I have been in the U.S. for almost three years now. Before I came here, I had some concerns about being able to adjust to a completely new culture. Few people had mentioned that Americans could be racist. I had also watched my share of American movies and TV shows where asians were either bullied nerds or sexually objectified women. It didn't help that I looked like a typical asian and the fact that I was moving to a place were there weren't many people who looked like me.
Despite my doubts, I was pleasantly surprised that people were very open and nice. El Paso, being a multicultural and diverse city was very welcoming. In my three years in El Paso, there have never been any serious issues regarding my race. Sure, there was the occasional "Are you from China?" but I didn't mind it too much. I did feel as though I stood out and that the first thing people would notice about me would be that I'm "The Asian Girl". However, those were just my insecurities and some adjustment was all I needed.
However, a few days ago, my friends and I (all Bhutanese) went on a trip to Los Angeles. I mentioned to my friends that I loved going to big cities. Since there were always so many asians around, I didn't feel like I stood out. I had assumed that since asians were as much a part of the city as other races were, racism wouldn't be such a big deal. Well, I was proved completely wrong. I noticed that the people, at least the ones I had met, in L.A. seemed kind of rude, especially the bus drivers. They weren't much help to us tourists who were trying to get around.
So, we were on the way to Griffith Observatory. We used GPS to navigate to the nearest bus stop and we were waiting for the bus. I don't know if you guys know but the time the bus should arrive will also appear on the GPS and the time would change if the bus got delayed. Well, the bus got delayed by around 20 minutes. When the bus finally got there, we lined up to get on. There were two Asian girls (Chinese, I assumed from their language) in front of us. The bus fee was supposed to be 50¢ or half of a dollar. However, the girls didn't understand English properly and they had a hard time paying. The driver frustratedly exclaimed, "Jesus!"
I paid and the driver seemed relieved to see that I could understand English. As I got on, I saw a lady sitting in the front going off about something. At first, I thought that she was defending us in front of the driver but it turned out to be the opposite. The driver and her started ranting off about us asians when we were right next to them!
The lady was saying that these asians are just pretending not to understand when they are obviously the smartest people on earth. She went on about how everyone in Asia knew about four languages and just acted all innocent and pretended not to understand English in America. I could see that most people in the bus were tourists. I couldn't believe that people were just standing there listening to her insult us. Then I realized that I were one of those people as well. I was standing right next to her and I couldn't take it anymore.
I explained to her that it wasn't as easy to understand English especially American currency. I wanted to let her know that even coming from a country where we were taught English, it took months for me to learn what cents or quarters or dimes were. However, before I could even finish, she cut me off. She told me, "Don't lie, you people are the smartest people in the world. And then you come here and act..." I told her that not everyone in Asia is smart and not to generalize. I was so angry I couldn't even get words out. I almost wanted to take my phone out and tape the whole incident.
At that point, she ignored me and began talking to the driver about how she was going to report it to the bus company because she was late to some thing. She began calling the company. Apparently, before the bus got to our stop, it had been delayed because some other asians had trouble understanding English. That was why both the driver and her were mad at us.
In a nutshell, that is what racism is. It could have easily been some European tourists who had delayed the bus. It was just a coincidence that both of those times, it had been asians. As I went over the incident in my head, there were so many things I wish I could have said. I mean, what the lady said didn't even make sense. Why would anyone who was smart pretend to be stupid while getting on the bus?
When I had spoken to the lady, the bus driver had looked at me as though to say we weren't talking about you guys. "It's okay, you guys are fine," he said. Well, hello? If you are talking about Asians, you're talking about us as well. Just because we knew English, he was not angry at us. It was not the girls' fault that they did not know English. I couldn't even imagine if the lady or the bus driver went to some Asian country and tried to get around. Traveling to a strange city is hard as it is without the unwelcoming locals.
I had seen many videos of people being mistreated because of the way they looked. There would always be a lot of bystanders and there would be one or two people who would speak up. I had always thought of myself as the person who would stand up to it. Although I didn't say everything I wanted to, I'm proud of myself. This incident has made me more confident and god forbid, should another incident like this occur, I will speak up. I urge you also, to speak your mind in such a situation. Deep inside, most of us know that it is not right. If everyone let go of the fear and spoke their minds, there would be lesser incidents like these each day.