Pot & Kettle

Pot:
... there's this smell.

Kettle:
What smell?

Pot:
I don't know - there's just a smell; I can't stand it.

Kettle:
What smell.

Pot:
You know, Indians and Malays, they have this ... smell. That's why not many [Chinese] people will go to Little India on weekends.

Kettle:
What smell.

Pot:
You are biased; that's why you don't smell it.

I really wonder why I have friends who are so ... I don't know what to call it. They claim they aren't racist, but their claims are always qualified with a but; as in: "I'm not racist, but they ..."

Everybody is racist: why can't we just be open about it? I'm not suggesting everybody should spit at, or throw rocks at, or lynch their preferred minority group(s) though; I'm just saying, don't be pretending you aren't racist, is all - why mask it under layers of pretend-open-mindedness and political correctness?

When I was eleven or twelve, my family visited the States. We were standing on the curb somewhere in Anaheim's Chinatown when a car of white boys cruised by, yelled something and spitted ice at us. It was a totally horrible experience; I had been torn between anger and fear at what had transpired, and I never will forget it. (I think that was when I started having a mild phobia towards - not just Americans - but white people in general.)

I saw Crash during my flight from Auckland (having missed it during Welly's International Film Festival this year; I think it's a great movie). I found myself preferring Sgt Jack Ryan (Matt Dillon) to Officer Tommy Hansen (Ryan Phillippe) in the end, even though I wanted to kick the former in the balls with pointy shoes initially.

It may not be all straight-forward and simplistic as this, but the way I see it, Tommy Hansen's indignant and vocal disapproval of Jack Ryan's bigotry may seem commendable, but it merely (better) camouflages his innate prejudice(s); perhaps, the more vociferous one is against racism, the more racist one is. (It's like how I always like to think those determinedly homophobic folks are really all of them closet cases.)

And since everybody is racist, that means even minorities are prejudiced against other minorites, inflicting shit they themselves have experienced on others; also, it's a sad state of affairs that Singaporean Chinese are prejudiced against (Mainland) Chinese nationals. (What the fuck, people - we're all fucking Chinese.)

But I should talk ...

I've always focused so fixedly on differences that I am almost completely blind to similarities. I'm gonna have to start working on finding similarities among people, but here are the three I've already come up with: one, we are of the same species; two, we bleed red when cut; and three, we are all fucking racist.

And so, the very racism that divides us, also unites us.

(You really gotta appreciate Life's little ironies sometimes ...)



(23:30 SGT)