Racism: Alive and Kicking in America

Barack Obama. The man who is dividing my country, friendships, and my family. Why? Quite simply put, because racism is not only alive and well in America, it's actually celebrated. People questioning Donald Trump for demanding the birth certificate are viewed as idiotic, this is a real issue. I forgot, if you hide racism in issues, then it's not racism anymore, it's just good practice. I know you're going to go on the defensive so let's try a different approach.

Let's imagine the next President of the US has a mother from Kansas and a father from Sweden. The mother has blonde hair, blue eyes, and went missing after the birth of her son. The father is in the States for school, he also has blonde hair and blue eyes. Both were raised Christian and their son is raised that way too. They name their son John Smith. John's Dad disappears and his Mom struggles to get by. Despite the adversary, John is athletic, he's charismatic, he goes to an Ivy League school. After graduating college he gets his law degree from an Ivy League school. He could go on to have a very profitable career, but instead he goes into public servitude, going to the most dangerous areas of the country. Working to organize the community to help reduce teen pregnancies, end hate crimes, increase the number of high school graduates, etc. He runs for the Senate and wins. Then he runs for the Presidency, he also wins, by a landslide.

Perhaps it's best to look at a real life situation. One Chicago Tribune Reporter has been on the Obama birth certificate story since 2008 when they believed it was silly to even discuss the matter. While Senator John McCain faced similar questions regarding his citizenship (his father was stationed in the Panama Canal and McCain was born on a military base) there were never full page ads questioning his right to become President. He was never accused of forging signatures, producing a fake birth certificate, or to have a lawsuit taken to the SUPREME COURT over his citizenship. No, McCain didn't win, but if he had won would we be having a similar debate about his birth certificate and right to be President? Or more to the point would he be treated in the way that Obama is being treated for the answers to the same questions?

The problem is whether or not you have 'legitimate' claims of your concern for Obama being a natural born citizen. When we treat two individuals differently based on the color of their skin, THAT is racism. What satisfied those who questioned McCain being a 'natural born citizen' should be the same for Obama, clearly that is not what happened. It's frightening that the deep seeded racism is so engrained in our society we don't even recognize it when it happens.
 
The other day I was watching tv when a Bayer commercial came on. The white male is in pain on the plane and there is an Asian flight attendant. He asks her for medicine for his back. She gives him Bayer. Obviously she doesn't have a good grasp of English so he talks to her slowly and uses hand motions to show that it's 'Not my heart, my back'. She responds in perfect English telling him she understands and that it works for pain as well. While the intent is to show that most people have misconceptions about what Bayer can do for pain it uses a harmful stereotype about Asians to promote their product. Now I'm sure someone out there is thinking I'm overly sensitive because I am Asian. Damn right I am! People will avoid other racial jokes in front of people of other ethnicities, but almost every single white friend I've had has made some sort of crack about Asians. Whether it's about the food they eat, the accent they have, their abilities in math/science, or driving ability, I've heard it all. And mind you, these are from the people who supposedly care about me. All of my life I've had people tell me I "should be used to being made fun of, because [I'm] Asian." So instead of them not telling racist jokes or saying hurtful things and just being nicer, I am supposed to just take being treated like crap. Because it's their right to make me feel bad about myself over something I have no control over (the color of my skin, the shape of my eyes) and it's my job to take it. To say this is something that made me situationally depressed about in middle school is an understatement. Kids were so intolerably cruel to me I thought of committing suicide to escape their constant degradation. It's something that typing this post makes me tear up and I'm reminded of how much I hated myself for something I had no control over.

I've had family members tell me that people of Arab descent should be screened at airports and the Japanese were rightfully kept in internment camps. Racial profiling is there because these people are dangerous. The psychology major in me asks, are they dangerous and that's why we are profiling them or is it more like a self-fulfilling prophecy? When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building no one profiled angry looking Caucasian men. When the KKK terrorizes families here in the US no one profiles Caucasian people. Using race as the ONLY factor to judge someone is not only racist, it's morally wrong.
 
As for as I know, God didn't tell us that we should "Love thy neighbor as thyself" EXCEPT Blacks, Asians, Latinos, Arabs and homosexuals. There wasn't an except then, yet we live that way now. Love everybody, and if you can't do that then tolerate everybody. No exceptions.