I've began to notice that white people might be more sensitive to my ethnicity.
Earlier this week, Mike and I dared to go into a topic of conversation that spanned many touchy subjects and potential offensive landmines- our friends' ethnicities and why we are friends.
I commend Mike on this because one, I always win any sort of intellectual discourse, and two, it is difficult for him to address race or ethnicity without shooting himself in the foot as he is a midwestern white boy and I am a Filipino-American girl from SF Bay Area.
He explained to me that small town white girls tend to find comfort in other small town white girls because that is what they know. To which, I did not understand, but absorbed. I thought, "Well I don't even consider anyone's ethnicity when I talk to them. Why is it that they mind mine?" The question was left unanswered.
So I then began to consider cultural differences. Could being afraid of darker skin be part of a culture to which I should be sensitive to? And how does my cultural identity affect those with this kind of potential but inherent reaction to me? And my response to this is that I'm American. I was born in San Francisco and went to the same types of public schooling that many of these reluctant white girls had also received. I have never retreated to solely Filipino friends, nor am I friends with Filipinos exclusively. And no matter how I look and how they look, if we get arrested in North Korea we will be imprisoned Americans, not imprisoned Asian Americans and White Americans. I can't program that into their minds.
OK, so next thing ... earlier today I commended fellow Filipino-American lady and emcee (that's a rapper, mom) Rocky Rivera's toughness on Twitter. I also made a joke alluding that Filipino women who bleach their hair blonde are whores. Well something to that effect anyway.
"I want to be tough like Rocky Rivera. Not to mention she's the only Filipino girl who pulls off blonde without the whoriness"
It was a joke and Rocky got it. Sent it to her fans.
I then received a message from a Rocky fan suggesting that I was offensive and asking me "which ethnic groups can dye their hair?". It appeared that this message came from a white man. He was obviously unaware that I too was Filipino, but in my head, I thought, "wow he cares way more than any blonde Filipinos that may or may not be whores. " Clearly, he was very politically correct in using the term ethnic group, so I granted him the respect of a politically correct reply:
"Any ethnic group can dye their hair and/or be whores with enough will and resources."
So now I once again considered this oversensitivity to ethnicity. The entire concept that I'm even ethnic in this country boggles me and I don't know how to really find a happy medium. Either people don't want to speak to me because I'm so tan or I can't make tan jokes even if I'm tan because I'm obligated to protect my fellow tanned people from otherwise. Am I American or AmeriTan?
Well I'll send this message to the reluctant: I will be nice to you and I don't care what your skintone is or how you speak English or even your IQ. I will, however, exercise shameless discrimination toward egregious odor, ill manners and asshats (translation: assholes).
