What has your experience with racism been like?
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I mean real life experience. Obviously people are always talking shit online. I was reflecting that growing up in an Asian enclave in Canada, I was never beat up, robbed or bullied for being Asian and how that shapes my views vs others. I have had racial insults in highschool. One time as classes were switching, someone said “SARS” to me while walking past me. I don’t know who it was and didn’t think it was worth blocking everybody and causing a scene. That was about as bad as it got for me. There was no systematic targeting of Asians for bullying in my school. It might have something to do with the high numbers of Asian gangsters.
I did however witness some worse racism towards others. I remember one time we were waiting for a class that was going on late. Some white kid walked by and told the Muslim kid to “get out of my country”. The non whites looked at him with a mix of surprise and offense. He gave a nervous chuckle and said “heh, just kidding” to the Muslim kid. I asked the guy whether people say this sort of thing to him often. He said yes, but shrugged it off. I suspect the white kid targeted him because he wore traditional clothing. Still, it was pretty shocking to me back then to have something that blatant right in front of me.
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@natalie_ng I don’t have sexpats in my town, at least not in the conventional sense, but knowing they exist pisses me off.
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I think the worst that it has ever gotten for me personally was during college and in the work place where I had VERY overweight white guys approach me often, looking for a date and the occasional “konnichiwa” or “ni hao ma” from random white guys at grocery stores and gas stations. I wrote about this here before but at one point, I had a random white guy in the airport walk slowly past me (I was sitting in my seat waiting for my next flight) while grinning at me the whole time. Then slowly walked into the restroom with his head still facing me, grinning at me. Then minutes later, came out of the restroom, continued to stare and grin at me. After he walked past me, he turned around, walked backwards, so he can keep grinning at me. Creepy af. I suspect that it was because I was the only Asian female around. This took place in North Carolina btw, not where I was from (California).
In California, I also grew up in an enclave and besides the fat white guys wanting my number, I didn’t face much racism there personally. Can’t say the same for my husband and father though. I did get a few dirty looks from white women/girls from time to time, but it was rare. The dirty looks from them are a lot more common where I’m at currently (deep south). One white girl even had her husband told my husband that she “outright hated me” for “showing too much leg.” Which was weird because there was a crap ton of white and black girls there wearing short shorts and I was simply wearing a skirt that was barely any higher than my knees.
@secondstrike Sounds like you barely ran into many problems with them at all, yet you’re at our forefront in fighting against them
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I also grew up in an Asian enclave. I had good relations with whites when I was young. Best friend as a kid was white. First pseudo gf was white. When I had big accident at a new school, the guy who helped me to the school nurse was white.
I witnessed my mother getting run ins with a few racists - the usual - go back to China, speak English, etc.
In grade school, the only people to act racist toward me were two white guys. I fought one of them and the other was a no show.
My school was practically all Asian with a few token whites. University also had a large Asian population.
Felt more racism upon graduation and in the workplace though, but even that was mixed as I had good relations with most of them.
I thought racism was just singular events until I read more and realized the experiences differ a lot by geography.
