I get into tiny arguments with my fiance, Jim, about how openly racist people are in the Ozarks without even knowing it.
**Let me clarify, I do like the Ozarks. I'm not making fun of all of the people who live here.**
However, let's be honest. This area has a reputation for being one of the "whitest" areas in the country, though I'm really not sure if that's completely accurate. We do have a lovely KKK leader near Harrison, Arkansas. We did have lynchings in Springfield. It is a fact that blacks in Pierce City, Forsyth, and Harrison were forced to leave their homes nearly 100 years ago. Wiped away, banished.
courtesy Banished American Ethnic Cleansings
Click here and here to see earlier posts on Banished
And I could talk for hours about the annoying little things that have happened to me or my friends. This week, we had some Korean international students over for dinner, and they said they were afraid to go downtown because their friends told them they would get harassed...
Unfortunately, I can attest to some of their concerns.
One time, someone said something like "5-dollars sucky sucky" when Jim and I were walking into Bijan's. I thought Jim was going to lose his chili. That was a great way to start a birthday dinner.
One of my Asian guy friends was harassed while working downtown one night. A bunch of guys started interfering with his job, and he asked them to leave... they started saying crap about him doing kung-fu on them. (which on a funny note, he does know Martial Arts)
A former small-town police chief called me Connie Chung... "Hey, we've got Connie Chung here to do a story!"
A water patrol officer called me Michelle Kwan. That was an accident, but still, WTF?
A viewer writes, "if you only knew how we Ozarkians feel about this..." Guess what? It's "Ozarkers" first-of-all, and secondly, I claim to be one every now and then...
An extremely beloved and former worker of mine told me that I'm a hard worker because I have the "Asian Gene". Seriously?
Another former co-worker showed me a video he took of an Asian woman dressed in a scantily clad outfit, while calling her "Michelle" on tape. He later lost his job for a number of things.
Strange men have randomly come up to me and asked if "Asian women are good in bed." How the hell would I know?
The list goes on. It freaking kills me. Anyway, long story even longer...
Today, I was on a computer in a public place, looking at pizza recipes for my other blog. Some dude comes up out of nowhere and asks me if I'm looking for a sushi pizza recipe. A what?
Pseudo Re-enactment:
Michelle typing.
guy: Hey, what are you doing, looking at pizza recipes?
ms: Yes.
guy: Are you looking at sushi pizza recipes?
ms: No... what?
guy: I don't like raw fish.
ms: OK.
guy: Nope.
ms: You know, not all sushi is raw.
guy: If it's raw I'm not gonna eat it. No way.
ms: gasp.
Guy walks away.
Michelle is annoyed... it boils and festers and builds and spews out on her blog.
OKAY, so it's not like someone threw a box of rice at me (which happened once... thank you Nathan for scarring me for life.)
But it still pisses me the F off.
Jim's argument is that this kind of stuff happens everywhere. I agree, but to an extent... but I always tell him he'll see it more if we have biological children together. I don't mean to go on a soap box, but I can't believe people are so ignorant... little comments like that are so irritating. I WOULDN'T EVEN EAT A G-D SUSHI PIZZA! WHO WOULD?! THAT SOUNDS TOTALLY DISGUSTING!! I suppose because I'm Asian, that's the first thing some f-ing loser thinks I would eat. I also eat fish heads and rice, man. And I excel at math and science. I also play the piano in my spare time, but I am naturally gifted at the violin, too. And let's not forget, I'm very subserviant to men.
LET ME JUST CLARIFY: I grew up here. This is my home state. And sometimes it sucks to live here. This is such an issue for international adoptees... and even first-generation kids. I mean, I'm nearly 30 and I still put up with this. This is a life-long struggle that needs to be addressed better in our schools, the government, our workforce, and in our general lives. This is why we need more resources for adoptees and minorities in the Ozarks.
We have to do better for our children.
Which reminds me, do you know there are more religious hate groups in Arkansas than in any other state in the nation? That's according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. RELIGIOUS HATE GROUPS. Does anyone see anything weird with that?
**And on another side note, I love all people. I am not bashing on any group... most of my family is Caucasian, and on most days, I would laugh if someone called me a banana (yellow on the outside, white on the inside.) Afterall, what would you expect?**
I've been reading a lot more these days now that I work part-time at a library, and I'm really in love with this book called Escape.
It's so interesting... she recounts years of abuse and scandal within the FLDS community, including marrying off teen girls to men in their 50s, 60s, and even 90s. Some men had dozens of wives. The former prophet, Rulon Jeffs, had 75.
