Race and Class

I've been thinking about race and class and all the issues that goes with it. For me it is of interest because I am Indian-American who was born and raised in this country. I’ve only had to deal with one incident of racism but other than that it’s been good for me. Now I’m not saying that racism is gone in this country, but compared to 40 years ago we made miles of progress, hell 40 years ago I was a second class citizen in this country. So I thought I could share my views and experiences on the subject to explain my point of view. To start off with let get what I am out of the way. I am an Indian-American, upper middle-class heterosexual male who lives in Washington. I have also lived in Illinois and Florida and in all three places I have yet to experience racism. I should point out that I am light skinned and on several occasions have been thought to be white. Whenever I enter a store I am immediately helped, whenever I go to an airport I am never searched, and I don’t feel any different from any of my white friends here in Washington. I think some of that may have to do with class, it seems the more money you have the less you encounter racism. Perhaps it is due to the face that I live in Washington, which is quite liberal and very tolerant. But then again when I lived in Florida my family took many trips to the “deep south” and even there I did not feel discriminated against. The once cause of racism I have dealt with took place in Western PA when my family was at a camp with a few other Indians families. At night the kids would hang out and talk and I guess some of the other campers complained and when the owner came to talk to us the term “you immigrants” was use, made us feel real good. I know the Jena 6 case is going on right now, which is horrible but an appeals court tossed out the conviction and that is a sign of progress would not have happened 40 years ago. So I guess my main point is this America is going in the right direction on the issue of race and what we need to improve on more are class issues. Still things are looking good. So keep your hopes up.