Race

At my desk:

CW: I am going to move some stuff.

Me: Yeah, I got some garbage on my desk because the Mexicans (who clean our building) forgot to empty my garbage and I keep forgetting to do it.

CW: That's so rude, Jeremy.

I was rude because I referred to Mexicans as being Mexican. I asked if said co-worker was in Mexico and was referred to as American if it would be offensive. The answer was yes. Really? Never travel outside of the country then. I spent two years in Chile on a mission for my church and was referred to as American every day. Why? That was the only thing they knew about me! Was it offensive? No. Maybe if I was Canadian. Seriously, you think the word 'Mexican' defines that person? You don't think they are little more complex than that?

By the way, the fact that you think the word Mexican is rude makes you the racist, not me. If they were Canadian and I had said, "The Canadians forgot to empty my trash," you wouldn't have blinked because Canadian doesn't hold a negative connotation, but to you Mexican does. You are the one who judged because of race.

I can't stand these people who will only use certain terms in a sort of half whisper because they are afraid of offending people. Guess what? By doing that you are being offensive! You are treating people differently because of where they are from or the color of their skin. Do you think these people, whatever race, want to treated as a half whisper? I am guessing they would like to be treated like a human being, and would like you to be able to say, "You are from Mexico," or Paraguay, or Japan, or Ireland comfortably and normally without your ass cheeks tightening up. You are the people that are marginalizing those who are different than you. Just because someone is different doesn't mean you should pretend that they're not. You people are the problem.

It's these kind of knobs who walk around saying, "We should all be color blind when it comes to race." No we shouldn't! That is idiotic. If we were all color blind and all saw the same bland neutral color we wouldn't have all the cool international festivals, and the thousands of different kinds of restaurants. Culture is a good thing. We are LUCKY to live in the country we live in. For real, go to Chile, or Peru, or Wyoming, or any other place where you see a person of a different culture once a month. It can get kind of boring.

I also spent the two years getting screamed at, rocks thrown at me, attacked, and sworn at (in English most of the time, because of the movies everyone in the world knows English swear words, but I got my Chilean curses down pretty well too) NOT because of my religion, but because of my nationality. I know how it feels to be treated only on the basis of where you come from, and not because of who you are. I also know what it feels like to sit in a room with uncomfortable people because we were different and they were afraid to offend, or be treated like children because they thought we needed coddling because of our race, and it is offensive. I would rather be around people I can be comfortable with, and doesn't everybody? And sure, with the people we got along with there were some jokes about Americans and we could respond with Chilean jokes and it was good times. Great times. We became close because of our differences and we were comfortable with them. If anyone should know how to do this, it is Americans. The people I was referring to ARE Americans, and I am not going to pretend they are from Norway like me, and I am not going to pretend I am from somewhere else, either. Honestly, if you were in a different country which type of person would you rather hang out with?

Who is the ingorant one here, and who needs to maybe sit back and take a look at how they view the world?