IBARW 3: Multicultural Racism, or, Minorities Are Racist Too

[keilexandra]

Especially in the U.S., mainstream coverage of racism tends to focus on the black-white divide. I can assure you that Asians are also discriminated against, though perhaps more subtly (and I can't speak for any other group, or even for Asians as a whole); but that's a topic for another time. This post is about racism committed by minority groups upon other minority groups.

I want to specifically present an incident from my own life, a few weeks ago. I was at a Chinese card party, playing a variation of Tractor (with three decks, tons of fun); the other players consisted of adult family friends and one other teenager. In case you didn't know, Chinese card parties are a time both to play cards and to gossip until your throat is parched--that's what the tea is for. Somehow, the table began discussing a time when one woman had been approached by a (white) man at a gas station in a poor neighborhood. This digressed logically into a discussion of African-Americans/blacks and how "luan" (rough) they were, predominately in poor neighborhoods and thus responsible for the majority of crimes in such areas.

Slow down and reread that sentence. "Logically," I wrote. For many Chinese (perhaps extending to Asians in general, but I don't have any personal experience), especially the older immigrant generation, black people automatically connotate "luan." The educated like to think of themselves as tolerant, and when the topic comes up, so will inevitably the "exceptions"--for example, there's a perfectly nice black family on our drive. One of the kids even goes to the same daycare as my sister. This family is a "good black family," one of the minority. Whereas, if I were to bring home a black boyfriend? Interracial yellow-white relationships are still frowned upon, let alone yellow-black. When I posed it as a hypothetical situation, one card player--a man known for his strong and rarely PC views--derided such a possibility as only for Chinese women seeking green cards. Another (female) said, no wonder, black men will scare you to death.

At this card party, I got into a heated argument with the mother of a very good friend--a debate made all the more difficult by her constant assertions that she knew what was best (i.e. her opinion was automatically correct) due to her age. Likewise, my continued outspokenness--compared to the other teenager, who agreed with me but remained silent--was because my parents coddled me too much and allowed me to have a dissenting opinion. Gee, dissent; what an un-Communist novelty. (There are pros and cons to both Communism and capitalism; regardless, the former is generally not conducive to free thinking.)

And I think that were it not for IBARW, for what it taught and reminded me about the importance of activism (however small and local), I would have been silent too. Throughout my life, I have been raised with this subtle and pervasive prejudice. When I hear people around me casually make insulting and incorrect generalizations about another race, I wince inside but have largely given up the fight. When I see a dark-skinned African-American on the street, I unconsciously shied away. This is something to be ashamed of. Unconscious prejudices can be overcome through conscious effort. Furthermore, I am guilty of secondhand racism every time I let a racist comment slide by. I may not be able to commit to blogging against racism all year long, but I can speak out against it when an opportunity smiles at me.

There are other stories I could tell; one man I know has an irrational, intense hatred of Indian people. But I'm sure that I'm not the only one encountering multicultural racism; for today, I am content to point out that just because someone is being racist towards you, doesn't mean you aren't being racist towards someone else in a different context. The oppressed are also the oppressors. Belonging to a minority group doesn't give you a free gold star.

Comments

[nyssa23.livejournal.com]

Excellent post! I was thinking about blogging on this myself, about racism in the Latino community.

I love IBARW! :)

[keilexandra]

Thank you! I love IBARW more. :D

[teagrl83.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read it! I know my head explodes whenever the media gets into their spiel of how Latinos won't vote for Obama because he's black. That's an idea worth unpacking, considering that different latino communities have varied relationships to black people. That's definitely worth exploring.

To the OP: Thanks for an insightful post! I have too hastily formed thoughts on your post. Forgive me if they barely make sense.

1. It makes me think of something I read about how using the term "racism" to talk about inter-POC discrimination obscures the way that the structure is influenced by Western imperialism. The article argued that it tends to be safer to use the term "bigotry" for that. I wonder how people feel about that--is this a controversial idea? Who has accepted it? Who hasn't? Why?

2. Another thing your post brings to mind is how dark skin is always "other." I'm thinking, for instance, of this historically segregated group in Japanese society--the burakumin--who while not ethnically different by any means, have had one of their "markers" been dark skin. Insterestingly, enough on the opposite side, when activist groups began being formed they used a lot of anti-racist rhetoric from the civil rights era to combat racism and drew parallels to the black experience in America (this, of course, has its pitfalls, but I wanted to look at the upside of using "blackness" as a discoursive tool).

And this strays from your topic. Sorry about that too, I was just really fascinated. Thank you so much for this post!

[keilexandra]

Re: your first point: I've never heard of such a distinction, but personally I prefer "racism" because that is exactly what it is. If the word has been Westernized, the only way to free it is by using the term in all contexts.

[sparkymonster.livejournal.com]

With regards to #1.

Racism = prejudice + power. SO in most situations racism isn't something that POC can do because they lack institutional power

Which means POC, in the US, can be prejudiced and bigoted, but not racist.

http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/2006/09/18/monday-debate-what-is-racism/

[keilexandra]

Well:

a) Although I used examples from the U.S. because that's where I'm currently living, other commenters have chimed in with international anecdotes of their own.

b) Also, even in the U.S., POC do have institutional power over other POC. For example, Asian-Americans are commonly regarded as the Model Minority (not something I'm going to get into here) and as "above" other POC, though still below whites. Asians are prejudiced against Caucasians with a bit of envy; they are prejudiced against blacks and (to a slightly lesser extent) Hispanics because of ingrained cultural perceptions. This latter prejudice is backed by institutional power and thus constitutes racism.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of racism in the Jewish community too, which makes me really sad: don't we realize that if it's wrong for other people to be prejudiced against us, we shouldn't be prejudiced against them?

Unfortunately, the answer seems to be: not necessarily! Although I do sometimes get through to people by saying, "You know, people say that exact thing about Jews..."

[keilexandra]

In my case at least, I know it's semi-futile to argue with the older generation. But it's important to keep the topic abreast, and maybe what I say will have some impact on the kids who are even now growing up like I did, embued with the same prejudices.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I like to read the whole Passover story as a lesson against othering. I've seen good cases made that Ruth is, too. I like to think about the Jews like Morris Dees or the ones involved in founding the ACLU, but it's all too true that we have our racists too.

[wolfpurrs.livejournal.com]

This was fascinating to read. You make several good points. :)

[oyceter]

Sigh. I was in Taiwan for two months this summer, and OMG the sheer amount of racism and racist ideas about black people is appalling. It felt like someone was saying, "Oh, but so many black people live there! So unsafe!" every other second.

I tended to argue more with people my generation, but I also want to write something on how people in Taiwan get this prejudice, given that they don't live around black people (yay American culture taking over the world?).

[keilexandra]

You should! You're much more eloquent than me and less ranty.

[sanguinity]

The export of American racist tropes is something that curdles my blood.

And not only do we do an "awesome" job of exporting our racism, we export it raw, without any of the polite veneer that usually goes with it. Would that I could at least use the un-veneeredness of it as a mirror for white Americans to see their own racism, but there's usually zero recognition that they're looking at their own racisms mirrored back to them. Usually, it just has the effect of giving white Americans one more thing to feel superior about: "Look how racist those people are!"

[oyceter]

I know! I mean, all people are prejudiced against people not of their race, but the shape and form racism takes is so based on the rhetoric that came from Western imperialism and now US imperialism that it drives me crazy when people somehow think intra-POC racism magically manifests out of nowhere.

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that within the Indian community here. Middle class Indian professionals can be prejudiced against the big communities of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians; caste, religion and different values (e.g. with regard to education) all play a part.

In some areas of the country, the BNP (a far-right party standing for, among other things, the removal of immigrants) was courting voters who'd come to England in the 1950s-70s and had assimilated - they were trying to take advantage of the tension between these assimilated groups and more recent immigrants.

It's a really interesting idea to explore. So often we're lumped together as one homogeneous mass of non-whiteness, but there are tensions and prejudices within our communities.

[jadelennox]

A friend of mine moved to China several years back and while he tries not to complain, what does get through is kind of appalling. He said it took him over a year before he could find a moisturizer that didn't leave white streaks on his skin because all the moisturizers he could find contain skin lightening ingredients. And how everyone thinks he is a thug, because he is the only black person they have ever seen outside of the movies, and movies by both black and white screenwriters tend to present black men as thugs.

... really, there's nobody who isn't indicted by that last sentence.

(one last eta: came in from oyceter's post)

[keilexandra]

Oh wow, I never knew about the skin-lightening ingredients in moisturizer. I'm never buying any from China again. o_0 (Would known European/American brands be okay, though? Or do they customize stuff for China?)

[fangirlsdaja.livejournal.com]

Actually, there are skin-lightening ingredients in a few products in some American stores, as well. My roommate has very dark skin and would always point them out to me, and there were a lot more than I thought. However, I've only noticed it in a few product lines so far, so I don't know how many there are altogether.

[jadelennox]

I dunno; it's all something he told me in passing. But I think it's only the ones marketed in China itself (and he's in a pretty rural part of China, without many Westerners.)

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Hating black people is an international cultural value by far too many people. Imperialism is sticky. I'm fatigued by it myself.

[ms-erupt.livejournal.com]

This post really hits home with me. I am a mixed race person that identifies as both Native American and Black, and the prejudice that I've encountered in the Native community towards Blacks just amazes me. Many PoC have internalized, to some degree, the idea that lighter skin is better skin, and it's a shame because it's just a another barrier for PoC in the fight against racism.

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

Here via yhlee, to say YES. I want to shout from the rooftops how being part of a minority in NO way makes you immune to racism -- and not the "reverse racism" that's so often derided as privilege-ridden angst. We all come from cultures that have "othered" someone, and we all need to own up to it.

I'm going to post about it specifically in Lebanon. Fun fact? When I was seven years old I thought Sirlankiyyi was the Arabic word for housemaid, because my grandmother would talk about "the sirlankiyyi" who would come clean our house, and others would talk about how they had their own sirlankiyyi. It was only many years later that I realised the word meant someone from Sri Lanka.