From: blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Re: Not a Myth at All
Date: 21 Dec 92 20:25:47 GMT
Organization: Horizon Research, Inc.

In article <33964@twics.co.jp>, dcroz@twics.co.jp writes:

<a lot of stuff in a number of different posts omitted>

I am sorry about your bad experiences and bad feelings,
but I'd like to point something out. I don't see what
you have written here as much different than much of
what you have decried.

In other words, making racial (or ethnic) generalizations
in your native language to the members of your own ethnic
group, within earshot (or in this case, eyeshot) of the
ethnic group you are berating, or saying unkind things 
about them, when they are in a postition to understand
what you are saying. Seems little different to me...

Perhaps at least some of the Japanese you overheard have
had similar experiences, when they were differentiatied
and made to feel uncomfortable during a homestay or study
abroad. And their racist remarks are a reaction to that.
Do you think so?

Welcome to the real world. Such is life... a series of self-
conflicting experiences that good and gentle people (in
the well-mannered sense) try to understand and overcome,
fools will often recognize, but ignore... and idiots will
never see at all. It may be too early to tell which one 
you are... or maybe not.

There are two basic types of racism. The first and 
most common type, is when the racism is based on insecurity
and lack of self image, which is bolstered by belittling
characteristics of other races or ethnic groups. The second 
is one in which the racist truly feels his superiority. This 
type is usually never overt, as the practitioners of this ilk
rarely feel a need to state their racists attitudes. The 
exception to this is when they often indignantly point out 
the racism in others. A twisty little maze of passages, all 
the same, but all different, is this life.

The only true escape from racism - either as a
perpetrator or a victim - is a sincere view of
equality in peoples. Not that there may not be any
differences, but at least an understanding that those
differences are mainly socialized, and as such are
neither good nor bad... just different layers put on
a common humanity. This view is not very easily arrived
at... by anyone. To achieve it, one must cast one's self
to sea, so to speak, and find that one's realities, or
levels of socialization, are accidents of birth. One
must cast off those layers, and learn to live without
such props. When you truly exist without props, then 
you are impervious to racial slander and insensitive
to racial invective, for you will stand alone - free
from prejudice and free from the influence of it on
your soul and mind.

Easier said than done... but something to try for in
any case. It may be that none of us is truly free. But
some keep trying nonetheless. If... because of your
accident of nativity, you have fewer and more permeable
layers to break through, please consider yourself lucky,
and less of a victim than those whose socialized mantle
is so strong and so deep. But also please realize that
they are not so  different from you in kind, but only
in the fact that they are not you.

I think you demonstrated this quite well.

- Bill Lambert
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,alt.sex,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.african.american,sci.electronics,misc.consumers,misc.education,misc.entrepreneurs