Racism is a very ugly thing and having grown up in the American South, I have seen some of it at its very ugliest. Let's face it, Southern rednecks can display some of the most in your face stupidity regarding race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and various lifestyle choices and not think a thing about it. Then I moved north. I thought maybe I'd escape all the conservative b.s. but what I discovered was that there are ignoramuses everywhere you go.
The point is that racism and bigotry are always based on ignorance. There is a lot of ignorance everywhere and the moment you think you've escaped it, it will seek you out to smack you up the side of the head and remind you of its presence. Furthermore, in my travels about the country of my birth I soon discovered that this ignorance and bigotry is not confined to one racial group. Ignorance, racism, bigotry, discrimination, and prejudice are facts of life that know no boundaries. Black people are as likely to be biased toward other races as are white people. Latinos, ditto. Asians, ditto. Gay people, ditto. People of differing religious inclinations, ditto, ditto, ditto. Let's get that straight. We cannot go pointing fingers at one particular group and lay all of this at their feet. There's plenty to spread around.
For a long time it has been popular in the African-American community to claim that they cannot be racist because racism denotes power of one group over another. In this nation, the center of the capitalist universe, money is power and as a poverty-stricken group the African-American community has none. There is a gaping hole in this argument. Not all African-Americans are poor. This nation has given rise to a black middle class. We have a black President, black Supreme Court Justices, black Congressmen, black CEOs, and highly placed African-Americans in every walk of life. Furthermore, there is poverty aplenty in other racial groups as well. I'm not just talking about Latinos. There is a plethora of Spanish speaking people living in poverty in America, but the fact that gets swept under the table is the size of the poverty-stricken white community in rural America.
What we have to recognize is that often class and socio-economic status are bigger problems than race. Believe me that rich white guy across town does not want his daughter having anything to do with the son of a truck driver, even if he is a white boy. That wealthy black man living in a wealthy suburb does not want his daughter hooking up with a young black boy whose residence is in the seedier parts of the large city.
However, I digress. It has been fashionable in other parts of the industrialized world for a long time to deplore the racist element to American society. Honestly, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Have you ever checked out how Japanese treat Koreans who immigrate to Japan for work? Have you ever checked out how the Chinese treat ethnic minorities? I don't even need to mention the ongoing ethnic warfare that continually plagues Africa.
Instead, let's look at Europe. It is in Europe where many of the most egregious acts of blatant racism have occurred and continue to occur. I may disagree with conservative Muslims penchant for putting women in a secondary role and keeping them there. I personally think women covering themselves head to foot and showing nothing but their eyes in public is a pretty dumb custom. It is, however, their custom and if you think it is necessary I don't find it too threatening, on the whole. Now there are movements across Europe to outlaw this practice. The French have been the most vocal on this point, though Belgians are not far behind.
In the U.S. ethnicity is an obsession. You can't apply for a job, do your income taxes, or fill out any minor survey without divulging the ethnicity you identify with. We have African-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans. Ask any white person of European derivation what they are and they don't tell you American. They tell you Italian, Irish, English, Russian, or whatever. Meanwhile in France, they are in denial. Everyone is just French if they live there, possess citizenship, or work permits. As it happens, they once had a colonial empire that included a lot of Islamic nations and well have experienced a lot of Islamic immigration as a result. They're all just French, and the French expect them to look, act, and dress French. Learn fluent French while you're at it, non? They use statutory law to enforce this. To not live up to the whole package is not French and deserves discrimination, apparently.
Now, in the latest assault on ethnic minorities, the French government has made moves to make it legal to expel gypsies. The French government claims that large scale immigration of the Roma from Eastern Europe has occurred and is illegal and that these illegal gypsy immigrants are causing crime, child abuse, prostitution, you name it. The legal standards being used are reminiscent of the recent laws passed in Arizona that allow anyone's legal status to be questioned if you fit the profile. Just in case you thought this anti-gypsy sentiment was new, let me remind you that during the Vichy French governance during World War II, the French rounded up gypsies for extermination just as enthusiastically as they did Jews.
Does this end here. Ever heard of the British pastime of Paki bashing? What about German antipathy for Kurdish immigrants? The list goes on and on. The U.S. certainly has its litany of problems regarding racism, but it is certainly not alone. Coca Cola once had an ad campaign in which they expressed the desire to "teach the world to sing in perfect harmony." Well I think I'd like to take the whole world to an extensive ethnic sensitivity workshop and teach everyone how to behave sensibly toward one another.
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