Racism

Yesterday, I went to the local bar by my workplace that we go to pretty frequently. I went as part of a group, but most of the group was distracted by a certain Waffle truck, so only two of us walked in together. The bar has a strange layout, sort of long and narrow along the bar and hard to get through when it's full. As we squeezed by to find a spot to order at the bar, I passed a guy who looked at me, turned to his friend next to him, and said "I'm so sick of all these fucking asians at this place."

I had been in a good mood, and was pretty blitzed, but I was so taken aback and off guard that I laughed and we kept moving. "I didn't mean you!" he yelled, although it was pretty fucking clear that he did.

I sat there with my friend getting madder and madder at myself for not putting the douche in his place. The rest of our friends showed up, so I told them all, partially to hype myself up. Finally, powered by everyone and all the alcohol, I found him with his friends (they had moved to a table) and proceeded to lecture him on why making a racist "joke" comment to a stranger is super fucking rude and not cool.

He was pretty much a douche the entire time, insisting that he makes racist jokes all the time (??) about all different kinds of people (!!!) and it's not a big deal. And then my awesome colleague Bryan came over and got in his face, and I was worried it was going to get ugly but the guy backed down pretty quickly and admitted he was wrong and apologized.

It was funny in a way, and a great story to tell people, but I still feel a little astonished about the whole thing. It's so easy, especially in a place like NYC, to forget how other people can perceive your racial identity. Maybe it's shitty of me as a Korean, but I honestly forget I'm that Asian, and forget that I'm a minority here. Or that some people don't like "my people," who are basically millions of other people I look like and don't relate to at all. Being aware and sensitive of this difference is a really uncomfortable feeling. I'll always be different because I look different to some people, even if I grew up here, watched the same movies and had the same music, voted in elections and pay a shit ton of taxes. So, thank you, and fuck you, you douchebag. You win.