Coming home from, of all things, breakdance practice, I encountered a subtle form of racism that is fairly common for me. I was coming out of the Atlantic Avenue subway station in Brooklyn when I heard someone yell out "Jackie Chan!" in my direction. I turned to see a group of young black men and women hanging out near the station entrance. They all started laughing and then soon turned back to their conversation.
This happens fairly frequently when I’m in African-American neighborhoods, usually when I’m alone. And it always just takes the wind out of my sails. How do you respond when someone shouts in your face, "Bruce Lee"?
I’d like to respond, "Hey, that’s not cool. First of all, why are you shouting at someone you don’t know? And why is mentioning an Asian actor relevant in any way?" But I just keep walking, confused and angry.
Damn, that really pisses me off. I wanted to say “You should shout back ‘Wesley Snipes!'” But that’s just an eye for an eye, and probably doesn’t help.
It’s some consolation that people who make themselves feel better by insulting or degrading others are selected against in society. In other words, they are stupid and probably won’t go far.
I wish I were wise enough to say something meaningful. The exact same thing has happened to our two sons. They have always been able to laugh it off when they’ve recounted stories over the dinner table. I used to walk home from work after getting off at the Dekalb & Flatbush station and occassionally from the willie bank station. So I understand, when you’re right there it can be hard to laugh. Just remember, it could have been worse. At least you weren’t on the F train. 😛
Have a good day, Rik 🙂
Hey Rik-
Right on, I totally came to work mulling this same topic today because of two stories in the Chicago Tribune this morning, one mixing Latino-Black tensions and the Obama-Clinton campaigns’ approaches to the “Hispanic Vote” and another about a suburban Chicago Wheeling Filipino man whose town has asked him to stop roasting pigs in his yard. Subtle–especially the latter, a very brief item. Was race a factor? On the face of it, yes, but hard to tell from the 2-inch treatment the story got. Sometimes you wish journalists would either ignore race or give it the kind of full-length treatment its complexities deserve.
Thanks for the comments, folks.
The whole area of asian-black racism / discrimination is a deep and emotional one. It’s about class, new immigrant versus natives, education, economic opportunities and mass media stereotypes.