I have been asked “where are you really from?” on multiple occasions. Being a Filipino immigrant in the UK currently studying abroad in the US has made answering this question a little more complicated; it’s certainly an experience that has opened my eyes to ignorance. Since living in the international house at my host college this year, I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by some people who are willing to learn about other cultures. It’s an environment that I take pride in most of the time, but this doesn’t mean that I’ve become immune to the moments that make me question how far our society has come in a supposedly post-racial state.Twice this semester I was asked: “If you’re from England, then why are you Asian/brown?” I honestly laughed it off at first; laughing at the fact that I felt as though I was in a scene from Mean Girls. It became a running joke in my house and it was something that I didn’t mind, at least not at first. I was asked again the same question with some variation a little later on this semester, but this time I couldn’t bring myself to laugh. I’ve reached my tipping point. I can no longer tolerate it.
I’ve experienced racism a number of times. From comments about my skin colour to me supposedly being Chinese – I have some Chinese ancestry but that’s no excuse for you to sing “ching chang chong” when I walk into the room. This year, I realised that I’m a bystander when it comes to racism 90% of the time. I have let racist jokes pass. It’s all meant to be a joke after all, but the harm is still there. I was told when I was apparently “getting sassy” that I was “black on the inside.” I let it go, and again, I found it funny at first. But that comment is so deeply rooted in racist ideology that I regret letting it go and laughing. Historically, African American women were categorised as “sassy” to defeminise them, to illustrate how different and inferior they were to white women. Stereotyping the act of being sassy as “black” is therefore extremely racist, a connection rooted in white supremacy that perpetuates this negative trope of black women.I’ve also seen people who are more than willing to throw the “n” word around. They have explained to me that in their culture, it doesn’t hold the same weight, however that cannot be an excuse. When you use these terms without any consideration for those around you, problems arise.
I know that some people who were involved in some of these acts may be reading this and I’m sorry to be calling you out via this platform. This isn’t an article aimed to make you feel bad or to blame you, but instead to make us think. I’m also guilty. I’m guilty of letting comments like the ones above go. I’m guilty for finding some of those incidents funny at the time. And I’m even guilty of making comments like the ones above. I apologise for all of these.
So whoever said, “ignorance is bliss,” why not step into the shoes of someone who has been on the receiving end of that ignorance and ask yourself, is it really blissful? I think not.
Edited by Naomi Upton
Photo credits:
http://memesvault.com/wp-content/uploads/Mean-Girls-Karen-10.gif
http://giphy.com/search/if-youre-from-africa-why-are-you-white
http://rebrn.com/re/tifu-by-telling-a-girl-that-shes-not-white-43677/