Hice un post sobre el racismo donde no hablo de nada en concreto es solo el incesante cacareo dentro de mi cabeza tratando de expresar algo aunque no se bien que es.

I'd like to begin this post saying the following:

The ideas expressed here shouldn't be taken as absolute truths, there are shades or different points of view of everything, specially when talking about abstracts as ideas are.

So, having said that I would like to talk about something everyone is speaking these days: Racism or more specifically: Racism in Mexico.

And as in everything I do, this might be kind of controversial but think of this only as an idea, as a reference, a point of view or just plain ignore this if you think I'm plain wrong.

Me

I will start writing a little about me:

I'm 1.80m tall, kind of chubby and my skin color is brown. I work in a Korean company where more than one time a clash of cultures has happened (like that one time I told Koreans that we Mexicans adore the god of dead)

I don't see myself as a racist but as you will read later, I think I might be one along with many other defects on my person. Please don't hate me because of this.

Racism in General.

The idea I have about the core of the racism in general are two things:
1-People are afraid of what they don't know.

2-People have some knowledge about something and they expect the worst.

Both behaviors come from the natural reaction to danger and the self preservation. This is normal but the racist bit comes when people act with extreme caution or act with hatred towards someone just because preconceived ideas, now If you add to that mix that sometimes some people act as bad as expected well, this idea is reinforced thus we have a racist person.

And this racist persons becomes afraid, fear comes from a not pleasant experience or the unknown. So in order to protect other from this "bad things" a person starts warning others, trying to protect the people they love and in the tiny small world view of this persons, he/she is right. What this racist person may be not realizing is that the world is bigger than them, you can't go trough life talking about absolutes, like "All black people does this thing" or "All Mexicans are this or that" that's the kind of ideas we should be fighting.

We should fight the bad ideas or the small minds, but hey think of this: people admire the Kardashians or rappers who sings about stupid stuff. In other words, this is not an easy or even fight.

Racism in Mexico.

Oh my dear Mexico!

I am convinced that we are more racist than anyone would like to admit, people here prefers white people, hell, I even do that! almost all my friends are white but before you chase me with torches and hoes, read this: I don't do this on purpose being racist is something that the same society start putting in your head since you're a kid. I grew up watching white people being successful, I don't remember one person/character/etc which were not white and I said: I want to be like that guy. Of course I grew up watching anime, almost all the characters are white or yellow (see? I'm racist, I told you. wink wink)

So I'm writing about TV but the same applied for radio or other media, even nowadays you still see that, mostly on baby diapers commercials. although now you can see a variety of babies on commercials now, I think that's some kind of progress...

"Nigga you so white"

Now I'm not saying being white is wrong, It's OK to be black or brown or pink (yes, I have some pink friends) what is wrong is that we as a society think they are better just because of that. And that happens a lot in Mexico. Shame on y'all.

And this behavior can only be treated if we start thinking actively about it and questioning our habits, how we interact with others, what we say about other people but mainly SHUTTING THE FUCK UP IF YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A RACIST JOKE.

If you know me in person, you will think that I am an hypocrite by saying "no to racist jokes" when half of my jokes are racist and the other half are about fat people. I know, I know, there's a lot to be done I'm working on that but the thing also is (I don't know if I'm wrong or just OK here) It doesn't feel wrong joking about Mexicans or joking about being brown because I belong to those two groups like the same way that black people call themselves nigga but I am not allowed to do that even when I am pretty dark, if I lived in the USA I could use the N word because to them I look like one but I also could do Mexican jokes because I AM one... also cops would shoot me for no reason but hey the same happens in Mexico! so why don't have some fun while waiting to be shot?

And that takes me to the next topic:

Racism I have gone through

I remember that time when a friend and I went to the US, to the border to be exact: McAllen. We were there to buy a TV because that's what I always want: A bigger TV.

So this friend of mine is a big, fat, ugly, a little bit slow BUT white person. And we had this deal:
Every time we had to speak to someone we would take turns, first him then me and so on.

Believe me when I say NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH WITH ME, even when I proudly have a higher English level than him. Every time I had to speak to someone they casually spoke a perfect Spanish. That was our day in McAllen by the time we were in a shop and a person asked me if she could help me with something I froze due I had embraced the idea that I didn't need English anymore, and that's when my huge, four eyed friend spoke to the woman leaving me there looking like fucking tourist (which I was) not knowing what to answer.

That's my share of racism outside of Mexico: People didn't spoke to me in English.

but now thinking of that:
Was that really racism? I mean my English is far from perfect and that's maybe the reason no one wanted to talk to me.

Am I being a drama queen over this? Totally.

Yo, descripcion grafica.

Final thoughts.

To be completely honest, those occasions I have felt like people had put me aside, It hadn't been because of my skin color but because other factors: Like my social class or the fact that I value knowledge over material objects.

If I had to say what I feel the key to fight racism would be... is education.

I am not talking about the logical-mathematical education only, I am talking about an education founded over strong human values. Right now we have very capable people whom they would sell their moms for more profit, what we need are people willing to lose some profit in order to protect their moms (or the community in a more wide sense) we need people that cares, people that can do some sacrifice for the greater good.

But I think that's too much to ask, so right now just play nice with each other.

Again, please don't take the word expressed here as an absolute truth, I know I left out other topics and that the racism itself is a complex subject.

Sean como el pandita.