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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1996)
Anthony NGUYEN Double standard Racism: a 2-way stmt to nowhere All whites should go back to Europe. That’s a racist statement. Plain and simple. If I uttered such a comment, most people would be shocked, and others might berate me for such a racist remark. Some, though, might be bold enough to tell me to go back to China with my fellow “gooks”—although, like I told the racist rednecks who drove past me one day in their 1940s Ford pick-up truck with the bumper sticker that screamed “Friends don’t let friends ride on Jap bikes,” I’m not from China. I don’t know what pissed me off more, that these idiots referred to me with three different distinct racial/national slurs, or the fact that I didn’t get “medieval” on their asses. But minorities have used racial statements on me too. (I must be a magnet for ignorant people to express their opinions.) In Boston, during my freshman year, I was walking with some friends in Harvard Square taking in a nice autumn afternoon. I accidentally bumped into a black man walking into HMV music. He snarled at me, saying “Watch where you’re going dink.” It’s not like my entire life has been made up of solely racial episodes. If I think about it, I can only count maybe four instances of racism. But this isn’t about me and my adven tures with racists. It’s about racism. Racism is a two way street, you know. If I truly ever felt that whites should go back to Europe ... I’d be the first to declare myself a racist. And I’m so sick and tired of hearing minorities get away with racism. Everybody’s got the politically correct stick shoved up their you-know-whats. Oh no, some say, racism is an issue of power—power of one group over another—and since minorities aren’t in the power u Everybody’s got the politically correct stick shoved up their you-know whats.” structure of America, they can’t be guilty of racism. The subtle racist— OK, maybe not racist, but misguided individual—states that it’s just a levelling of the playing field. Hold up. It’s one thing to be equal with your fellow human in all aspects, but another thing to be treated specially, at the expense of others. Webster’s Dictionary (Ency clopedic edition) defines racism as “the assumption that the characteris tics and abilities of an individual are determined by race.” Nowhere is racism defined as determining abilities and the like when holding the jeins ofpower. f 1 , ^ * U » 5 * Perhaps power is needed to implement some tools of racism, but is power even really necessary? Isn’t it conceivable that nonwhites have power? I mean, if I have a large coiporation, and I only hire other Asians, even if they’re less qualified than white, black, or Hispanic applicants, aren’t I being racist? Unless there is overwhelming evidence that Asian applicants are needed for a particular task — there’s no justification for this. But I could get away with it in America. I could just say Asians are under-represented in the industry of making Elvis cheese blocks and that my company would fill a niche for such a market. Of course this sounds ludicrous, but a lot of companies get away with such justification. Especially when they hire less qualified applicants to fill a demo graphic imbalance. Even in a classroom setting we no longer have the strength to argue against racist statements. If 1 made a joke about being oppressed or how whites’mannerisms were strange, I might get a few laughs (as long as I did it in a lighthearted way). Now if you sat in a class of 97 percent whites (like here at UNL) and in one of those less-serious moments a student said something about Asians in response to my statement, I’d bet not many people would be laughing if I didn’t laugh. The pendulum has moved too far to the other side now. We should never be cloaking racism under the mantle of public policies. There are those who concede that it is wrong to use past actions to support current policies, but cite that racism still exists and we need to correct the imbalance. But how do you go about correcting an imbalance with an imbalance into the opposite direction? Racism is racism, regard less of any other actions. I’ve never really understood why, when someone who is a minority says something racist, some people v are more willing to forgive or justify ’ — because of past actions of whites. I can’t stand it when this is the reason for it being “OK”. Any way you look at it it’s wrong. Just plain wrong. There is no “good” racism, just bad racism. Nguyen is a senior biochemistry and philosophy major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist S-ti.~a.W-.- nWAijfelfott*-- , ' -‘—VlfTTi Vm iifa - 1 ■ ■ '' *- i r *,. f ■ if I've alwaw v _ HIGHWAY l 230J All roads lead to one or another of MDA’s 230 clinics helping people affected by neuromuscular diseases. 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