‘Racism’ Might Come From Rudeness or Ignorance

I read with interest the First Person article by Elaine Tassy in the May 24 Times in which she described what she felt was racist treatment she had received since she moved to the “frontier” of Orange County in January.

For example, she describes “strange” experiences such as “some white Orange Countians reacting to black people with looks, body language, comments and actions (that my friends) felt were racist.” She continued, “I heard about other black reporters who felt unwelcome or uncomfortable here and moved away because of it.”

As someone who has lived in Orange County off and on since 1958, I feel qualified to respond to her comments.

I believe the reactions she and her friends elicit in Orange County can be explained in five ways.

First, of course, some people down here are just plain racist.

Surprise! There are racists in Orange County. Just as there are racists in every other spot on Earth that has been trampled by humankind.

So does it make sense to obsess on the 10% of the population who are racist or to make the best of our relations with the 90% who are not?

Second, I’m sure that some of the reactions she elicited (such as from a cafeteria worker who “asked if she could touch my hair and immediately reached to fondle my braids”) are due not to racism per se but rather to old-fashioned ignorance and rudeness.

Tassy even describes as “rude” an incident when a chiropractor “picked up a braid and marveled, ‘Ooh, did you do this yourself?’ When I told her I did not want her to touch my hair, she said, disappointed, ‘Why?’ ”

Excuse me? She went to a chiropractor for “an adjustment” on her body and then was disgusted when the chiropractor wanted to touch her hair and then complimented her on it?

Of course such behavior by others may be boorish and rude, but instead of reacting with an anger, why not take it as an opportunity to educate other people about the culture and heritage of African Americans?

I think a third possible reason for the reactions Tassy and her friends elicit is that the reactions are based more on the characteristics of the “reactor” than anything about the characteristics of the “reactee.”

Let me give an example:

There is a particular store that I frequent that has four clerks who work at the cash registers at various times. I have learned by experience that three of these clerks are very friendly and helpful while one of them is always brusque and unhelpful. So I naturally try to avoid this grumpy clerk if possible.

What if I were a member of a minority group and I walked into this store for the first time without knowing anything about the personal characteristics of these four clerks? I’d have a one-in-four chance of being served by Mr. Grumpy. And if he treated me in an unhelpful way, I might assume, incorrectly, that I was being treated that way because of my being a member of a minority group rather than because of his own personality.

In other words, some people treat us badly because they treat everyone badly, not because of anything they feel personally against us as individuals or members of a particular group.

Another possible explanation for the way minorities are treated in the Big Orange is the old “fish out of water” syndrome.

For five years I lived as a gaijin in Japan, a status that probably comes as close as anything to qualifying a white person to understand, at least to some extent, what an African American must experience in this country.

As a gaijin (literally, “person from the outside”), I had the daily experience of eliciting initial reactions from Japanese people that were based more on my appearance than on who I was as an individual.

Some Japanese people would seem terrified if I tried to speak to them (even if I tried to speak to them in their own language) while others would approach me as though I was a free-English-language-lesson-giving machine.

And this treatment often enraged me. Why? Well, as Tassy explained: “Because such treatment makes me feel like an object, a mannequin or statue, rather than (like) someone with feelings.”

And this brings me to the last reason. Minority group members in Orange County and the U.S. in general have become so used to anticipating a racist reaction in every encounter with a person who is outside their group that they bring great resentment and anger to every such meeting. And this negative attitude has the self-fulfilling result of eliciting a negative reaction from the other person, creating an evil but hopefully not unending cycle of mistrust, resentment and hurt.

I guess what I’m saying is that we all aren’t so bad down here. Just give us a chance to get to know you as an “individual with feelings.” All that we ask is that you make an equal effort to do the same to us.

RICHARD SHOWSTACK,

Newport Beach