Racism. Mine, that is... (continued)

I suppose that some clarification is in order. It wasn't my intent to cast doubt on the sincerity or depth of my friendships. But the problem with race is that, as an issue, it is so loaded, almost any sentence is likely to raise all sorts of unintended and unforeseen reactions in the people who read it.

For the record: I don't actually have mental categories of "bad whites" and "good whites" to file people in, and I don't generally have a compulsion to start with race as a classification when I'm trying to describe someone. The people I grew up with, I'm talking about those unfortunate few who knew me way back when, they exist on their own, beyond the traps of race that we all had to learn together.

But you have to understand that in America, the sociological default image of a person is someone white with a Christian-background. That's what is assumed about the characters in any screenplay, unless specifically mentioned otherwise. That's who the target consumer is, unless specifically mentioned otherwise. That's who the laws are intended to protect, unless specifically mentioned otherwise.

Oh, sure, other groups can fit into those categories. There was no reason that the lead in 'I, Robot' couldn't have been a Portuguese guy, with the possible exception of Will Smith's marketability. There's no reason that Hispanic women or Laotian men can't shop at J. Crew, with the possible exception of not wanting to look like dorks. And there's nothing to stop anyone, regardless of race, from seeking redress in a court of law, with the possible exception of not having enough money for a court battle. But if you look at the laws, the people who write them, and the people who most often receive unequal treatment under those laws, some things start to seem, well, most easily described?and explained in terms of race.

My goal, however, isn't get into the finer distinctions within the law. My point is that history, culture, religion and habit still affect, tinge and distort the way people get treated. Being out of a predominately white social setting has made me realize a lot of things about my own preconceptions. And saying them out loud sounds as ludicrous to me as hearing these things in reverse from other people sounded. But it's the clearest way I can think of to articulate what it's like to be reminded every single day that you're not really who was meant in the official idea of society.

After I really got to know some people, after we really got to be friends, I found I honestly was able to forget that they were white. I could think of them as just Stephanie, Justin and Mark, and not "Stephanie the white girl," "Justin the white guy" and "that white Mark."

Oddly enough, when I really try to think about my attitudes concerning white people, I find they're mostly directed at Americans. I'm sure there are plenty of stereotypically white people in Europe and Canada, to say nothing of New Zealand, Australia and that island populated by descendants of the mutineers from The Bounty, any of whom may behave just like Americans in terms of race. But I don?t find myself prejudging them in the same ways that I do Americans.

Maybe it has to do with the relatively small amount of time I've spent in the company of people from different places. The few folks I've met have, by and large, been open-minded, fair, and rather intelligent. I don't have enough experience with racist Swedes, for example, to have formed a predisposition concerning Sweden. And you could probably say that, in general, people who choose to live abroad tend to be more open-minded. Or at least, more open to new experiences.

Maybe it's because I expect more of my countrymen. I don't feel the same sense of offence from a Korean person asking me why there are dark brown people in my country, or from an Iranian person asking me where in the world my family comes from. Maybe it's because I don't feel there's any reason to expect them to understand the separation between race, nationality and identity that pervades American life.

I do expect some degree of that sort of understanding from white people from the Commonwealth Nations, though. One of the legacies of the British Empire, apart from the sacrament of Gin and Tonic and the communion of football, was a lot of forced interaction between Anglo-Saxons and damn near everyone else from outside of Europe. Exploitative or not, as those people had to live around each other, some sort of mutual awareness should have arisen.

In Japan, well, there are a couple of different flavors of racism, sexism, and nationalist discrimination that show up in different levels, concentrations and expressions just about everywhere. But I can sort of understand why it still exists here. Some days it�s easier to deal with than others, but in general, it seems to be ignorance instead of maliciousness. That said, however, I have a hell of a lot of trouble tolerating ignorance in people who ought to know better or who have had opportunities to learn better. Willful ignorance is just about the only thing I find unforgivable.

Of course, some people, regardless of race, creed or gender, are just assholes.

Maybe that�s enough of that for now, huh? Next time: more senseless griping about something trivial. Or an observation about pop culture that I can�t adequately explain.