It's 2:47am on a late Tuesday night. I played my typical round of APA pool league at the Fox and the Hound earlier tonight, business as usual. I got invited to go to a friend's house afterwards to hang out, and seeing how I'm usually in the mood to build friendships, I went, along with my friend Anthony. Things were going alright, the host was very congenial, letting us play on his shufflepuck board and whatnot, and we chilled inside while getting ready to play a friendly game of poker. After about an hour since Anthony and I had been at this house afterparty, my friend who originally invited us tells us that we should leave...I guess the notion is we're not really welcome here anymore. Supposedly the host was not told that myself and Anthony would be arriving, and there was an argument between my friend who invited us and the host.
Now, usually I would just think that the owner of the house was no longer in the hosting mood, but people at this party were talking and some threw out the theory of racism (mostly based on the fact that he had Confederate flags hung along his walls). While I have been exposed to racism before, Anthony came from a much harsher upbringing than myself. He claims that South LA where he grew up was extremely harsh on the minorities, especially Asians who were such a small part of the population. He also claims that he was held up at gunpoint before because of his ethnicity. I for one have never had to deal with such extremities, but seeing how Anthony drove us tonight, he was ready to hightail it out of there. In fact, he was ready to jump the wall and run, while I didn't think much of it. I was like, I'll just walk out the front door here, say goodbye to the fella, shake his hand and thank him for having us over in his nice home.
What Anthony has been through is very unfortunate, but it's not without question that dealing with racism does happen and it is very depressing to go through. While I rarely try to think of it and sometimes even forget that I myself and Asian (I just try to mesh with whoever I am with, regardless of their race), it has come up in the past where I question whether or not someone dislikes me because of my race. For example, going to the gym I have wondered if a guy won't let me work in with him on a machine because I'm Asian. And too many times I have felt rejected by women because I felt they just don't want to date an Asian guy.
Fortunately, most of my friends of ethnic backgrounds have not had their lives challenged and I hope they never do. However, it never fails to depress me when I hear about racial discrimination because I myself have been in the crossfire. And I think it really just centralizes around the white dominated society we have in America. People wonder why all Asians know each other, but the answer is sometimes very simple: we've all been through the same challenge of being a minority trying to survive in a non-Asian-dominated society. It's simply the hard truth.
I once had a Caucasian friend tell me that he disliked going out to places where he was like the only white person in the room. Welcome to my everyday life! But I don't hold a grudge against anyone 'cause many only trust what they are familiar with, and so many have not been exposed to these types of issues. Anyway, dealing with racism can be tough. I just have to try and remain optimistic and trusting of strangers that it's not an issue, just so I can be myself and live a normal life.
Hey, at least my cat Duncan doesn't even know what the fuck racism is. Love you Duncan!
