I am home, finally, and ready to sleep. Outside, I hear women laughing, then a voice shout "You fucking Asians, shut up!"
Silence ensued. And I knew I would not sleep.
My own assumptions. First, that the voice was male. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. Second, that the voice was white. Unprovable, and harder to defend than gender. I could be wrong. And third. that I heard what he said accurately.
Am I being over sensitive? A man is trying to sleep. In frustration, he yells out the window at women who happen to be Asian. Heat of the moment, he didn't mean anything by it, its not like he's racist.
Or maybe, that is exactly what he means. In the heat of the moment, he said exactly what he meant, even if he would have had the good sense not to any other time. In a split second, the not-nice-thing he chose to say was 'Asian'. Not assholes, or any other common pejorative. Not bitches, fat, ugly, loudmouth, or any other word that could make someone feel bad about themselves regardless of truth or beauty.
Asian was the first thing he thought of that he thought would shut them up. He must have a reason. What is it that makes him think we are somehow inadequate, or threatening, or un-American, that our name can be substituted for an insult?
And what if we substituted another group into the blank, instead of Asian?
"You fucking blacks, shut up!"
"You fucking queers, shut up!"
"You fucking Jews, shut up!"
Am I still overreacting?
How is it that incidents like this, and much much worse, still happen? Why did a student beat another student on campus this year for hanging a Palestinian flag? Why does our philosophy department only teach one class that doesn't focus on white men? Why did the financial aid office insist my black female classmate was an athlete? Why is the average income of the new freshman class $100,000 per year?
Are not all these situations problematic? Are not all these situations related?
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