Let me explain you a thing, Article 3
I was bored and I thought I'd do another LMEYAT article.
What bugs me most in terms of racism on a personal level (as well as other offensive terms)
First off, everyone understands, if not in the exact same manner, the basic core of racism. It's identifying negatively viewed aspects of one's ethnicity or skin colour, and focusing on them as a point of mockery and degradation. So what affects me racially? Name calling, stereotyping and the like, especially when it comes from someone that I don't know, or who is clearly aiming to cause ill will against me. However, if you are a close friend of mine, I can tolerate it. There have been times when I have been annoyed when my friends call me Mexican - I am of Filipino descent, and so their blatant and aware incorrect identification of my ethnic background had initially annoyed me. However, I'm a very tolerant person. Their calling me Mexican eventually became something that I barely cared about. Frankly, I had the freedom to call back at them with equally ignorant racial slurs. Why? Bottom line reason is because they're my friends, and whatever we call ourselves in the privacy of our own company shouldn't hurt you. It really shouldn't, because if there's anyone that you're going to have the freedom to say stupid things towards or with, it's going to be with your friends - it's your closer friends, mind you, don't just meet someone off the street, and within the first hour start being ignorantly offensive. I am allowed to call my black friend the n-word, and he lets me, because I'm one of his best friends. However, I will touch on this later.
For me personally, though, I am tolerant if a stranger may accidentally be racist. However, what offends me most? I will put this into tiers.
First Tier - most offensive
People saying"ching chong" like as if I look like some Chinese guy. I have Chinese friends, but that doesn't mean I'm a Chinese guy myself. Apparently the first thing that some people see are these Oriental eyes and they immediately think that I want to have some fun being being made fun of with the phrase "Ching chong chang!" I wouldn't be surprised one second if a good portion of Chinese people are offended. When people say this to me, I want to smack them down on the ground because flat out, this is not funny, son. In no fucking inch of humour do I find this acceptable. Walk the fuck out, learn some Chinese, and more importantly, learn some respect.
Second Tier - tolerable but offensive
"What are you?" This one's going around quite a lot for multiple ethnic looking people. I'm Canadian, and as much as I want to leave it at that, that's not what people are expecting. So I tell them that my parents are Filipino, but I was born and raised Canadian. People don't ask this of white people, and they should. The first Canadians, the First Nations people, have a colour closer to me than to most white people. I'm a Canadian. I speak only English, but I like very much to identify with the country that I was born into, raised in, and have a citizenship in. I don't have an accent when I speak English, and I can be pretty ignorant, as much as the next Canadian. I'm sorry if this conceptualized identity of mine can confuse the fuck out of you, but it makes plenty of sense to me.
"Flip". I don't mind people calling me flip, because I am Filipino. However, this goes back to my last point. I don't like being called a Filipino, or at least, not that often, because I'm a Canadian. I don't think, speak, or understand Tagalog or Ilocano. I can cook adobo, and that's as Filipino as I get with you.
Third Tier - tolerable/acceptable
Any racial slurs that are not regularly used against me (rarely used against me) but can be used against me, particularly from people I don't know. Honestly, I don't get what's up with people who can pull out some racial slur against me. I can shrug it off, and most of the time I'll feel a little sorry for you.
"Nigga". I call my friend nigga. If you call me nigga, you clearly think you have nothing to fear of me, so that must mean that I have nothing to fear of you. You're gonna be called it straight back. You're also most likely a really good friend of mine. My buddy, I call him nigga, he calls me ho. Then we just go through a list of offensive terms just because we like to act stupid. There's only been one person ever who was not a good friend of mine who called me nigga, and I called her a ho cuz I thought we were cool. That was not apparently the case, and now we're not really friends. Please don't call me nigga unless you're cool with me. In any case, I learned my lesson there.
You may say that the last on this list is ignorant. I would like to go back to the point that it's really not hurting you. I would never be outright offensive to you if I just met you, if I barely know you, and if it's in a professional or public environment. Why? Because I like to think that I'm not stupid. If you're my friend and you're uncomfortable with racial slurs, there's hopefully a good chance that I catch that. Mainly because you're not loud, angry, and yelling racial indecencies around me. Clearly you don't want to act that way around me, so I won't act that way around you. That's how I gauge the situation, and if that doesn't make sense to you, I don't know what will.
Spending time on Tumblr has affected the way that I have felt using the word "nigga". Despite using it freely around my friend, I feel that he's being constantly exposed to the word, with both his friends and his not-so-close black acquaintances. I've decided that I may only use it under situations of heightened emotion, but otherwise I shall resort to "dude", "man", or "bro". I want him to be slightly less exposed to the word, at least from me, because I'm feeling slightly more guilty about using it. We can joke about it for sure - have you seen the episode of Boondocks? It was hilarious.
Spending time on Tumblr has also got me in this weird frame of mind in pertinence to finding coloured girls attractive. I'm not sure if I'm being racist by saying that I like black girls over any other kind of girls, or if I'm just lying to myself in general because I've got a few major crushes that are women of colour. Am I racist or am I think about black girls too much as of late? I don't know. Maybe you can tell me. I personally don't care if the woman I end up with loves me as much as I love her. I mean, that's the bottom line in the relationship, not that I chose her for the colour of her skin, or if she chose me for the colour of my skin.
That's pretty much all I have to say about racism. I am a Canadian, and if you're cool with me, then I'm probably cool with you. Just don't go all "ching chong ching chong" on my ass. If you want me to go full on respect with you, then that's how we'll role.
DJ
