We are all inherently racist

Race was a big talking point through out my trip. This isn't surprising, since South Africa is the Rainbow Nation that only recently escaped Apartheid and gave rule to a black majority. But one thing is true: No matter how much minorities complain about inequalities, racism, and discrimination in the US, we, Americans, BY FAR have the best race relations than any other country I've been to.

Here's a contrast:

If you where to go to Atlanta, most people and tour guides will tell you to go to Dr. King's memorial, because he was a great man that gave his life for what's right and because of that, is and should be respected, not because he's black, but because he made great contributions to the human race as a whole.

While I was in Cape Town, I wanted to go to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was locked up for 27 years. I asked the hostel tour guy, who was Afrikaner, how to get there and his response was "Why would you want to go there? There's nothing to see, unless you have some sort of political leaning or something".

Really Mr. Tour guy??? If i have a political leaning? What about seeing the place where one of the greatest people the human race has ever seen, develop his ideas of forgiveness and non-violence? I would think that this would be the first place you would tell people to see to understand South Africa, where it has been, and where it is going.

Judging my South African standards, the race relationship has been great since 1994. And from an objective standard, it has vastly improved. There's no more segregation, no more apartheid, and no one is discriminated because of race. There also hasn't been massive racial violence post 1994, considering the oppressed majority accounts for 80% of the population. The peace I would absolutely accredit Nelson Mandela and his leadership. With that said, racial divides still exist. Average white income is still 2x greater than average black income. Inter-racial relationships are still very rare.

I was at a wine tour/festival in Jo'burg my last day in South Africa. I noticed 1. Every winery had a white person behind the stall 2. A lot of attractive white women. As for the first point, it is not that big of a surprise, since wine making is a traditional western/European tradition which requires tons of capital, which blacks in SA rarely have. The second point, the attractive women, was surprising. My cousin, who has worked in South Africa for the past 3 months, said "Don't bother, your not Afrikaner, they won't take a second look at you". That struck me as weird, since in the US, I wouldn't think that a women would think "He's a great guy, but he's also Asian. I don't know about that..." But upon further observation, I noticed there weren't any inter-racial couples. This lead to a whole discussion of how accepted inter-racial, especially between a black and white person, are. In the US, we would not think twice about an inter-racial relationship, but in other places, it's still a big deal.

I, in my life as well as this trip to Africa, have passed judgment on a person or a group of people due to race. Sometimes it's a joke, but other times it may not be as innocuous. It is not enough to say I don't see race, or some hippie ass answer like "I'm a part of the human race". What race or ethnicity we are defines who and what we are. I try hard to fight Chinese stereotypes, I think everyone can get that, but I'm still very Chinese in many aspects. Unless we directly face racism and deal with it, we will never make any further process.

Is stereotyping right? Probably not. Is it convenient? Absolutely. But we must be conscious of the fact that we are passing judgment not because of understanding, but because of racial stereotyping. Instead of giving ridiculously naive statements like "I don't see race" or "We are all apart of the human race", we need to deal with the issue head on and realize that we are all inherently racist. All races are not the same, we bring our different racial experiences to the table and that diversity is what makes us, as a human race, great.

The take away message here is that we will pass judgment based upon race, but we must try to prevent those judgments turn into action or policy. It is dangerous and difficult to ignore race, nor should we. Understanding is always the first step.

I will try to be more cognizant on the decisions I make and be mindful of what is based on racial stereotypes. I will try to not allow the racial judgments that I pass turn into actions, either positive or negative. The first step toward improving ourselves in understanding. From there, I can work on the rest.