StopBlaming Whitey

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07/30/2009: "AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE"

Original article here

(Okay I was put off by the title of the blog, but I thought this entry was interesting.)

It seems common for educated black people to have focused some academic or civic attention on issues concerning race relations. Michelle Obama wrote a thesis about the African American experience at Princeton. Barrack Obama, who has no ancestry that suffered the effects of the slave trade, also experienced a race based identity crisis that affected him for years.

I find this interesting since I have very little understanding of this kind of sentiment. As a South Asian American, my experience as an ethnic minority in the US is not particularly interesting to me. I was raised in a very religious Hindu family, yet my religious background is not something I often think about. It does shape my identity, but I would not think to write a thesis statement dedicated to my life as a Hindu.

My experience as a woman of color is also not very interesting to me. My experience as a person who learned English as a second language is more interesting than my skin color, but still hardly something I would write a book about.

On the other hand, my status as a racial and religious minority are situational characteristics which did not develop internally, so I am less conscious of them. I generally forget that I was raised with South Asian traditions while most others around me were raised in a Judeo-Christian faith and with American traditions. The culture of my childhood has become largely irrelevant to my adult view of the world around me.

Contrast this with the stereotypical African American experience. African Americans seem highly race conscious. For example, African American men hit on my on a semi daily basis. I almost always spurn their advances (a few have persuaded me into meeting them for a date; I do not regret those dates). After I reject their advances, many black men tell me that they believe I have spurned them because of their race.

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However, when people reject my interest, I do not usually assume that the rejection is based on my race, though I believe that my race doesn't help my appeal to professional white men. Another example comes from my college days. Students could enter a certain area on campus by swiping ID, but they still had to show their identification to the desk attendant after entering.

I entered the building and was asked to show my ID. I did so without any further thought. Two black students entered behind me and showed immediate concern when asked to show their ID.

They came up to me and asked me if I had also been asked to show my ID, as if searching for evidence as to whether or not they were being racially profiled. It's possible that we were all being racially profiled, but such a concept would not have occurred to me.

I find it interesting that blacks from all classes and countries express insecurity about the way they are viewed because of their race. I am darker than any number of blacks I see on a daily basis (I get deep tans in the summer), yet I feel somewhat included in the dominant Caucasian class.

I never feel like an "other" in professional or social settings. Even when I am aware that I am one of the rare and few minorities present, I don't assume that the white people around me take much notice of me one way or the other. I do not know what makes the experience of blacks so different.

Replies: 1 Comment

on Tuesday, August 4th, Ann said

Far be it from any black to come to the conclusion on their own that the reason for their rejection on a number of levels has absolutely NOTHING to do with the color of their skin, but because of their behavior/actions. When will they understand this? When will the ones who continue to keep blacks in this state of victimhood stop doing this to their own people?