Americans who act liberal and open-minded can be just as annoying those knee-jerk conservatives. I find that for some, the liberalism they espouse is just a show put on to convince the rest of us that they are quite modern, quite appropriate, and of course en vogue. There is a difference between on one hand recognizing the problems in society and consequently trying to improve them and on the other choosing to act like those problems never ever apply to you. What do I mean? Here is an example:

I am taking a class with the study abroad program called Historical Perspectives of Chile or something to that effect. There are two particularly white (and one particularly obnoxious) women in the class who find it necessary to comment upon every little thing said by the professor. It gets to be quite annoying after awhile, especially when they don’t particularly add anything intelligent to the topic or the conversation. (Example 1 Professor: Chileans don’t like Peruvians. Girl One: Oh I know. My brother said something to that effect yesterday. Example 2 Professor: Isn’t that funny? Girl Two: HAHAHAHAHA.)

Last class, the professor was relating to us a particular news article about discrimination published by El Mercurio, one of the more popular daily papers here. It turns out that people feel like there is a fair amount discrimination based upon your physical appearance, and in fact that category of discrimination appeared second in the list with a response of 24%. As an example, the professor told us a story about how he was walking in the streets in the center of the city alone in the middle of the night, which of course is pretty dangerous especially when he was carrying a bag, and he saw two people walking towards him. Judging by the facial characteristics of these two men, my professor had a gut reaction to flee in order to save his wallet and perhaps a trip to the hospital (which he mentioned later saved him two other times in the center of the city). But right before he decided to bolt, he heard that their accent was Peruvian, and immediately he calmed down. However, afterwards it struck him quite hard because it showed that there are facial characteristics associated with criminals or dangerous people based upon how indigenous you look. Although Chileans refuse to recognize it, racism exists.

What were the reactions of these two (white, blonde, well-dressed, private university attending, expatriate) girls? Imagine this nearly simultaneously:

Girl Two: OMG, I can’t believe you did that. It’s so ironic that you had that reaction, especially when you teach what you teach and you think what you think. It is quite inappropriate, and it is so horrible that Chileans have this racism against the indigenous people and against Peruvians. I can’t believe it.

Girl One: Oh that’s ok. You know what? I had the very same thing happen to me when I was in the United States, but nothing really happened. It’s so horrible and cruel and it makes no sense. Don’t worry, it’s ok.

Girl Two: You know what, I went to this rap concert in Chile with some group and they were like saying stuff that was so blatantly offensive I couldn’t believe it. Do you know what they were saying? Qué pasa, negro? And I was like sitting there, thinking, OMG I am like 60 years in the past! I can’t believe that people think like this…………

And so on and so forth.

Blabbering like that doesn’t prove anything about you nor does it solve any of the problems of the society. In fact, ultimately it sounds more like an exercise in political correctness, which basically tries to avoid critical social issues under this veil of politeness and respect. I can’t imagine these particular girls, walking in the streets of an urban downtown area and seeing two black men approach them, would feel quite happy and safe, affirming that in America we respect other people and their identities. By my judgment, they would scream, call the cops, call their mother, call their ex-boyfriend’s frat brothers, pray to God, pray to the Devil, pray to oh what was that Hindu god that I studied in my hip college religion class?, and pull out their can of mace (or a gun, depending on how pro-Second Amendment Republican their father is). To me it makes no sense for them to pretend like the professor’s reaction was out of place or that they don’t have such strong reactions to racial stereotypes.

Aside: The rhetoric surrounding this whole discussion is somewhat ironic as well. The very fact that these girls claim to have already accepted those with pejorative racial characteristics still suggests that there is a hierarchy of power: there are people who need to accept (the majority with the valorized racial characteristics) as well as the people who need to be accepted (those with pejorative racial characteristics).

In the end, those girls do have racial stereotypes and in a dangerous situation they will act upon them. Everybody does. To pretend like they don’t perhaps is part of the racial problem in America. It seems like the first thing people say is “I am not racist, but…” Just because you take a certain position in front of your coffee-shop friends doesn’t necessarily mean that in real life you think or act that way. Just because you sit in a classroom and act offended on behalf of black people around the world doesn’t mean that two lifetime criminals are not going to rob that white drunk ass sorority girl stumbling confusedly in the streets of New Orleans. I find it really doesn’t help in the end.* It doesn’t really change you nor does it change the situation. And thus, such an attitude is just for show.

*Don’t get me wrong. I think discussions about the senselessness of racism and the arbitrariness of the values of racial characteristics are very helpful. But to claim or imply that such racist tendencies don’t apply to you (and this of course goes from any racial/social/cultural perspective) is just false, and ultimately it doesn’t really serve anybody. Why do they take such offense? Why are they so horrified? Those same attitudes, like it or not, are a part of the landscape of American culture. To valorize their positions as holier-than-thou, sinless angels not only alienates others but worsens a fundamental problem of the American society.

Labels: chile, complaints