“How in the WORLD am I going to write three pages on the Italian opinion of the race riots?” I thought as we were given this assignment. I admit I was skeptical about how safe and doable this assignment was. How was it safe to talk to a random stranger about a controversial topic? How would I find someone who spoke fluent enough English to communicate their opinion that was likely complex on this contentious event and the ideals behind it? Needless to say, I was not excited to complete this assignment.
One evening this week, I was taking a nice stroll to satisfy my intense craving for gelato. After browsing over the many bright and unusual flavors, I decided to go with the classics, strawberry and vanilla. “Vorrei fragola y vaniglia per favore,” I said to the lady behind the counter. In clear English she answered back asking what size I wanted. I wasn’t sure whether to be thankful or offended, I guess it was considerate of her to speak to me in my own language, but I myself was trying to be respectful of the Italian culture and use as much of the language as possible. Apparently I still don’t have the whole looking and acting Italian thing down. I was taken a bit off guard by her clear English and I was still in my Italian-speaking mode, so I simply pointed at the 2 Euro cup.
While she was scooping my gelato, our race riot blog assignment entered my train of thought. She seemed friendly and spoke decent English, why not give it a try? In my opinion, she did not look Italian per se, but she had olive skin and dark eyes, and my inhibition indicated that she was a mix of African or Middle Eastern and some type of Caucasian heritage. Basically I had no idea based on appearance alone. I would guess she was in her late teens or early twenties, perhaps working part time to pay for school. After she handed me my dessert, I introduced myself as a University of Washington student studying in Rome for the academic quarter and explained the basis of our Borders class. She seemed interested, and introduced herself as Joanna. I discovered that she is 20 years old and attends a university in Florence, but is taking the semester off and working.
Asking about her racial background was a bit awkward, I didn’t really know what to say besides “What are you?” and it sort of just came out. Somehow she understood this ambiguous and seemingly strange question, and told me that her father is Italian and her mother is half Italian half Somali. Though SHE grew up in Italy her entire life, she also could understand the immigrant perspective because her grandmother was an immigrant.
While writing my paper, I was considering why I felt uncomfortable asking about her race. What was it about my identity made me uncomfortable talking about what should be a matter of fact topic? What I came up with is that I have a fear of coming across as a racist. It is non-debatable that it is within my nature as a human to surround myself with people who look like me, talk like me, and behave like me, so that is and always will be my natural inclination. Racism is not natural, racism is learned from others and it develops from one’s own life experiences. I will not deny that racism still exists because I guarantee that it does. But I have found that there is an enormous emphasis placed on peace, tolerance, equality, acceptance, loving one another, and so on and so forth in the American school system. Because of this, I find myself terrified to sound or act racist and I feel the need to constantly speak in a manner that is politically correct in order to not offend anyone. Though I think that it is a valiant effort on the part of educators to try to break down the walls between different groups, it has resulted in new walls for me personally. Because I don’t know what might offend someone, I tend to avoid the person or topic all together. What words are acceptable? Black? African American? White? Caucasian? Gay? Lesbian? Homosexual? Man? Boy? Dude? The list goes on and on, and I am afraid to use these words in fear of offending someone. What I am trying to say is that although I am fully against racism and sexism, I think that sometimes when more emphasis is put on equality, it can separate people and encourage avoidance instead of open discussion.
Anyways, back to my interview. After getting over my awkward start to the conversation, I asked Joanna what she knew about the race riots and how she felt about them and Italian immigration policy. I don’t know how to describe the look on her face, but I got the feeling that she wasn’t sure of what to say. What did I want to hear? What would I think of her uncensored opinion? She ended up telling me that she was not incredibly well versed in the subject, but that from what she did know, neither parties were handling the situation properly. Regardless of the way that she felt about immigration policy, she reiterated the fact that dealing with conflict through violence and bloodshed was not acceptable, an incredibly diplomatic answer. Why did she skirt around the topic of immigration policy? Does she share my same fear of being labeled a racist? Because of this, would prefer to just avoid the topic altogether? I will never know if she was telling me the whole truth or if those were her honest opinions. I can’t speak for the Italian school system, but due the concepts of equality and tolerance that have been engrained into my head, I would be terrified to speak poorly of any single group, and I imagine that she was as well.
After thinking about my interview with Joanna and being mildly disappointed with the uncontroversial interview on such an incredibly controversial topic, I realized how little I personally know about the race riots. Though I am not an Italian and the riots do not affect me, knowledge and understanding of the ramifications of these riots is crucial as a student studying borders. Embarrassed by my ignorance, I hopped onto my computer and started searching. I was in awe at what I read, stories of outright racism and violence. How could this be happening in a free country? This just reiterated how incredibly naïve and ignorant I am. I tend to just assume that because I don’t know about something, it can’t be important. I already know everything that I need to know to get by. I realized that this ignorant attitude gets me nowhere, but instead builds a thick, high wall around me. Though it might be more comfortable for me to stay in my bubble of ignorance, what fun would that be?
This assignment made me realize that I need to spend more time and energy in my pursuit of knowledge in a non-academic way. Though I thought that the most difficult part of this assignment would be to actually talk to a random person, that part turned out to be easy. For me, the most difficult part was coming to the conclusion that I am afraid of racism and that there are issues that I should know about that I don’t. In order for me to learn and grow, I need to actively search and leave behind my fears and inhibitions. Surprisingly, this task is infinitely more difficult than approaching a random person.
In a social and moral sense, the concept of equality is difficult to define. Can a society be equal when borders that separate us are everywhere? The basis of our course is to identify and analyze these borders, and there is no doubt that borders are necessary in order to support a functional humanity. But how can people be considered equal when there are borders that separate us, that keep some out and some in? These borders block the evolution of our divided society into a homogenous one, and maintain the variation of cultural traditions. But the conclusion that I have come to is that a society can never be one hundred percent equal, and that this is not necessarily detrimental. In order for everyone to be truly equal, they must have the same qualities. The effort to create an environment where everyone is treated equal is admirable, but it is simply impossible unless we aim to have a fully homogenous culture. An environment where everyone speaks the same language, everyone looks the same, everyone does the same thing is an environment that lacks flavor and variety. A thriving community has a mixture of people with diverse occupations, educations, ages, and talents. When I think of a strong community, “equal” is the last word that I would use to describe it, we can appreciate diversity while borders are present. But maybe in this sense, “equal” just is not the right word for an ideal society.
ReplyDeleteFrom the American perspective, the word equal reminds me of the concept of equal opportunity, the American dream. Every child born into this world has an equal chance of having a successful life, of becoming the president, a doctor, or a lawyer. Every child has the ability to achieve high grades in school, it is all about motivation. In my opinion, our legal system has been set up in a manner that adequately accommodates this concept, but this legal system is enforced by humans. As I discussed, it is part of our nature as humans to be partial to those with similar qualities to ourselves. We like to surround ourselves with people who look like us, talk like us, and behave like us. So on paper, the American attempt at equal opportunity makes complete sense, but in practice it has not been consistently enforce to the full extent of the law. Racism, ageism, and sexism still exist because of the imperfection of human nature. Therefore, in my opinion, we can aim for it, but true equality (or even equal opportunity) will never be achieved because of the faults of humanity.