Discrimination

On one occasion some years ago, a friend of mine who is of a different philosophical persuasion than I am typed something in an e-mail to the effect of: “You don’t know what it’s like to be discriminated against.”  

I pondered that, then responded something along the lines of: “I think there are different degrees of discrimination, so I won’t lay claim on the more severe types of it - thankfully. However, I do think I have a sense of what it’s like.

• I am a conservative Republican living in downtown Portland, Oregon and I work for a very well-known Republican politician. So, I’m a known quantity. There is not a social gathering or pub concert I can go to where I won’t be asked what I do for work, and have to think twice about actually saying what I do and who I work for. On the few occasions I did, I was greeted with looks of disgust, immediate accusations and arguments, etc. People made all sorts of incorrect assumptions about my thinking, reasoning, and character even though they’ve heard nothing more from me than my name and occupation. I sorta had to keep my professional life on the DL in many social circles. (I also had a “W” sticker on the bottom of my surfboard. Think how many friends that lost me in the line up.)  So I have a sense of what it’s like to experience political discrimination.

• My religious forbearers were driven across the continent by angry mobs, and had a Governor issue an extermination order on them. In many religious circles, my faith is still accused of all sorts of bizarre things that don’t resemble truth as I know and experience it. My faith has been the subject of mockery on the stage of presidential politics, and is currently being mocked in the form of a smash Broadway musical hit. So, I have a sense of what it’s like to experience religious discrimination. 

• I was a white guy in Okinawa for a few years. According to the CIA World Factbook, Japan’s ethnic groups include a notation of 0.6% of “other”.  Caucasian being just a part of that 0.6%. Most Americans in Okinawa don’t speak Japanese, but I do.  So I heard and understood the remarks being made about me in the company of the locals (of course, they didn’t know I spoke the language).  None of the remarks were severe (as it’s just not in the nature of most Okinawans to be mean spirited), but they weren’t flattering either. And, as a result, there were certain activities I just didn’t feel comfortable…how shall I say?… imposing myself into (I didn’t want to be a bother or cause any trouble). So, I think I have a sense of what it’s like to experience ethnic discrimination.”

There are other types of discrimination I could have gotten into in my e-mail reply many years ago. But I think I made my point. I was (and am) very careful to use the term “I think I have a sense”, because I really don’t want to claim that I’ve been the brutal victim of prejudice or discrimination like others have experienced.  

But I would suggest that if each of us examine our life experiences, we can all identify times when we have been discriminated against, and how that made us feel.  

I can’t speak for others, but what got/gets me through periods of discrimination are a few things: 

1. biting my tongue, and keeping my mouth shut;
2. a strong sense of self that my family/parents helped me develop when I was growing up; 
3. an ability to take my limited encounters with discrimination and turn it into an empathy for those who experience it more often and more intensely than I do (making lemonade of out lemons – something my parents taught me to do).  

These are things that help me, but I confess I am not always successful in executing my understanding on how to deal with discrimination.  

For those who fall into my category of life experiences, who have, perhaps, a sense of what discrimination is like, consider for a moment if that happened to you all the time, unrelentingly? How hard would it be, after a while, to just “let it go”. Consider the lessons learned by both children and adults in the following video: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/f.... These are valid concerns of those who are on the more regular and intense receiving end of discrimination. Understanding and accepting as valid the concerns of someone else is what I call empathy.  

If we develop empathy for those who are having a hard time, then we might begin to trend toward reconciliation between the two opposing viewpoints/experiences.  

There is discrimination out there, and it sucks. It rots the soul of the discriminator, and erodes the self-worth and hope of the discriminated (see my earlier FB note on Hope).  

Even though I don’t appear to be the poster child for a victim of discrimination, it is unfair and inaccurate to say that I don’t know what it’s like. I may not know precisely what your experience is like, but I know what mine is, and it is/was no good.