little bitty girl

I promised myself that I would never talk about these things in this site - politics, religion and my own personal relationships. Yet, one cannot help but talk about these things if they are important to you and if they are a big part of your life. I am a very opinionated person about all these things but that being said, I am also one who appreciates open discussion about issues and even often welcome an opinion other than mine. Often times, when difference of opinions are aired out without malice, we tend to learn a lot from them. Or at least I think so.

Something happened on my flight from Vancouver and although I had not spoken of it to anyone else but Stefan, it has weighed so heavily on my mind that I feel like I should voice my opinion of it.

Sometimes I think, that when we live in a city as diverse as Toronto, that many of its citizens do not want to talk about prejudice for fear of threading on thin ice. What people don't realize that to not talk about things simply makes them worse. It makes occurances more accepted where they shouldn't be.

I must admit that the majority of my friends happen to be of Caucasian descent. I don't think that it is by any particulour subconscious choice but just what happens to be. I don't look at my friends as thinking "Oh, they're white." To me, Jen is Jen and Ra is Ra. They are who they are. Sure, sometimes I think, "Oh, Jen is fair because she's Dutch" but I also think that she thinks of me as an individual, despite race, the way I do her. Never have my friends made me feel different, we see each other as people trying to make a life for ourselves.

However, I do hate it when people say that prejudice does not happen in this country (and pardon me for saying it) but usually the ones telling me this are usually white people, who I sometimes think don't want to face the fact that prejudiced acts do still happen . It's perfectly fine to be unsure of the unknown as it is human, but admit that it happens.

Whem I was at the aiport boarding the plane, ipoding (my usual method of "don't bug me") there was a couple talking quite loudly behind me. Since Vancouver has a high Asian population and is a gateway for a lot of Asian tourists, it is only fair that the majority of the passengers happened to be of Asian descent. What was astouding was that the couple was my age, (I know older people have their set ways and it doesn't make it right but you can at least say that they're senile) so really growing up in this society, they really had no excuse for what they said.

They were sneering and was all like," Look at all these people. Where did they come from? I feel like a stranger in my own country." I turned around and asked them whether they had any native ancestry because if they did not, they too were immigrants. They were "astounded" that I understood what I was saying as they had simply assumed that I did not speak English.

I know that this seems like an isolated incident but trust me, being who and what I am, this happens more often that should be mentioned and sadly enough, I've gotten used to it. Don't get me wrong, I know prejudice happens to everyone at some point, I am just speaking of my own personal experience. I wish we could all just recognize one another as humans first and our differences as our "bonuses."

It is one of the many reasons why I have always vowed never to give up my name, my Chinese-ness despite of being with someone who is not and why our children will also have my name as well. Because being proud of who and what I am has been the source of my strength when hurtful comments like that take place.

So the next time, you think when you're making a "witty" commment about someone else because of their differences, think twice. You're not so witty - you're only this really ignorant, small, sad, pathethic excuse for a human being.