One of my favorite bloggers recently posted a blog entry about racial diversity. I found it interesting, commendable and also slightly naive. Actually I'm not sure if naive is the word I'm looking for, but there was something about it that made me stop and read the first 50 comments posted in response looking for someone expressing my sentiments. I took about 15 or 20 comments before I spotted it but there it was. Disagreement.
I knew it would be there and I knew it would come from either: A) A person who majored in early childhood education in college and took approximately 12 hours of classes on cultural diversity. B) One of my professors who taught those 12 hours of cultural diversity classes or C) someone not white. I'm betting it was probably the third type of person because I don't think Dr. V would waste her time reading the Pioneer Women blog. Her blog reading would be more intellectually stimulating. But I digress except for this shout out to Dr. V who I personally think was a wonderful professor and I am now saddened by the fact that I think I was to intimidated to ever tell her.
There are a lot of things I think about blogging about. Some are public service announcements. Things to the extent of "Just in case you were wondering if you should post your the birth video of your first child on facebook, don't." Others are feebly formed thoughts on issues like race. Others are just dumb bumblings of how I mess up in language all the time and can barely master English grammar let alone Chinese grammar. Almost daily I compose fantastic blog entries on all of the above topics, usually while washing dishes. But then I don't actually blog. I'm not so worried about the first three reasons I don't blog: 1) lack of time 2) lack of a computer with a proxy 3) stupid idea to start with. But the fourth reason I don't blog really is something to think about. I don't blog sometimes because I'm scared of what people will think.
I'm scared that someone who did post her birth video on facebook will read my blog entry and be offended. I'm scared if I talk about my bumblings everyone will know what level I am as a language student. (As if they didn't already know.) And I'm afraid that talking about things I think about frequently, like race and culture, are issues that friends will not understand or disagree with. So I don't talk about them.
I think that's ok. No one needs to be told through their friends blog not what to post and not post on their facebook page. A blog isn't really the type of medium that invites personal interaction and dialogue which can promote understanding. That would be a phone call. It's more of a public proclamation of thoughts. Or maybe just a public proclamation of cute baby pictures. Since we don't have a baby, all I'm left with is my thoughts. Which are not as cute.
So today I desire to stick my neck out and say one thing about race in response to reading another person's blog entry saying that discussing race should be avoided. Race is often, not always but often, connected to something that I find precious. It's connected to culture. I don't think race needs to be the first thing talked about when a person meets another person, but to ignore race in an effort to be "color blind" means that a person's cultural background is ignored. I think culture is precious because it is a part of each of us and to pretend we are all the same is really not true. We are all people, but we are unique in our personalities, our cultures, and skin colors. I like that and I like talking about it because I like people. I just wanted to say that, it's ok if you don't agree. Or if you have a suggestion to help me refine my perspective, that's good too.
On another interesting note because I happen to be white American and my husband happens to be Chinese American we get a lot of reactions in this Asian city where we live. People here ask about race pretty frequently and usually at the beginning of the conversation. In my husband's observations it's because of a desire to figure out what type of relationship they can have with you. In my observation I agree with him. I also think it's because they feel confused by us. Maybe I'll explore this topic more in the future. Maybe I won't. But I do just want to observe that difference between one Western perspective on race I've encountered recently vs. the perspective I encounter here pretty regularly.
Another interesting question. If you have time go and read this blog entry and then write me a note. I am really curious now to know if you would buy your children dolls that were not your own race.
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I might buy the dolls, but I certainly would not avoid talking about it in an attempt to make my children "color blind". We are not all the same. I would want my children to celebrate the differences and learn about other cultures, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you my white American friend. :)