TWP Creative Theme - Catch up session #4

Sigh - this is the fourth one I missed (I told you it was a sad state!). After this, I'm caught up and hopefully will be able to contribute for the current week's theme of WINGS.

This theme is RACE.

(I kinda went long on this one... couldn't help it.)

"...a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock; a class or kind of people unified by community of interests, habits, or characteristics."

Why have I chosen to focus on this definition? Because I am part of a "visible minority"... I am ethnically a Chinese woman living in a predominantly Caucasian environment. I live in Canada where multiculturalism and the acceptance of other ethnic systems is taken in a "mosaic" approach rather than the "melting pot" approach of our American neighbors. The individuality of each ethnic group that has migrated here is supposedly almost sacrosanct and of great importance... at least that's what the government pamphlets say. I am not sure that is totally accurate.

When I arrived in Canada from the Philippines in 1973, I had very little perception of racism. We had many Caucasian friends in the Philippines - North American and European. The Philippine history included Spanish colonial rule for 200 years, American "protectionism" for more than 50 years, and a continuous influx of other Southeast Asian ethnicities making the islands home. While the Chinese Filipinos and the semi-European Filipinos (referred to as "mestizo"), were visually and usually economically distinct from the aboriginal people, I had never been called some of the things I was called nor encountered blatant, ugly racism until I came to Canada.

I remember walking through the cafeteria in my new high school, already in a bit of culture shock, when I heard someone yell, "**expletive** Nip!" I didn't react because I didn't know that "nip" meant anything other than a small bite or pinch. My new friend turned quickly, her blonde hair whipping around and her ice-blue eyes flashing anger as she engaged the source of the remark, "You're stupid! You don't know anything! She's not even Japanese!" The retort was, "They all look alike." My friend grabbed my elbow and rushed me forward faster than we had been going. I was shocked by this unprovoked verbal assault by an absolute stranger.

In the Philippines, I was always asked to read or recite things in class because they thought I had a rather "American" accent to my English. This was because most of my friends were the children of American businessmen and military people stationed in the area. We also didn't speak any other language but English in our home. My mother was from Hong Kong and spoke Cantonese and "the Queen's English" and my father's family had immigrated to the Philippines from China. The differences in their Chinese dialects as well as my mother not speaking the Philippine native language dictated that the best way for everyone to communicate in our house was English. However, upon coming to Canada, I realized that I did not have a westernized accent at all - I had a distinct Filipino edge to my English. I worked very hard to get rid of that tell-tale diction. I was bound and determined to at least sound like I was born in Canada if I couldn't look like the white kids. I didn't want to be called names again. It hurt and it angered me.

My husband is Caucasian of Russian ethnicity (from what we can figure out from the adoption papers) and he grew up in a small town. When we were married, I was shocked to find out that his deceased mother's mother (his maternal granny) was racist. She came to the wedding, making sure she looked at all of us non-whites with narrowed and cold stares. She by-passed me in the reception line completely! Can you imagine my shock? Bypassing the bride?!?? Even my husband was surprised. I wondered why she had bothered to come to the wedding. Probably curiosity more than anything. Anyway, long (and ugly) story short: she whispered to my new husband as she left the reception: "I feel so sorry for you... marrying into this." She later wrote my father-in-law and said she had disowned Will for marrying an Asian. We haven't seen or heard from her in 14 years. My hubby sent her Christmas cards for a couple of years but his dad then told him that she didn't even open them. End of relationship. Sad. I think it sort of blew me away when my father-in-law said, "You can't really expect anything more from her. She's ignorant and what with the war..." The war??? He was referring to the Japanese in WW2. My mother watched Hong Kong and China be overrun by the Japanese invasion and my father's family lost everything in the Philippines when the Japanese invaded. My mother witnessed the atrocities of war on the Chinese people and so did my father. War is evil and brings out the evil in people, regardless of color. I guess it goes back to the same thing I heard in highschool... "They all look alike." Funny thing is, my father-in-law used to refer to the guy that owned the Chinese restaurant in his small town as "the Chinaman" ... he would say it just like that even in front of me. I don't think he had malicious intent, but it was odd and he really wasn't aware of it.

To be honest, my mother had issues with the Japanese race for a long time after the war - not really a hatred, but certainly a preference to not associate with them too closely. But I think the fact that she is a faithful Christian has helped to heal that.

My children are "haffa's" - half a Chinese, half a Caucasian. My oldest son is often asked if he's Native Indian/Aboriginal... or Hawaiian... or - and this one cracks us up - ITALIAN. My daughter thinks she looks like Lilo from the movie Lilo and Stitch. I think she looks Hispanic. My youngest son looks... well... we can't figure him out. When he was younger, he looked like a little Irishman. He has large, brown expressive eyes but a definitely rounder, sloped nose and a round face. I don't see them as anything but gorgeous. They don't see themselves as anything but "Canadian, eh?".

I acknowledge that there is racism by black people for white people, by Asian people for black people and white people, and even in Caucasian groups, there is racism between ethnicities... Slavs vs. Croats for example. People of the same "color" against their own countrymen just because of "tribal laws" or religious background. I also admit that I've felt some form of racism for other Asians based on generalized behaviors that I dislike. But I'm working on curbing my human tendencies to paint any race with a wide brushstroke based on bad impressions from a few.

On a final note, I close this discourse with the words from a familiar children's song...

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white
We are precious in His sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Oh that we were all more like Jesus....