This is from one of my dear friends, whose name I've withheld to respect her privacy. It got me thinking about race and racism this morning. I know, nothing like a little light philosophy on Sunday morning. And i've got two very different, but equally important things on my mind.
First, the prop 8 trial. It's *always* on my mind these days. I woke up saturday morning and read with interest the tweets of @NCLR recapping Friday in court. Race has become a big deal in the prop8 trial, as a comparison to homosexuality. I think this is because the parallel btwn Loving v. Virginia and this trial is too strong for pro8ers comfort. Historically, race has been used as a label to classify people and at times to oppress them. It has no significant bearing on whether someone is smart, or kind, or good at their job. In a similar way, while being gay makes you a second class citizen in most states, it does not genetically impact your ability to be a kind, decent, upstanding human being. And yet there is a major difference. Race is obvious. No one would argue that a member of a racial minority should be legally required to put a sack over his head and pretend to be white. It's offensive to even suggest as an example. And yet, defense counsel feels that since race is obvious it merits protection under the law, but since sexual orientation is not we are not entitled to that protection. Defense counsel seems to be arguing that if gay people can pass for straight we should, and that our ability to pass for members of the dominate culture revokes our rights as a minority. I wonder how quickly they'd shout if this logic was applied to their rights.
But back to the issue of race. I'm white and american, so race never really scored near the top of my list of things to think about daily. UNTIL I moved to Korea. Now I understand race in a very different manner. Being spit on, being looked down on, being pushed around, that all sucks. However, the most upsetting thing is being responsible for an entire race. If I say something stupid in america, I'm being stupid. If I say something stupid here, I'm being stupid because white people are stupid. It's a lot of pressure.
When will we start looking past the labels and seeing people as human? Some are good, some not so much, but no one is indicative of every person who shares the labels we've slapped on them.
