Racism or Bigotry:
Which do you prefer?
After my post yesterday — to which I received mostly agreements
that I originally expected to be indignant flaming, I realized that
along with myself, there are a lot of openly racist people out there.
However, there were a couple people who gave me heated responses (one
even called me the Hitler of Xanga! — please don’t call me that, I
prefer Mussolini, thanks… I’m not quite as badass as Hitler)
Anyhow, it wasn’t really enough to spark my fire and write back an
indignaant response to their comments.
It was then that I read my friend Larry’s blog. He wrote:
Racism sucks.
That’s why I’m a bigot instead of racist. Go bigots!
Which got me thinking… Is there such a thing as a difference
between the two? And if there are, can you be one and not the
other?
Racism here is spoken with this definition: Discrimination or prejudice based on race.
A Bigot is: One who is strongly partial to one’s own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
(www.dictionary.com)
Myself
I came to terms with the fact that I was racist a long time ago.
I realize that it’s a part of my upbringing and that there are some
thoughts about race I that just come naturally to me because of my
parents and the media.
The unbearable thought is that I have to come to terms with the fact
that , perhaps, along with being a racist, I am a bigot too.
And then I realized it’s true, I am. That’s why most of my
friends are Asian, why I go to a school that is mostly Asian, why I
enjoy learning about Asian culture more than any others. Sure, it
might not all be Vietnamese stuff, but I definitely identify more with
Asian culture than any others.
Which takes me back to my original thought:
Can you be a racist without being a bigot? Or vice versa?
My answer to that is: I don’t think anybody isn’t a little bit of
a bigot, or a little bit of a racist deep down inside. If you think you’re not, you’re lying to yourself. Our
parents and the media have made sure of that. However, as long as
we don’t act upon those racist and bigoted feelings then we’ll be able
to live our lives as if we weren’t racists or bigots.
But… we can’t forget that we’re human and because we can see
differences in each other plainly, we’ll never truly be without racism
(until we’re all mixed, and then at that point, it’ll be somethign
else).
