by T. M. Beeker

Created on: September 01, 2007

We must understand there is no such thing as a person being ethnically or genetically an 'American.' You can spend time in Europe and after a while develop a sense of one's ethnicity by looking for features common to that group. Germans with fair hair and skin. French with darker hair and bushy eyebrows. English because of that annoying accent. I kid but the fact is all over the world there are nations that have a more homogeneous genetic heritage.

In the United States its not a factor at all. Line up 5 Europeans and 5 Americans buck naked and good luck figuring out which is a 'native' American or not. This leads to the common human fear of the unknown. If I grew up around lots of white people then guess what? Black people are going to be very different to me. Is that racism? Nope, its a common human fascination and yes a little fear of the unfamiliar and unknown. Now, same situation but your 'taught' by adults that such a skin color indicates that the person is well educated, has a strong work ethic, and seldom if never commits crime. Is that racism? Yes, you are being indoctrinated to believe sweeping generalizations about a group based on ethnic or physical identifiers. The fact that what you were taught was positive vice negative messages matters not at all. It is still in defiance of religious teachings of loving all others, Dr. King's litmus test of 'content of character' over color, and finally, it gives you an excuse to remain snug in your 'world' without finding out more about others not like you.

One thing I have experienced in travels outside of the United States is that while Americans like to think racism is peculiar to us, we are just as racist and insensitive as many others all over the world. Spend time in Japan and notice how people react when a Korean walks into a room. Plenty of native Okinawans explained and showed me how mainland Japanese treated them like mutts because the looked and sounded different. Look at how England for centuries treated Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and their peoples. Spend time in Saudi Arabia especially as a non-Muslim. First, there are legal norms in that nation which make you a second class citizen automatically if your not ethnically Saudi and not a follower of Islam. When 'liberating' Kuwait understand many of the people who were stuck their suffering under the Iraqi's were not Kuwaiti. They were foreign workers brought in to work there or citizens that were not part of the tribe that ruled Kuwait. All of this

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