meta: racism & the international community

This isn't fiction. This isn't art. What it is is a post about racism, because there are some things that just need to be said.

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I grew up, more or less, an expatriate in an international community. I've attended a local Malaysian private school, an American/international school in the Netherlands, local public school in Texas (CULTURE SHOCK let me tell you), and now again an American/international school in KL. And lately I've noticed something really weird about the international community, just because of all the posts lately about race and racism.

It's this: We like to pretend we're not racist.

First: I'm racist. When I was little, my friends and I would bully a girl called Rishayini. She was Indian. That made it okay. I'm better now, but I don't believe you can get rid of internalized racism that easily. Or, let's be honest here, at all.

Growing up international helped the most. It's just hard to stay that blatantly racist when you have friends from India, from Korea, from Sri Lanka, from--everywhere, really. (Except maybe Russia. Weirdly enough, the only Russian I know I met in Texas.) It opens your eyes. And the international community is, in general, a weirdly nice place. It's easy to be nice when people are, for the most part, well-paid, well-informed and well-traveled. And people comment a lot about what they've seen, about international news, about all the different economic and political systems.

And then when the subject turns to racism, the general sentiment is this: Malaysia has racial problems. America has racial problems. France has racial problems. But we don't, because we have been ~exposed to diversity~, and--

Wait.

What?

We are better than the average, I'll admit. Diversity helps... but it doesn't magically cure racism. The assumption that international = non-racist is just mind-boggling. Yet it's mentioned all the time, in discussions about race, about prejudice: that pat-on-the-back comment, with all its ignorant implications and self-congratulatory deceit.

The problems aren't as obvious. There are no fights, no riots. But they're there, and I just wish people in my community would admit to that.

Labels: _meta, meta: racism