Over the weekend, I read a tweet that went a little something like this
“White people love writing off their Race “jokes” as harmless, but it’s these same jokes that made me hate my eyes, hate my race, made me wish I wasn’t Asian, so I could fit in a white bland ass town. Seeing that my hometown hasn’t changed is so disheartening.”
That message was in response to an Instagram post in which two young white women were smiling and the caption read “might have been reppin’ the red white and blue, but I certainly didn’t look American tonight.”
This was one dumbass caption.
However, to pretend that racism, systematic, or institutional, is a major problem in America today is just not accurate. The statistics about Asian Americans prove this point. The median income by race in America goes like this…
Asian: 80,720
White: 61,349
All Households (Median Income of Americans): 57,617
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: 57,112
Hispanic or Latino: 46,882
Other: 44,798
American India and Alaska Native: 39,719
Black or African American: 38,555
This is not to say that people make stupid and racially insensitive jokes sometimes, but to pretend as if that is indicative of how racist “white America” is or something to that affect, is a baseless claim. I’m old enough to remember the hiring of Sarah Jeong at the New York Times and her history of racist tweets directed at white people.
To me, this is not a race issue, but rather an issue of people being thoughtful, kind, and discerning. If the young woman who wrote the caption expressed these traits, I don’t think this would even be an issue.
To people who also take issue with the caption, on a personal level, get over it. People make Bad Jokes and insensitive comments all the time. It is easy to get upset and offended about anything, and to dwell on the negatives and the stupid things that human beings do, is no way to live your life. This happened to me the other day in my German class. A young woman went on a rant about how religious people and how bad they can be which I found offensive (because I’m religious) and indicative of the increasingly secular society that we live in, but I moved on with my life because I would not be a productive or successful person if I got into an argument with that young lady, or spent my time dwelling on that negative experience.
It is useful to know that race is not a big issue in American Society today and to make it one is puzzling and will end catastrophically. It is helpful to know the statistics and truth about these issues because a few bad jokes do not show the true picture of the United States.
