consciously choose to discriminate in
most social or professional situations, but you often don't know
you're doing it. Metacognition, the ability to analyze your own
thinking, can be difficult. To ignore the tumultuous landscape is to
try to go skiing in the jungle. Sure, you can do it, but you've made
an alarming error assessing the situation. Where would you draw the
boundaries about where race-blindness starts? Is it when you get past
Northcote and over the bridge? Perhaps just a little passed Epsom
Avenue? Or is an epoch? Once we, in what would become the
first-world, all abolished slavery, we fixed the problem of race. Was
it the 9th
of April, 1847 that we solved the issue of race, or was it the 15th?
Perhaps it was when affirmative action was called 'affirmative
action'. It's an epic army of cats, quick-footed and sneaky,
pervasive and often unintentional, directionless and comforting, but
unless we want to be overrun, we need to start thinking more broadly
about what to do about this.
One
quick note about the corrective measures we might take, and my
overwhelming advice on this to white people is very similar advice I
give to struggling husbands- give support, but don't try to take
control of the situation. Hello white people, we appreciate all that
you've done for us, but it's not your fight- we'll let you know when
we need help. It'd be very similar to me arguing for Trans equality,
advocating for the rights of Trans people to marry, use public
bathrooms, et cetera. I seriously do believe in Trans equality, but
at the same time- I'm not personally affected by the
outcome of this struggle. When
you're the figurehead of a fight which has stakes that aren't yours,
you're not being a good Samaritan- you're co-opting someone else's
life as your activity. Support the stance, don't try to steer it.
This
is a blog about me though, and I just wanted to write about my own
experiences recently about this. I've had the horrible feeling that I
have been seduced by this race problem that throws me under the bus,
in that I don't really have many friends the same ethnicity as me-
and part of that has been by design. The people I congregate with
have all homogenized in a certain way that I found attractive, and
they didn't just
happen to be white. I rarely make the effort to join Kiwi Asian clubs
or date ethnic minorities, and this might seem strange- but it should
be an effort. Though it's still a problem, it was an effort to get
the majority of husbands to stop viewing their wives as property.
Like that, we've come a long way with regards to race- but there's a
reason why I likened an army of cats to racism- they're everywhere,
and you often don't notice they're living with you until it's too
late.
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