![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
I should be sleeping
But wanted to post a link to this brilliant post from Digby:
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/no_way
I realized something not long ago. I was in the US for both the 2000 and the 2004 US presidential elections. Not that that did anyone any good, since I'm not a US citizen, but even my 2000 self--ignorant as she was in US politics--could see the cultural and political divide in the US between the states in which I experienced racism (sorry, but till now my gut reaction to the words "Southern hospitality" is to say "my ass") and the states in which no one even brought up (or sometimes even suspected) that I was from out of the country. I'd been in parts of the US where I've been cornered in really uncomfortable situations (till now I wonder if I was in danger), where black families were still receiving burning crosses on their lawns (really), and where the tension was undeniable, where people would look at me in fear out of the corners of their eyes, not looking, but still looking every few seconds, as if they were just fighting the urge to kick me into a crate and ship me "back to China", where they always assumed I was from. Always.
I do recognize my experiences as mild, really. What I always hated more, was telling my experiences to Southerner friends (non-racist, obviously) and getting complete denial from some of them. "No way! You were being over-sensitive! Probably just your imagination." Yeah, right. Can we please now acknowledge I wasn't imagining?
http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/no_way
I realized something not long ago. I was in the US for both the 2000 and the 2004 US presidential elections. Not that that did anyone any good, since I'm not a US citizen, but even my 2000 self--ignorant as she was in US politics--could see the cultural and political divide in the US between the states in which I experienced racism (sorry, but till now my gut reaction to the words "Southern hospitality" is to say "my ass") and the states in which no one even brought up (or sometimes even suspected) that I was from out of the country. I'd been in parts of the US where I've been cornered in really uncomfortable situations (till now I wonder if I was in danger), where black families were still receiving burning crosses on their lawns (really), and where the tension was undeniable, where people would look at me in fear out of the corners of their eyes, not looking, but still looking every few seconds, as if they were just fighting the urge to kick me into a crate and ship me "back to China", where they always assumed I was from. Always.
I do recognize my experiences as mild, really. What I always hated more, was telling my experiences to Southerner friends (non-racist, obviously) and getting complete denial from some of them. "No way! You were being over-sensitive! Probably just your imagination." Yeah, right. Can we please now acknowledge I wasn't imagining?
