Racism and Children

I spoke in a previous Hub about these two fathers that have sons that play on my son's baseball team. These men are loud and obnoxious, and I've always found them to be borderline racist but never malicious or angry racists. Just obnoxious people. They would pick out cars of people driving by and assumed by the cars that the drivers were of Hispanic descent and that the rims and cars were paid for by his hard earned money, because obviously all Hispanic people were on welfare. I bite my tongue when I really want to scream at him for being annoying. Then, last week they went so overboard with their commentary, I crossed from "annoyed" to "angry" then to "concern". A man and his 3 small children walked pretty much right through baseball practice, which I shook my head at but ignored. These dads were not the ignoring type. First, they called out (in front of these 10-year-old boys mind you) a derogatory name for a Mexican person. I sighed and practice deep breathing skills to keep my cool. Then as the family walked closer, the dads must've realized or just thought all people with tanned skin look alike, decided these people weren't Mexican but Muslim. One shouted, "Don't worry, he probably isn't used to not working the night shift at 7-11", while the other said "Well since he's from Afghanistan, he's used to dodging car bombs". I calmly stood up and when I was about to snap at these men, I walked over to where the other families sat probably as a result of these dads, on the other side of the field. I regret that, I should've stood up for them, and I feel guilty for keeping quiet. After that, they discussed how Asian people live longer because they only live off rice and have to scavenge for their own food and they wouldn't survive in an "actual country". This made my husband's eye twitch. I couldn't do it anymore, and I left the park and sat in the car and watched the rest of the practice in there.

My husband is a mixed race Korean and Spanish/French/Native American. He grew up with racial slurs being slung at him, being teased because his mother is from Korea and didn't speak English very well. I'm pale Irish girl, and was only really teased because I had freckles or because I was too pale. I never had to worry about derogatory words, in fact, I had never heard one until I was in high school. It wasn't how I was raised, and I assumed everyone else in my city was as well. We had two different experiences growing up, and I never wanted to believe that race had anything to do with that. I didn't think that was something that we needed to worry about in our area. The above story proved that I was wrong.

Naturally, this means my new baby is a multiracial baby. I never worried that my son would have to deal with this sort of bullying. I do now. I worry that because my son will have Asian eyes or darker skin, that this will automatically mean he's a second class citizen that's only worthy of mockery and torture. I even go so far as to worry that if North Korea starts to terrorize America as Extremist Muslims have, that my family will be tormented as if we were guilty parties. I can't help but to think of when Japanese "Internment" camps existed and what if that ever happened again and my family would be taken from me. These seem like silly concerns, but I think it's a sin that I actually have to have these concerns. I should be worried about what will happen when they are teenagers and if they can avoid peer pressure and drugs and if they will succeed in life. I shouldn't be concerned if I will wake up to Nazi signs on their cars or signs that say "go back home", even though they were born here because racists assume all minorities are illegal immigrants.

These fathers at the games are part of the problem. They are a contribution to a society that doesn't need an excuse to hate because they are impressionable and follow the mob mentality. They aren't the only ones at fault. I was at fault, because I stood by and watched and never uttered a word to make it stop. I watched the children in the field playing, being so loud they seemed oblivious to what was going on. I should've said something, anything. I should've shown my anger, I should have done something. I was afraid I would say something insulting to them instead of something constructive. That would've made me feel as if I were no better than they were. We need to stand up and make it so our kids don't end up like that. We need to stop it so children aren't bullied because of skin color or family ethnicity or religion. If we don't stop it and teach our children better, we are also guilty of letting this go on generation after generation. It needs to stop.