Pattern Interrupt

I'm removing two of the old posts from my main blog, Untwisted Vortex, and rewriting the information, in order to present my thoughts in a more coherent manner. You see, racism still exists in America when it should be all but wiped out.

Living Amongst Other Races in My Early Years

I consider myself fortunate. The first home I can remember living in (Coolidge, Arizona, USA) sat next to a bunch of slums owned by the city's slum lord. I can still remember his last name. It was McBath. He also owned a second-hand store on one of the old main streets. I don't know what happened to McBath because my family moved to Hawaii in 1974 and when we moved back in 1977, the slums were gone and so was his store.

Mr. McBath was a black man and from a child's perspective, he was kind of old. I'm sure he wasn't as old as I remember him, but I'll never know for sure how old he was. The slums he owned were occupied by other black people and people of Spanish descent. I want to say Mexican descent, but I really don't remember what they were, other than that they spoke Spanish.

As a child, I played with the other children from those slums, as well as children of all races in our neighborhood. I didn't see them as children of other races; I just saw children. I didn't know anything about the American civil rights movement that peaked in 1968, and it wouldn't have had any effect on me if it did.

Living in Hawaii

From the early part of 1974 to the latter part of 1977, my family lived near the small city of Kapaa on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. It was there that I received my first taste of racism. We didn't live near the tourist industry of Honolulu and the people didn't act like the people did in those places.

Everyone in my family was called "haole", which actually means "stranger", from the day we arrived to the day we departed. We were one of the few white families on the island. I was beaten, harassed and even arrested because I wasn't a "local". I didn't look like them, dress like them, or speak like them. Over the course of the 3 years and some odd months that I lived there, I started dressing like they did and speaking "Pidgin English" like they did. It took me months after returning to the mainland to break the bad habits I picked up there.

The original article I wrote drew some nasty comments from someone who lived in Hawaii. I didn't intend for it to be taken the way it was taken, but I was called a bigot and then had to think about it. I asked other readers what they thought in another article and I concluded that I wasn't out of line, but real bigots see everyone else as bigots but not themselves. The article was depicting just one form of racism I've experienced in my life.

I honestly can't say I'm not a bigot. I think there's a little bigotry in all of us, no matter what our experiences have been.

Living in the Philippines

In 2006, I and my Filipina wife moved to the Philippines where I now reside. I have seen very little racism here. The strangest thing I've noticed is that I'm not comfortable being around other Americans, particularly white Americans. I'm at home amongst the Filipinos. I don't know why, but perhaps it's because I see them as something other than Americans. When other Americans speak to me, the way they talk turns me off in that they refer to the Filipinos they live among in derogatory ways, probably unintentionally.

I may one day return and live in the US and if I do, I'll have a much greater respect for other races. More so than I already have, I'm sure.

Labels and Other Terms

Even during the years I spent on military active duty (1978-1998), I witnessed racism even if it was a much milder form of it. In order not to step on toes, some people were addressed as "light green marines" or "dark green marines". The mistake, in my opinion, was using anything that signified color.

I don't know why black Americans want to be called "African-Americans". There are plenty of white people who hail from parts of Africa, but you don't hear them identifying with that label. I don't believe labels help to stem racism — I think they promote it. Racism is an attitude that can't be changed by labels — only through education and experience can people put aside racist attitudes. I have no problem being called white and I don't think black people should have any problem being called black, but I think we all need to stop including color as an identifier.

Reverse Discrimination

I've been in leadership positions almost my entire life, both in the military and afterward. I've seen the racial quota systems turn everything around and tip the scales of employment, rights and privileges toward the minorities versus the majority (white people). Instead of balancing the scales, it causes the scales to become unbalanced on the other side.

I hope this makes sense. Racism is a two-way street and it isn't limited to white people only. Only when people are treated equally, and thought of as equals, will the discrimination, reverse discrimination and other forms of racism disappear. I'm afraid, however, that it will never happen.

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